•  1
    Biko Mandela Gray and Ryan J. Johnson. Phenomenology of Black Spirit
    Idealistic Studies 53 (3): 279-282. 2023.
  •  6
    Tensional Landscapes: The Dynamics of Boundaries and Placements (edited book)
    with Sven Arntzen, Ethel Hazard, Wolfgang Luutz, Shannon M. Mussett, Herbert G. Reid, John M. Rose, John Ryks, John A. Scott, and Dennis E. Skocz
    Lexington Books. 2003.
    The contributors to this volume address global, regional, and local landscapes, cosmopolitan and indigenous cultures, and human and more-than-human ecology as they work to reveal place-specific tensional dynamics. This unusual book, which covers a wide-ranging array of topics, coheres into a work that will be a valuable reference for scholars of geography and the philosophy of place
  •  10
    How does our understanding of the reality (or lack thereof ) of race as a category of being affect our understanding of racism as a social phenomenon, and vice versa? How should we envision the aims and methods of our struggles against racism? Traditionally, the Western political and philosophical tradition held that true social justice points toward a raceless future—that racial categories are themselves inherently racist, and a sincere advocacy for social justice requires a commitment to the e…Read more
  •  4
    Editor’s Introduction
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 57 (S1): 5-15. 2019.
    The theme of the 2018 Spindel Conference was “Decolonizing Philosophy.” In this introduction, I will elaborate on this theme as a way to set the stage for the essays in this volume. Beginning with the question of what it means to consider philosophy “colonized” in the first place, I will focus on the subfield of the history of philosophy as a way to draw out my account. After elaborating what I take the claim that philosophy is colonized/colonizing to mean, I will turn to ways one might approach…Read more
  •  5
    Articulating a creolizing theory of freedom and liberation, this book emphasizes a dynamic account of existence by appealing to a sonic metaphor of resonance and dissonance. It draws together a diverse set of figures and traditions including G. W. F. Hegel, Steve Biko, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sylvia Wynter, and Lewis Gordon.
  •  5
    Review (review)
    Critical Philosophy of Race 9 (1): 166-176. 2021.
  •  25
    Racism and “Self-Love”: The Case of White Nationalism
    Critical Philosophy of Race 9 (1): 1-15. 2021.
    The rise in the public profile of “alt-right” and “white nationalist” groups in recent years is often described as a rise in “hate groups.” The presumption in this nomenclature is that these sorts of groups are defined essentially in terms of their shared hatred for some or all nonwhite individuals and groups. However, the rhetoric of such groups is couched not as hatred, but rather in terms of “self-love”—they do not hate other groups, they are just looking out for themselves. The author's argu…Read more
  •  9
    Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou (review)
    CLR James Journal 27 (1-2): 401-408. 2021.
  •  36
    Emancipatory Affect
    CLR James Journal 17 (1): 102-111. 2011.
    Love is a recurring theme in bell hooks' thought, where it is explicitly linked to her understanding of freedom and liberation. In this essay, I will bring together some of hooks' most important writings on love in order to clarify her account of the relationship between love and liberation. I will argue that, for hooks, the practice of love and the practice of freedom are inextricably connected, and any liberatory project must be undertaken within the context of an ethics of love.
  •  28
    How does our understanding of the reality (or lack thereof ) of race as a category of being affect our understanding of racism as a social phenomenon, and vice versa? How should we envision the aims and methods of our struggles against racism? Traditionally, the Western political and philosophical tradition held that true social justice points toward a raceless future--that racial categories are themselves inherently racist, and a sincere advocacy for social justice requires a commitment to the …Read more
  •  43
    Liberalism and the Challenge of Race
    Social Theory and Practice 36 (4): 689-704. 2010.
    Derrick Darby’s Rights, Race, and Recognition and Ronald R. Sundstrom’s The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social Justice are two recent efforts to answer the challenges that race and racism pose to liberal theory. Darby draws upon civil rights and abolitionist discourse to advance an “externalist” account of political rights, while Sundstrom explores the strains placed upon liberalism by recent demographic trends. In this review essay, I provide a brief account of their overall argument…Read more
  •  13
    Rodney C. Roberts, Editor, Injustice and Rectification (review)
    Philosophia Africana 10 (1): 69-72. 2007.
  •  19
    Derrick Darby’s Rights, Race, and Recognition and Ronald R. Sundstrom’s The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social Justice are two recent efforts to answer the challenges that race and racism pose to liberal theory. Darby draws upon civil rights and abolitionist discourse to advance an “externalist” account of political rights, while Sundstrom explores the strains placed upon liberalism by recent demographic trends. In this review essay, I provide a brief account of their overall argument…Read more
  •  7
    Creolizing Hegel (edited book)
    Rowman & Littlefield International. 2017.
    Creolizing Hegel brings together transdisciplinary scholars presenting various approaches to creolizing the work of Hegel. The essays in this volume take Hegelian texts and themes across borders of method, discipline, and tradition.
  •  1878
    In this essay, I examine the use of the concept of privilege within the critical theoretical discourse on oppression and liberation (with a particular focus on white privilege and antiracism in the USA). In order to fulfill the rhetorical aims of liberation, concepts for privilege must meet what I term the ‘boundary condition’, which demarcates the boundary between a privileged elite and the rest of society, and the ‘ignorance condition’, which establishes that the elite status and the advantage…Read more
  •  25
    On the Politics of Purity
    CLR James Journal 18 (1): 217-223. 2012.
  •  1
    A Theory of Racial Oppression and Liberation
    Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2003.
    This dissertation is a formulation of a theory of racism that transcends the narrow focus upon individual intentions and attitudes, capturing the ways and means by which it becomes an "institutionalized" part of the larger social context. I argue that this larger institutional level of racism is what makes it oppressive, as opposed to simple prejudice or dislike. Chapter one establishes this basic position, and moves directly into an analysis of oppression, appealing to five basic "premises" whi…Read more