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.
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