What White Looks Like: African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question

by George Yancy (Editor)

Overview

In the burgeoning field of whiteness studies, What White Looks Like takes a unique approach to the subject by collecting the ideas of African-American philosophers. George Yancy has brought together a group of thinkers who address the problematic issues of whiteness as a category requiring serious analysis. What does white look like when viewed through philosophical training and African-American experience? In this volume, Robert Birt asks if whites can live whiteness authentically. Janine Jones examines what it means to be a goodwill white. Joy James tells of beating her addiction to white supremacy, while Arnold Farr writes on making whiteness visible in Western philosophy. What White Looks Like brings a badly needed critique and philosophically sophisticated perspective to central issue of contemporary society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135888459
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	409 KB

About the Author

George Yancy holds the McCracken Fellowship in Africaana Studies at New York University. He has edited three previous books, including African-American Philosophers:17 Conversations (Routledge, 1998), Cornel West: ACritical Reader (2001), and The Philosophical i: PersonalReflections on Life in Philosophy (2002).

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroduction: Fragments of a Social Ontology of Whiteness: George Yancy1. Racial Exploitation and the Wages of Whiteness: Charles W. Mills 2. The Bad Faith of Whiteness: Robert E. Birt3. The Impairment of Empathy in Goodwill Whites for African Americans: Janine Jones 4. Delegitimizing the Normativity of Whiteness: A Critical Africana Philosophical Study of the Metaphoricity of Whiteness: Clevis Headley 5. A Foucauldian (Genealogical) Reading Of Whiteness: The Production Of The Black Body/Self And The Racial Deformation Of Pecola Breedlove In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye:George Yancy 6. Whiteness Visible: Enlightenment Racism and the Structure of Racialized Consciousness: Arnold Farr 7. Rehabilitate Racial Whiteness?:Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr. 8. Critical Reflections on Three Popular Tropes in the Study of Whiteness: Lewis R. Gordon 9. Whiteness and Africana Phenomenology: Paget Henry10. On the Nature of Whiteness and the Ontology of Race: Toward a Dialectical Materialist Analysis: John H. McClendon III 11. Silence and Sympathy: Dewey's Whiteness: Paul C. Taylor 12. Whiteness and Feminism: Déjá vu Discourses, What's Next?: Blanche Radford Curry 13. Mainlining (& Kicking) White Supremacy (WS): Joy James

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a must read for those who are interested in the understanding of race in the modern world and particularly in the American society that is still stratified by race and class domination... highly recommended... not only for those of us profoundly concerned with race and social justice, but for many others who are constructing different kinds of philosophical anthropology in the search for common ground. Congratulations, George Yancy for putting together this philosophical treat." -- J. Everet Green

"This remarkable and provocative collection brings together philosophy and activism, synthesis and critique, Marx and Fanon, feminism and anti-racism, humor and high seriousness. Its essays offer sharp, useful challenges to those of us advocating the 'abolition' of whiteness, as they specify the centrality of racism to Western thought and Western thoughtlessness." -- David Roediger, Babcock Professor of Afro-American Studies at University of Illinois, and author of Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past

"This anthology by African American philosophers deals with questions regarding whiteness as a racial designator. Along with contemporary sources, the book employs the writings of traditional philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Dewey, Sartre, and Foucault, when discussing. This is a very readable text on a timely topic. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates in courses that deal with race." -- T. L. Lott, San Jose State University , Choices

Recommended as a Teaching Tool by Teaching Tolerance!
"What White Looks Like: African American Philosophers on the Whitness Question takes a unique approach to whiteness studies by collecting the ideas of African American philosophers." -- Jeff Sapp, Teaching Tolerance

"Not only are these essays provocative, but they are illuminating and useful both to scholars and to neophytes. The anthology as a whole deserves an unqualified recommendation for all interested in this matter." -L. Sebastian Purcell, Boston College

From the Publisher