philosophy & race class notes

8/10/2019 Philosophy & Race Class Notes

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Philosophy & Race2/17/2014/ MondayTheories of Race & Racism: Racial Beliefs In America (Gunnar Myrdal)Important Terms

- higher law vs. free society

- dogma of natural inequality/ dogma of race- inconsistency of Democracy & race 113- preponderance of nature vs. nuture 119- biological inferiority 116 vs. American social sciences- scientific thought vs. popular belief (theoretical commmitments) 119

race dogma: physical appearance = capacities & aptitudes

(intelligence, morality, economic success, social mobility,culture, personal hygiene)

2/18/2014After Identity: Ch. 1 (1-48)According to Myrdal the concept of race is a new concept.Fairly new that coins sides with the rise of capitalism.Why was it necessary to have slavery? How did it come about?

-slavery, south has big investment -> cotton gin- (113) slaves represented an enormous investment to the slave owners,agricultural economy was slave basedEli Whitney s cotton gin in 1794 increase price of slaves

-(116) Negroes biological inferiori tymoral apology for, slavery American Creed perpetuated via literature & scientific thought

North and South of America similar to Italian divided culturally

Race -> functionWhat is races function F(x) = device that performs a certain work

Has certain type of utility For whom? For what? Is the utility for?

We as people like to make divisions, them & us mentalityHuman tendency to distinguish ourselves from us vs. them

Concept of race is something new Myrdal


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Bacons rebellion (1676) shows the moment in which an executive decision is made from the elite colonial administrators to decide to met out punishment to the rebels,rebels where indentured servants both black and white. They rose up against thecolonial administrators because they were unhappy-blacks were hung, whites pardoned

- creating division of slave A and slave B, ensures you loyalty of white underclass

Marx tension of class that owns means of production and those that dont own(buy and sell)

-owners of capital & machine, workers need to feed land with theirlabor, surplus is taken by capital class

-Class of those who have and those who DONT have

-have nots consist of poor whites & blacks-haves consist of rich whites

differences between races are demonstrablewe as people perpetuate belief biologists, poets, etc.

-they give different evidence for these divides

After Identity Chapter I pg. 15Key Concepts-Sex vs. Gender [societys assocations] -Nature vs. Nurture-Gender Identity + roles [binaries vs. grey areas]-Environment + conditioning-Moral psychology vs. Hermeneutics [meanings]-Sexual orientation [tendency]-phalocentrism [differential significant of genital parts]-primacy of reproduction-point of view situatedness of observer- contexuality of terms- validity [proof] of definitions

2/19/2014Hermeneutics: branch of philosophy specializes on the problem or issue ofinterpretation, how interpretations work, and suggest different ways to explain the process of interpretation; process of interpretation

-Schleiermacher Theologian/Philosopher-Schleier = veil macher =maker-

Key Concepts-Social constructionist (Omi & Winant)

race is something we made up, came from structures of power that havecontributed to a certain classification and treatment of people


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2-20-2014Chapter 3All terms from epistemology: branch of philosophy that occupies itself withknowledge(84) to go imperial (Appiah)=/= recreational

-we cannot escape from our race, but we can opt out of being a baseball fan.-we all should have recreational identities instead of imperial identities(86) suppose we look at not at the structure of racial construction but the structure ofracial understanding: structure of racial understanding

-context of the particular object of understanding- think of it as an architectural term- there are layers of history & bias from prior experiences/judgments

-previous events that underscore our understanding-Warnke wants us to delay our judgement Descarte suspencion ofjudgement

(86-87) understanding texts & artworks-hermenutic circle- understanding should be coherent

(96) the possibility of producing change in the hermeneutic circle: the possibility ofnovel readings/ interpretations

(99) concept of a correct understanding (as internal & contextual coherence)

(100) a plausible reading(109) possibility of violating conditions of understanding

-when you insist that people have certain race and predisposed thought

*(119) conditions for the possibility of understanding-what would have to be in place for true understanding or correctunderstanding(s)

Chapter 4:Uses of SexSocial integration & genetic survival

(156) Anne Fausto-Sterling5 part system

CAH shows that there is no binary system

Chapter 7: Situational account of identity

-ex. Eminem was immersed in a culture to which he transcended into theblack rap culture despite his skin color


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Benign NeglectKymlikca the necessity of affirmative remedies for the racial inequalities faced

- the idea that a nation composed of many different groups has been basedon equality, but it is fiction

- says no such thing as benign neglect, there are powers who decide who

will be part of the group

Ways of Life: Wittgenstein important philosopher- life can be understood as a series of language games

2/21/2014 Azande

Effective history:Wirkungs geschichteHow we organize perception in general

Variation (within one race) vs deviations (different races themselves) (9)

Kant systematic philosophy- most influential latin philosopher- rational human, systematic thinking, logical

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Darwin pg. 55- we can all interbreed thus we are all same species

2/25/2014Franz Boas plasticity of humans & the idea that groups of humans arent stable

- focus on the environment (favorable conditions promote growth & viceversa)- CNS lasts longer than rest of the body, more influenced

Alain Locke- race & culture cant be talked together - discarding of race for ethnicity- social race: groups of race in a culture

o blood intermixture & cultural assimilation

Ashley Montagu- mentions Blumenbach:- race is commonly accepted, complains race is forced upon- omelet metaphor: describing the whole doesnt explain the parts of the

omelet- conjuring up


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- miscegenation :practice of interbreeding

Black Cinderalla of Brazil- public sphere all enlightened people will be allowed to participate in a

discursive market placeo poor and black, no one will listen to you in Brazil

2/27/2014Michael Omi & Howard WInant

- haunted race, spectre,- racial legacies of the past continue to shape the present. It reveals both the

deep involvement of the state in the organization & interpretation of race,and the inadequacy of state institutions to carry out these functions

o organization & interpretation parallel to structure & representation interpretation- way groups are treated, thought about, sung

about,

- What is Race?o Race is a sign

Particular concept that is signified through a social conflict Sign is arbitrary & irrelevant

Relevance points to a conflict The medium of sign is human bodies Sign refers/signifies/represents/means/points to/

Race has an essence to its being, which attaches its depth to agroup

- Racial Formationo Process by which essential identities are proclaimed or decreedo Racial projects are interests (acquiring land)

Ex. Affirmative action o Macro and micro

Micro-common sense Ongoing stereotypes perpetuate the common sense

about race that takes place in time On-dit que: one says that

Unattrituble tribute - Racial dictatorship & racial democracy

o Concept of hegemony (Macchiavelli & Gramsci) A combination of coercion & consent

The less coercion, the more better off hegemonic is Racial dictatorship uses slavery and the law, legalized

discrimination, Racial democracy would be content with the arrangement.

Progressive change is possible- Structure, interpretation, representation


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2/28/2014under colorblindness we see a group retaining its hegemony over its other group

- projects are the building blocks not just of racial formation, but of hegemonyin general

o struggle and conflict fought along racial lines- structural =/= overt discriminationo racial projects: ex. Certain schools get better property tax

lending practices - Racism

o Organized & essentialized o Combination of prejudice, discrimination, and institutional inequality o Privus lex (private/de-prived law)

- racial projects are the conceptual tool in which we can maintain ouremphasized on structure and process and representation. How certain groupsare represented that maintain a higher tier over them.

Black Feminism- embodied experience- Antithesis

3/4/2014Key Concepts

- White ontology : study of being and what there is in a way that is associatedwith whites

o Study of the peculiarities of the ways of beings of different thingso Whiteness comes in many colors

- Good vs bad whites o good: those who doo bad: those who dont recognize the guilt

- Silence & invisibility of whiteness - Imarginlization of black people - Perception/ distortion identity (6)

o What identities are already given without any actuality

What is Whiteness?- What is the being of Whiteness?- Whiteness is an inheritance

o Inheritance is all the actions conducted in the name of whiteness Privilege, guilt: moral responsibility/indictment Standard to be normal, equal Antithesis to the other Set of norms that excludes others Advantages of invisibility

o Element of Wage of Whiteness


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Overdetermination: fact of color triumphs any actual meaningRace trumphs class

Chapter 1:Mills argues that cultural exploitation is brought about through the position of a

certain races superiority due to their endowed abilities and talents. In order tomake a paradign shift towards a direction of justice

- Supremacy vs privilegeo Privilege does not capture the normativeo We are talking about the systematic structure

White supremacy can be seen paralleling the distribution ofwealth in the country

It is no accident, it is systematic- What is justice or fairness if we live in a system in which a lot of outward talk

is about equality of opportunity, but we see opportunity measured

differentially.o What kind of justice is envisionedo

3/15/2014Mills punch-line for chapter 1: philosophy should explore these areas moresystematically, face the resistance and start with our own force. Or else philosophywill be for no use.

Bad faith: you lie to yourself,-when you lie to others they dont know the truth -Satre-garcon de caf , waiter is oppressed and lies about his facticity

facticity: we are situated in the world, we are thrown into a situation that isbeyond our control

-what family were born into, what town, etc. transcendence : is the possibility of contributing to shape what you have been given, what you have been determined by

one can overcome them, but to a certain degree- White person

Pure transcendence: you work hard you reap the rewardsIm in control of my life

The Other is central to the definition of transcendence

Chapter 4 Metaphor of conjuringPhilosophy self consciously deploys concepts and uses them as part of theoreticalframeworks and proposes them to understand the world


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- Conjuring

o To constitute realities by endowing objects and situations withmeaning

o Africana philosophy uses conjuring to come up with how things came

up in the worldo Provides an explanation of how things can happen

Economic situation- Nominalism pg 94 WWLL

3/6/2014- Geist transcendental spirit for Hegel- Hegel

o Collective soul, god has to be both (non)existence, perfection is the actof becoming into existence.

o All encompassing, dialectics,o Master-slave dialectic Master needs an other, has to be human, or else master wont

feel mighty or as complete Clash of wills, master depends on the slave, cant conceive of

himself without the slave Slave can stand up to the master Slave is created through his work, develop the

relationship with the work he does Master is parasitic

Slave stands up to the master Master is willing to fight to the death & slave cowers

o Slave values his life Outcome 2: slave fights it out to the death, through the

clash there are enlightened into liberation- We think of ourselves as rational consumers, everything we did as a result of

an analysis for possible benefitso Every transaction is mediated by moneyo Enlightenment begins when an individual can rationalize

Idea of a thinking being able to measure cost benefits andultimately take the right decision for himself

Unhindered by tradition or social bonds fromcommunity

- Philosophy commentating on other philosophers, no philosophers can claimto create anything, it is a hermeneutical circle per excellence

Monday readingJim crow ch 1-2


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Fanon uses a passage in Aime, slave goes to masters bedroom and goes to killmaster. When master sees slave is about to kill him

Aime Cesaire: negritude notebook return to native country

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The New Jim CrowClass, race, and class system

Marxist analystPrimitive accumulation: someone comes in and either seizes you (as property) orland, now this person is absolutely detached from any protection that would begiven from the social network and by land, this person now conceived as a source oflabor (proletarian).Reproduction, worker needs to produce himself again to show up for workSlave internalize cost

- Worker- external cost of productiono flexibilization of labor outsource of labor

Haiti, every time theres disaster, labor becomescheaper (cheap t-shirt production)

o Race was used in the creation of a caste that still remains in our day- Qui bono? (For whom is this a good)

philosophy & race class notes

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