A Companion to African-American Philosophy

Tommy L. Lott is Professor of Philosophy at San José State University. He is author of The Invention of Race (Blackwell, 1999), editor of Subjugation and Bondage: Critical Essays on Slavery and Social Philosophy (1998), African-American Philosophy (2001), and co-editor of The Idea of Race (2000), and Philosophers on Race (Blackwell, 2002). John P. Pittman is Chair of the Department of Art, Music, and Philosophy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. He is editor of African-American Perspectives and Philosophical Traditions (1996) and Associate Editor of the journal Philosophia Africana.

Notes on Contributors viii

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Part I Philosophic Traditions

Introduction to Part I 3

1 Philosophy and the Afro-American Experience 7
CORNEL WEST

2 African-American Existential Philosophy 33
LEWIS R. GORDON

3 African-American Philosophy: A Caribbean Perspective 48
PAGET HENRY

4 Modernisms in Black 67
FRANK M. KIRKLAND

5 The Crisis of the Black Intellectual 87
HORTENSE J. SPILLERS

Part II The Moral and Political Legacy of Slavery

Introduction to Part II 107

6 Kant and Knowledge of Disappearing Expression 110
RONALD A. T. JUDY

7 Social Contract Theory, Slavery, and the Antebellum Courts 125
ANITA L. ALLEN AND THADDEUS POPE

8 The Morality of Reparations II 134
BERNARD R. BOXILL

Part III Africa and Diaspora Thought

Introduction to Part III 151

9 “Afrocentricity”: Critical Considerations 155
LUCIUS T. OUTLAW, JR.

10 African Retentions 168
TOMMY L. LOTT

11 African Philosophy at the Turn of the Century 190
ALBERT G. MOSLEY

Part IV Gender, Race, and Racism

Introduction to Part IV 199

12 Some Group Matters: Intersectionality, Situated Standpoints, and Black Feminist Thought 205
PATRICIA HILL COLLINS

13 Radicalizing Feminisms from “The Movement Era” 230
JOY A. JAMES

14 Philosophy and Racial Paradigms 239
NAOMI ZACK

15 Racial Classification and Public Policy 255
DAVID THEO GOLDBERG

16 White Supremacy 269
CHARLES W. MILLS

Part V Legal and Social Philosophy

Introduction to Part V 285

17 Self-Respect, Fairness, and Living Morally 293
LAURENCE M. THOMAS

18 The Legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson 306
MICHELE MOODY-ADAMS

19 Some Reflections on the Brown Decision and Its Aftermath 313
HOWARD McGARY

20 Contesting the Ambivalence and Hostility to Affirmative Action within the Black Community 324
LUKE C. HARRIS

21 Subsistence Welfare Benefits as Property Interests: Legal Theories and Moral Considerations 333
RUDOLPH V. VANTERPOOL

22 Racism and Health Care: A Medical Ethics Issue 349
ANNETTE DULA

23 Racialized Punishment and Prison Abolition 360
ANGELA Y. DAVIS

Part VI Aesthetic and Cultural Values

Introduction to Part VI 373

24 The Harlem Renaissance and Philosophy 381
LEONARD HARRIS

25 Critical Theory, Aesthetics, and Black Modernity 386
LORENZO C. SIMPSON

26 Black Cinema and Aesthetics 399
CLYDE R. TAYLOR

27 Thanatic Pornography, Interracial Rape, and the Ku Klux Klan 407
T. DENEAN SHARPLEY-WHITING

28 Lynching and Burning Rituals in African-American Literature 413
TRUDIER HARRIS-LOPEZ

29 Rap as Art and Philosophy 419
RICHARD SHUSTERMAN

30 Microphone Commandos: Rap Music and Political Ideology 429
BILL E. LAWSON

31 Sports, Political Philosophy, and the African American 436
GERALD EARLY

Index 450