Gender, Race and Philosophy: The Blog

Publishing Survey

All professional philosophers are invited to participate in a survey on publishing in philosophy.  It should take about 10 minutes.  It will be useful to have your CV handy as you fill it out.  Please go here to find it.  It is especially important for women and philosophers of color to complete it so we have a statistically significant representation of underrepresented groups.

If all goes well, I will report on the results at the December APA in the symposium on philosophy publishing (Wednesday December 30th, 11:15-1:15). 

Symposium on Joshua Glasgow, A Theory of Race

Please note that the SGRP has posted its Fall 2009 Symposium on Joshua Glasgow's book, A Theory of Race. Commentaries are by Michael O. Hardimon (UCSD), Sally Haslanger (MIT), Ron Mallon (U. Utah), and Naomi Zack (U. Oregon) with Joshua Glasgow's reply.  Please have a look and post your comments!

Symposium on Ann Cudd, Analyzing Oppression

Please note that the SGRP has posted its Spring 2009 Symposium on Ann Cudd's book, Analyzing Oppression. Commentaries are by Sally Scholz (Villanova), Deborah Tollefsen (U. Memphis) and Helga Varden (UIUC).  Please have a look and post your comments.  Check back for Ann's reply.  Apologies to all for the delay in posting this.

Update on SGRP symposia

It may seem that this blog is defunct given that we haven't posted our Winter or Spring symposia.  Sincere apologies from the editors.  The Winter symposium is a discussion of Ann Cudd's book Analyzing Oppression.  The Spring symposium is a discussion of Joshua Glasgow's book A Theory of Race.  We are hoping to post them soon, so stay tuned.  We will be posting all future symposia directly on this blog and will announce it here and on relevant listservs.

Interviews with K. A. Appiah, John McWhorter and Tommie Shelby

John Derbyshire has recently published interviews with Kwame Anthony Appiah, John McWhorter and Tommie Shelby in The Prospect (Dec 2008).  The "abstract" reads:

To many, Obama's election meant the dawn of a new "post-racial" era for America. But, say many leading black American thinkers, the reality is much more complicated.

You can find and download the interviews here:

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10510

and the article "Post-racial Kitsch," also  by Derbyshire, here:

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10507

Philosophers React to the election of Obama

On election day I was ecstatic and I read reactions to the election voraciously.  I especially appreciated all the articles in the Nov. 17 edition of the New Yorker (especially Remnick's "Joshua Generation"), and Suskind's article in the New York Times Magazine of last Sunday.  I was less impressed by the ruminations of philosophers:

Simon Critchley:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/11/0082235

Judith Butler:
 http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/05/18549195.phpr

Slavoj Zizek:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/webonly/14/11/2008/zize01_.html

Racism, Xenophobia, and Asian Americans

Over the last decade or so the philosophical contributions to scholarship about racism has been significant.   These contributions have distinguished and clarified various concepts of racism.  The result is that a number of theories are now available that can markedly improve general discussions about racism and its moral harms.

Many segments in this literature have been about how racism interacts with other categories of discrimination and oppression, e.g., sexism, misogyny, class-ism, and homophobia.  One mode of interaction that needs closer attention is between racism and xenophobia.  One reason this would be productive is because xenophobia hasn’t received the attention from philosophers in the United States that racism has, and, thus, what xenophobia is, in relation to and apart from other forms of discrimination and exclusion is unclear.  Secondly, getting clearer about xenophobia would improve our conceptual grasp of racism.

This is where particular group experiences within particular contexts matter.  For example, anti-black racism, which has been the paradigm for thinking about U.S. racism, can be, and has been, theorized apart from xenophobia.  Indeed, the dominant doxastic and non-doxastic accounts of racism have made little mention of xenophobia.  Xenophobia, however, has been an integral part of the experience of racism on the part of Asians and Asian Americans, and to ignore it seems it to be a considerable mistake.  This is the subject of my first question:  Is the particular Asian and Asian American experience of racism and xenophobia in the United States more than a mere example of either concept?  Does that experience elucidate something about the structure of racism or xenophobia that goes beyond standard conceptualizations of either idea?

This leads to my second question:  Is racism conceptually related to xenophobia, and vice versa?  In other words, does the conceptual core of racism overlap with that of xenophobia? Or are they separate and independent concepts?

Evidence for the former is found in the practice of racializing foreigners and aliens since the rise of the modern conceptions of race in the nineteenth century.  Yet, the assimilation of xenophobia by racism may be resisted because there are cases, perhaps mainly in Europe, where xenophobia of aliens is found without racism.  If, however, xenophobia can be assimilated then the term may be superfluous or redundant and can safely fall out of use. 

An important related issue is the role of xenophilia in racism.  Asians and Asian Americans in the United States have experienced racism that has strong xenophobic elements, but also xenophilic elements.  The stereotypes of the “dragon-lady” and “geisha” are cases in point, as are hypomasculinist stereotypes of Asian American men.  This leads to my third question:  What is the role of xenophilia in racism, and, perhaps, even in xenophobia?

Reparations Symposium

Notice from Derrick Darby:
I am pleased to bring your attention to a reparations symposium that I have organized for the University of Kansas taking place on October 31, 2008 in Lawrence, KS at the School of Law.  The papers will be published in the spring issue of the Kansas Law Review.  The main question of the symposium is:  What can law learn from empirical research on racial inequalities when considering the matter of reparations for slavery?  Feel free to pass on news of this event to parties that might find it of interest.
For more information see the schedule linked here or contact Prof Darby at ddarby@ku.edu.

Symposium on Eaton's "A Sensible Antiporn Feminism" complete

I'm happy to report that the Symposium on A. W. Eaton's "A Sensible Antiporn Feminism" is now complete and includes a reply by Eaton.  Please visit it by going to:
http://web.mit.edu/sgrp
and following the "Symposia" link.
Enjoy!

More on Eze and a new Symposium

The Symposia on Gender Race and Philosophy has published another commentary in the Emmanuel Eze memorial issue by Ifeanyi Menkiti (Wellesley College).

The Spring 2008 symposium on A. W. Eaton's "A Sensible Antiporn Feminism" (Ethics 2007) now has commentaries published by Patrick Hopkins, Rae Langton, and Laurie Shrage.  A further commentary by Ishani Maitra and a reply by A. W. Eaton are forthcoming.

Enjoy!