George Yancy is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 18 books. He has authored numerous scholarly articles and chapters. He is known for his influential essays and interviews in the New York Times' philosophy column, The Stone.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Critical Conversational Spaces and the Deferral of Racism
George Yancy
PART I - Race and the Critical Space of Black Women's Voices
bell hooks
Patricia Hill Collins
Hortense Spillers
Joy James
Discussion Questions
PART II - Race and the Naming of Whiteness
Judith Butler
Alison Bailey
John D. Caputo
Shannon Sullivan
Craig Irvine
Joe Feagin
Discussion Questions
PART III - Race, Pedagogy, and the Domain of the Cultural
Lawrence Blum
Dan Flory
David Theo Goldberg
Discussion Questions
PART IV - Race, History, Capitalism, Ethics, and Neo-liberalism
Noam Chomsky
Nancy Fraser
Peter Singer
Seyla Benhabib
Naomi Zack
Charles Mills
Falguni A. Sheth
Discussion Questions
PART V - Race Beyond the Black/White Binary
Linda Martín Alcoff
Eduardo Mendieta
David Haekwon Kim
Emily S. Lee
Discussion Questions
PART VI - Race and Africana Social and Political Frames
Molefi Kete Asante
Bill E. Lawson
Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr.
Cornel West
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Clevis Headley
Discussion Questions
PART VII - Race Beyond the US
Fiona Nicoll
Paul Gilroy
Discussion Questions
PART VIII - Race and Religion: At the Intersections
Charles Johnson
Traci C. West
Discussion Questions
With the recent barrage of racially motivated killings, violent encounters between blacks and whites, and hate crimes in the wake of the 2016 election that foreground historic problems posed by systemic racism, including disenfranchisement and mass incarceration, it would be easy to despair that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has turned into a nightmare. Many Americans struggle for equal treatment, facing hate speech, brutality, and a national spirit of hopelessness; their reality is hardly "post-racial". The need for clarity surrounding the significance of race and racism in the United States is more pressing than ever. This collection of interviews on race, some originally conducted for The New York Times philosophy blog, The Stone, provides rich context and insight into the nature, challenges, and deepest questions surrounding this fraught and thorny topic.
In interviews with such major thinkers as bell hooks, Judith Butler, Cornel West, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Peter Singer, and Noam Chomsky, Yancy probes the historical origins, social constructions, and lived reality of race along political and economic lines. He interrogates fully race's insidious expressions, its transcendence of Black/white binaries, and its link to neo-liberalism, its epistemological and ethical implications, and, ultimately, its future.