White on White/Black on Black

by Cornel West (Foreword by), Kal Alston (Contribution by), Molefi Kete Asante (Contribution by), Bettina G. Bergo (Contribution by), Robert Bernasconi (Contribution by)

Overview

White on White/Black on Black is a unique contribution to the philosophy of race. The book explores how fourteen philosophers, seven white and seven black, philosophically understand the dynamics of the process of racialization. Combined, the contributions demonstrate different and similar conceptual trajectories of raced identities that emerge from within and across the racial divide. Each of the fourteen philosophers, who share a textual space of exploration, name blackness/whiteness, revealing significant political, cultural, and existential aspects of what it means to be black/white. Through the power of naming and theorizing whiteness and blackness, White on White/Black on Black dares to bring clarity and complexity to our understanding of race identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742514812
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/25/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

George Yancy is McAnulty Fellow in the Philosophy Department at Duquesne University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Introduction
Part 3 Part I: White on White
Chapter 4 Waking Up White and in Memphis
Chapter 5 White and Cracking Up
Chapter 6 "Wigger"
Chapter 7 Unmasking through Naming: Toward an Ethic and Africology of Whiteness
Chapter 8 Meditations on Post-Supremacist Philosophy
Chapter 9 Racialization as an Aesthetic Production: What Does the Aesthetic Do for Whiteness and Blackness and Vice Versa?
Chapter 10 "Circulez! Il n'y a rien à voir," Or, "Seeing White": From Phenomenology to Psychoanalysis and Back
Part 11 Part II: Black on Black
Chapter 12 (Re)Conceptualizing Blackness and Making Race Obsolescent
Chapter 13 Blackness as an Ethical Trope: Toward a Post-Western Assertion
Chapter 14 Tongue Smell Color black
Chapter 15 "Seeing Blackness" from Within The Manichean Divide
Chapter 16 Blackness and the Quest for Authenticity
Chapter 17 Act Your Age and Not Your Color: Blackness as Material Conditions, Presumptive Context, and Social Category
Chapter 18 Knowing Blackness, Becoming Blackness, Valuing Blackness

Editorial Reviews

Yancy’s anthology, with its collection of philosophers of race, makes flesh of the oft-challenged pairing of race and philosophy—sinuous tissues of identity, autobiography, history, and ideology.

T. Sharpley-Whiting

George Yancy has assembled a most important collection of essays that challenge the white supremacist cultural and intellectual domination of philosophy, a discipline that has traditionally denied black humanity. Philosophers and non-philosophers alike will benefit from these thought-provoking essays. White on White/Black on Black demands and demonstrates the transformation of philosophy.

Floyd W. Hayes

Critical race theory needs to be done. In this text, a philosophically grounded critical race theory is done very well. This volume, in which Cornel West offers a foreword, partly serves as a key philosophical intervention onto the scene of critical whiteness studies. Along with the groundbreaking works by David Roediger and David Theo Goldberg, the first half of this text presents white scholars writing on their experiences of, and critical thoughts on, whiteness. Chapters of note include those by Robert Bernasconi, Anna Stubblefield, and Bettina Bergo. The second half of the text is, as can now be expected of Yancy's editorial mastery, brilliant. The black philosophers' contributions to this volume, especially those by Clarence Shole Johnson, Robert Birt, and Kal Alston, offer critical engagements in the discipline known as critical race theory, a domain mistakenly reserved for critical legal scholars, historians, and sociologists. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

Choice Reviews

Once again, an engrossing collection by George Yancy! Whites critique whiteness and Blacks reaffirm blackness—all revealing much about themselves, their views of philosophy, and the American quicksand of race.

Naomi Zack

White on White/Black on Black presents readers with an array of illustrations of the way in which philosophizing about or from one’s life can, in fact contribute to the living of that life. The book can serve as an invitation to take up the project of theorizing with, through, about, and beyond one’s own life; and to consider theorizing as a tool one might take up in one’s quest for social transformation... a useful, intriguingly-designed contribution to the philosophy of race.

Journal of Speculative Philosophy

White on White/Black on Black presents readers with an array of illustrations of the way in which philosophizing about or from one's life can, in fact contribute to the living of that life. The book can serve as an invitation to take up the project of theorizing with, through, about, and beyond one's own life; and to consider theorizing as a tool one might take up in one's quest for social transformation... a useful, intriguingly-designed contribution to the philosophy of race.

By calling upon the academic community to value Blackness and challenge white supremacist cultural values, this text provides a provocative contribution to the study of race relations in America today.

Critical race theory needs to be done. In this text, a philosophically grounded critical race theory is done very well. This volume, in which Cornel West offers a foreword, partly serves as a key philosophical intervention onto the scene of critical whiteness studies. Along with the groundbreaking works by David Roediger and David Theo Goldberg, the first half of this text presents white scholars writing on their experiences of, and critical thoughts on, whiteness. Chapters of note include those by Robert Bernasconi, Anna Stubblefield, and Bettina Bergo. The second half of the text is, as can now be expected of Yancy's editorial mastery, brilliant. The black philosophers' contributions to this volume, especially those by Clarence Shole Johnson, Robert Birt, and Kal Alston, offer critical engagements in the discipline known as critical race theory, a domain mistakenly reserved for critical legal scholars, historians, and sociologists. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

George Yancy has assembled a most important collection of essays that challenge the white supremacist cultural and intellectual domination of philosophy, a discipline that has traditionally denied black humanity. Philosophers and non-philosophers alike will benefit from these thought-provoking essays. White on White/Black on Black demands and demonstrates the transformation of philosophy.

George Yancy's brilliant and thought-provoking White on White/Black on Black is a major contribution to the literature of the study of the changing dynamics of race in contemporary American life.

Once again, an engrossing collection by George Yancy! Whites critique whiteness and Blacks reaffirm blackness-all revealing much about themselves, their views of philosophy, and the American quicksand of race.

Yancy's anthology, with its collection of philosophers of race, makes flesh of the oft-challenged pairing of race and philosophy-sinuous tissues of identity, autobiography, history, and ideology.

From the Publisher

By calling upon the academic community to value Blackness and challenge white supremacist cultural values, this text provides a provocative contribution to the study of race relations in America today.

The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms

Critical race theory needs to be done. In this text, a philosophically grounded critical race theory is done very well. This volume, in which Cornel West offers a foreword, partly serves as a key philosophical intervention onto the scene of critical whiteness studies. Along with the groundbreaking works by David Roediger and David Theo Goldberg, the first half of this text presents white scholars writing on their experiences of, and critical thoughts on, whiteness. Chapters of note include those by Robert Bernasconi, Anna Stubblefield, and Bettina Bergo. The second half of the text is, as can now be expected of Yancy's editorial mastery, brilliant. The black philosophers' contributions to this volume, especially those by Clarence Shole Johnson, Robert Birt, and Kal Alston, offer critical engagements in the discipline known as critical race theory, a domain mistakenly reserved for critical legal scholars, historians, and sociologists. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

Choice

George Yancy's brilliant and thought-provoking White on White/Black on Black is a major contribution to the literature of the study of the changing dynamics of race in contemporary American life.

Manning Marable

Critical race theory needs to be done. In this text, a philosophically grounded critical race theory is done very well. This volume, in which Cornel West offers a foreword, partly serves as a key philosophical intervention onto the scene of critical whiteness studies. Along with the groundbreaking works by David Roediger and David Theo Goldberg, the first half of this text presents white scholars writing on their experiences of, and critical thoughts on, whiteness. Chapters of note include those by Robert Bernasconi, Anna Stubblefield, and Bettina Bergo. The second half of the text is, as can now be expected of Yancy's editorial mastery, brilliant. The black philosophers' contributions to this volume, especially those by Clarence Shole Johnson, Robert Birt, and Kal Alston, offer critical engagements in the discipline known as critical race theory, a domain mistakenly reserved for critical legal scholars, historians, and sociologists. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

CHOICE

By calling upon the academic community to value Blackness and challenge white supremacist cultural values, this text provides a provocative contribution to the study of race relations in America today.

The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms

By calling upon the academic community to value Blackness and challenge white supremacist cultural values, this text provides a provocative contribution to the study of race relations in America today.

The European Legacy - Toward New Paradigms

White on White/Black on Black presents readers with an array of illustrations of the way in which philosophizing about or from one’s life can, in fact contribute to the living of that life. The book can serve as an invitation to take up the project of theorizing with, through, about, and beyond one’s own life; and to consider theorizing as a tool one might take up in one’s quest for social transformation... a useful, intriguingly-designed contribution to the philosophy of race.

The Journal Of Speculative Philosophy

By calling upon the academic community to value Blackness and challenge white supremacist cultural values, this text provides a provocative contribution to the study of race relations in America today.

The European Legacy

White on White/Black on Black presents readers with an array of illustrations of the way in which philosophizing about or from one’s life can, in fact contribute to the living of that life. The book can serve as an invitation to take up the project of theorizing with, through, about, and beyond one’s own life; and to consider theorizing as a tool one might take up in one’s quest for social transformation... a useful, intriguingly-designed contribution to the philosophy of race.

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy