Gender, Race and Philosophy: The Blog

Radical Hope

There has been a lot of chatter these days about hope, especially with Obama using it as a campaign slogan.  It is exciting to see so many people excited and mobilized by the idea of hope during this election campaign.  Yet it is easy and perhaps instinctive for philosophers to dismiss hope as naive emotion.  I was reminded of this when I recently came across, in a colleague’s paper, Kafka’s quip, “Oh [there is], plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope—but not for us.”  Kafka’s sentiment is dark, but it isn’t too dark.  While you and I are doomed, the people that follow may have some of that hope, which is part of an infinite supply somewhere out there beyond our sight and grasp.

How to access that hope in dark times is the subject of Jonathan Lear’s new book Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Destruction (Harvard 2007).  The book is a fascinating analysis of the life of the Sioux leader, Plenty Coups and his attempt to steer his people to a new way of existing after the collapse of the Sioux’s traditional way of life.  Radical Hope draws on a variety of philosophical methods and literature to discuss the destruction of the Sioux world, including the collapse of its central concepts (mainly courage), and the possibility of hope.

I was very impressed with Lear’s sustained analysis of Plenty Coup’s life, dream life, and politics.  Often major works in philosophy turn away from America—and frequently toward the Ancient World—for narratives to illustrate their analyses.  Lear didn’t.  Instead he delivered an insightful work about radical hope that was richly detailed with an American narrative.  For this reason, Lear’s book is a work of American philosophy about American identity.  I look forward to reading more books like Lear’s.

I wondered, however, as I read the book, how will the few philosophers out there who’ve been working in Native American philosophy react to this book?  Lear doesn’t engage that literature.  Indeed, a reader who is unfamiliar with the extent of work done on Native American philosophy may get the false impression that this work is unique in its taking up of Native American issues in U.S. philosophy.

In addition that question, I have a lingering worry about the book: Lear’s argument that Plenty Coups’ decision to ally with the U.S. government and to fight with U.S. troops against the Sioux, who were the traditional enemies of the  Crow, was courageous and an example of “radical hope” was too quick—and too convenient from the perspectives of critics of U.S. policies toward Native Americans tribes.  Much of Lear’s argument pivots on his claim that Plenty Coup was “facing up to reality” and “exercising good judgment” about the military force of the U.S. government.  With all due respect to Plenty Coups, maybe he got lucky—there was no reality to apprehend in dealings with the U.S. government.  The U.S. government’s dealings with the Native American tribes was capricious, exploitative, and brutal.  “Reality” shifted with American demands.  Sitting Bull was, in such a situation, just as rational to continue attacks against the U.S. government.

By the way, my colleague who authored the paper on Kafka wasn’t such a fan of Lear’s conclusions, and maybe for reasons similar to my worries above.  Within oppressive governments “reality” is hard to pin down and is manipulated by the powerful.  The movements of raw, capricious force is not something that serves as a reliable foundation for any sort of hope, radical or not.

-RS

Racist Cartoon in the Globe and Mail

This message came into my inbox today, and I thought our blog readers might be interested.  (I've included it here with the permission of the author.) Comments welcome!

CARTOON DEPICTING AFROCENTRIC EDUCATION
For those of you who aware of the cartoon that was published by the Globe and Mail, Canada's largest selling national newspaper, on February 18th, please see my response to the Editor.  Do be aware that whilst I have no intention of pasting and thus reproducing the image, I have posted the web link as those outside of Canada may not be privy to the information. For those of you reading this outside of Canada, the Canadian media has been having a wonderful time with their racist depictions of Afrocentrism, especially after a group of parents and community members won the majority vote in the Toronto School Council's Board meeting to proceed with Afrocentric schools in Toronto.  If you can, please write to the globe and mail and register your outrage! Letters@globeandmail.com 
Below is my letter and the web link of the cartoon they printed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/newspaper/20080218/cartoon-600.png

The Editor,
The Globe and Mail
444 Front St. W.
Toronto, ON
M5V 2S9
Canada

February 19th 2008

Dear Editor,

Re: With reference to your Family Day, February 18th 2008 cartoon, "Afrocentric Algebra".
The history of Algebra began in ancient Egypt, and thus it was Egyptians who taught Algebra to members of their society, those close by who came in droves from Greece, and the rest of the world.  The last time I checked, Egypt was and still remains to be located in North Africa. Why on earth, would anyone assume that the teaching of Algebra in an Afrocentric school system would be accompanied by street slang, suggestive of a particular aspect of popular culture, which whether its origins are to be found among a select few among African American proponents of Black popular culture, does not mean that expressions such as the one your cartoon utilizes should be used to depict the teaching methods employed by Afrocentric teachers to their learners.  The cartoon is racist, inflammatory, completely and utterly ignorant and highly out of a place, especially in a national newspaper, which has regularly sought to depict its stance among readers as a fair and just one. Ironically, it is the Eurocentrism of your cartoonist, and those whose racist views such a cartoon represents, that Afrocentrism seeks to address—the denial of the contributions made by African peoples, the right to be taught a history that truly and accurately reflects the contributions we have made in Art, Literature and the Sciences, and the right to be taught by people who represent us, who resemble us and who understand such a history. Clearly, your cartoonist is unaware of the African origin of Algebra!

Canada has many educated teachers and professors with highly desirable academic qualifications from the African and African Caribbean communities, who have been educated in many different parts of the world. Canadian schools have not educated learners from the African and African Caribbean communities towards prosperity—drop out rates and racial profiling tell the story of racism, alienation, ridicule and continued colonial arrogance, so much so that learners who survive never quite thrive. I have followed the debate on Afrocentric schools now for a long time and was delighted at the small victory a group of parents and community members achieved. I am completely and utterly disgusted by this display of racism. You cannot seriously think that it is acceptable to print such racist propaganda. Surely, you have higher regard for your newspaper?
Rozena Maart
Guelph, Ontario
Canada

Confucianism and Sexism

Manyul Im has a blog on Chinese Philosophy that has a recent thread on Confucianism and Sexism, with interesting comments.  Check it out here!  Thanks Manyul! 
--SH

Sex/Gender Transitions and Race

Those interested in intersectionality (most of the readers of this blog, I imagine!) may want to have a look at the Alternet article "Becoming a Black Man" by Daisy Hernandez. It's about the way that transitioning from one sex/gender to another can change one's experiences of race. Here's a sample:

Trans people of color are finding that they have an extremely different relationship to gender transition than white people. London Dexter Ward, an LAPD cop who transitioned in 2004, sums it up this way: a white person who transitions to a male body “just became a man.” By contrast, he says, “I became a Black man. I became the enemy. “

On a slight tangent, I was surprised by the fact that Hernandez seemed to use 'heterosexual' as a term contrasting with 'trans'. Is that a mistake, or is this something I've missed? Here's the passage:

Just as key has been the work of transgender people themselves, who have transitioned due to the more widespread availability of hormones and surgeries. Rather than passing as heterosexual, an increasing number of them in the last decade have identified as “trans” and begun support, advocacy and legal-rights groups.

Feminist Carnival #53

Just got this link to the Feminist Carnival #53 off the blog Feminist Philosophers (a fabulous blog, by the way, with a great blogroll of additional feminist blogs) and couldn't resist linking to it here...lots of interesting, horrifying, hysterical, ridiculous stuff....some may be good teaching tools too.

I seem to be getting carried away here...I'm not trying to take over the blog, believe me! --SH

Mallon essay on social construction

I just came across an article by Ron Mallon "A Field Guide to Social Construction," by Ron Mallon (in Blackwell's Philosophy Compass).  I believe there is direct and free access here:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00051.x

Toward the end of the paper, Ron makes the following point:
"But while nativist accounts of folk theories of race may compete with constructionist explanations, they might also be combined into accounts emphasizing a variety of factors -- both social and psychological -- leading to folk racial theorizing.  And in any case, there is no reason that human kind constructionism about race cannot be paired with alternate accounts -- including nativist accounts -- of racial theories.  Such accounts might hold that psychological predispositions contribute to the formation of racial social roles that have played an important role in racial oppression." (103)

I agree with Ron that in principle nativist accounts of race might be combined with constructionist accounts, but I am very dubious of empirical work (I'm most familiar with Hirshfeld's (1996), which I think is appallingly bad) suggesting "innate psychological propensities to categorize people" along lines that map the contours of social race.  Of course children recognize the difference between brown skin and pale skin as soon as they get color concepts, just as they recognize the difference between a red apple and a green apple.  But children have to be taught that sometimes green apples turn red, and they must be taught that brown skinned babies won't turn pale as they grow up, and that a pregnant pale mommy with a pale daddy will probably not produce a brown baby. (I know this from personal experience with my own family.) There are many complex issues here, but I don't think there is any reason, in fact, to think that a combined nativist + constructivist account of race is plausible.

What do others think?

--SH

Society for Interdisciplinary Feminist Phenomenology

The Society for Interdisciplinary Feminist Phenomenology has launched a website:
http://whp.uoregon.edu/sifp
Check it out!
--SH

Mini conference at Pacific APA

I just got an email announcing a mini-conference in conjunction with the Pacific APA:
Making Philosophy of Science More Socially Relevant, March 19-20, 2008, Pasadena Hilton.  Organizing Committee: Nancy Cartwright, Sophia Efstathiou, Helen Longino, Katie Plaisance
There are sessions on race and on feminist philosophy of science:
http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/proceedings/v81n3/Public/miniconferenceprog.asp
I wish I could be there!  I hope someone will blog about it afterwards.

--SH

Equity Resources

A group of us interested in promoting equity in philosophy have started a wiki, "Equity in Philosophy" that provides links to articles, reports, reading lists, organizations, blogs and such.  Feel free to use and publicize the site so the information can be widely distributed.  If you know of something that should be posted on or linked from the wiki, email philequity@mit.edu, or post it as a comment to this post.  THANKS! --SH