-
21Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and ReconstructionOxford University Press. 2024.Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and Reconstruction is a work of political philosophy that examines the core injustices of the contemporary U.S. housing crisis and its relation to enduring racial injustices. It posits that what is required to achieve justice in social-spatial arrangements—what is otherwise called “spatial justice”—is to prioritize, in the crafting and enforcement of housing policy, individual moral equality and liberty; distributive justice; equal citizenship; an…Read more
-
43Anti-Asian RacismAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 60 (4): 411-424. 2023.Over the last twenty-five years, philosophers have offered increasingly more sophisticated accounts of the nature and wrongness of racism. But very little in this literature discusses what is distinctive to anti-Asian racism. This gap exists partly because philosophy, like much of U.S. culture, has been influenced by civic narratives that center anti-black racism in ways that leave vague anti-Asian racism. We discuss this conceptual gap and its effects on understanding anti-Asian racism. In resp…Read more
-
19Introduction to the Special Issue: RacismAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 60 (4): 325-327. 2023.Racism as an independent topic of investigation in philosophy has considerably developed since the 1990s, when it appeared as part of growing debates that, on the one hand, investigated the political meaning of race and, on the other, its ontology and whether it existed at all. Likewise, with the idea of racism, its broadly normative meaning is critiqued by some philosophers, while others ask how best to conceive of it and identify its immorality. There were a few early and significant forays in…Read more
-
213Integration and ReactionDialogue 62 (1): 77-83. 2023.D. C. Matthew argues that although integration offers blacks social and economic benefits, it also creates the conditions for phenotypic devaluation that leads to harm against black self-worth and servile behavior. Therefore, he advises against integration because the resulting self-worth harms outweigh the benefits of integration. I argue that Matthew’s cost-benefit calculation against integration lacks the requisite evidence, and amounts to a luxury belief that will result in more harm. Moreov…Read more
-
228Cities After COVID: Ten philosophers consider how COVID has impacted the life of the city.The Philosophers' Magazine. 2022.
-
169Residential Segregation and Rethinking the Imperative of IntegrationIn Sharon M. Meagher, Samantha Noll & Joseph S. Biehl (eds.), THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE CITY, Routledge; Taylor and Francis. 2020.In this chapter I consider the place of the topic of racial and ethnic urban residential segregation factors into political philosophy. I begin with a short history of residential segregation and the ghetto, and their role in systems of racial domination and oppression, and remarks on the general neglect of this topic in contemporary political philosophy, including in nonideal political philosophy, which proports to take on examples of real-world injustices and inequalities. I then examine, from…Read more
-
28The Powers of Dignity: The Black Political Philosophy of Frederick DouglassCritical Philosophy of Race 10 (2): 312-315. 2022.Frederick Douglass (1817?–1875) is a monumental American figure. As a runaway slave and leading black thinker, speaker, and writer in the abolitionist movement and during Reconstruction and its tragic collapse, his legacy in American history is singular. His ideals and scorching criticisms have marked American political thought about democracy, religion, race, racism, liberty, and equality. American political parties claim him, especially the Republican Party, with which he has an early connecti…Read more
-
24Sheltering XenophobiaCritical Philosophy of Race 1 (1): 68-85. 2013.What is xenophobia? Why is xenophobia immoral? How is xenophobia's conceptual and moral meaning diminished? Investigations of these questions would invigorate xenophobia as a topic in public morality and discourage the public's acquiescing to xenophobia's new prominence. This paper focuses on the third question, the diminishment of xenophobia. In the first section, I outline a general conception of xenophobia. In the second, I explain how theories of membership in liberal democratic societies re…Read more
-
154Race as a human kindPhilosophy and Social Criticism 28 (1): 91-115. 2002.In this article I present a positive ontology of 'race'. Toward this end, I discuss metaphysical pluralism and review the theories of Ian Hacking, John Dupre and Root. Working within Root's framework, I describe the conditions under which a constructed kind like 'race' would be real. I contend these conditions are currently satisfied in the United States. Given the social presence and impact of 'race' and the unique way 'race' operates at differing sites, I will argue that it is site-specific, i…Read more
-
50Introduction: place and the philosophy of racePhilosophy and Geography 7 (1): 3-7. 2004.[I]n the beginning, all the world was America… John Locke The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Fred...
-
37Arrogance, Love, and Identity in the American Struggle with RaceSocial Theory and Practice 29 (1): 159-172. 2003.
-
30The unfolding history of the philosophy of race in the united statesPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 33 (4): 499-505. 2003.
-
118Race and place: Social space in the production of human kindsPhilosophy and Geography 6 (1). 2003.Recent discussions of human categories have suffered from an over emphasis on intention and language, and have not paid enough attention to the role of material conditions, and, specifically, of social space in the construction of human categories. The relationship between human categories and social spaces is vital, especially with the categories of class, race, and gender. This paper argues that social space is not merely the consequent of the division of the world into social categories; it i…Read more
-
39Frederick DouglassStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2023.This is an entry of Frederick Douglass for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
-
Rending the Veil: A Critical Look at the Ontology and Conservation of "Race"Dissertation, University of Minnesota. 1999.In Rending The Veil: A Critical Look at the Ontology & Conservation of "Race," I explore the nature and existence of "race" and the question of whether the social use of racial classification ought to continue. The principal vehicle for my exploration is W. E. B. Du Bois's landmark 1897 essay "The Conservation Of Races." It is Du Bois' thesis in that essay, along with the criticism and the support it has met, that forms the focus of my work. This debate, relevant to our times, can be characteriz…Read more
-
22Introduction: place and the philosophy of racePhilosophy and Geography 7 (1): 3-7. 2004.[I]n the beginning, all the world was America… John Locke The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. Fred...
-
41The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social JusticeState University of New York Press. 2008.Considers the effects of the browning of America on philosophical debates over race, racism, and social justice
-
46Review of Linda Martín Alcoff, Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2006 (6). 2006.
-
584Frederick Douglass's Longing for the End of RaceAfrican Philosophy 8 (2): 143-170. 2005.Frederick Douglass (1817–1895) argued that newly emancipated black Americans should assimilate into Anglo-American society and culture. Social assimilation would then lead to the entire physical amalgamation of the two groups, and the emergence of a new intermediate group that would be fully American. He, like those who were to follow, was driven by a vision of universal human fraternity in the light of which the varieties of human difference were incidental and far less important than the ethic…Read more
-
5545Xenophobia and RacismCritical Philosophy of Race 2 (1): 20-45. 2014.Xenophobia is conceptually distinct from racism. Xenophobia is also distinct from nativism. Furthermore, theories of racism are largely ensconced in nationalized narratives of racism, often influenced by the black-white binary, which obscures xenophobia and shelters it from normative critiques. This paper addresses these claims, arguing for the first and last, and outlining the second. Just as philosophers have recently analyzed the concept of racism, clarifying it and pinpointing why it’s immor…Read more
San Francisco, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Race and Justice |
Social and Political Philosophy |
African/Africana Philosophy |
Philosophy of Race |