Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Racism

  • Where Does Racism Come From? A Response to Michael Huemer

    By Kevin Currie-Knight ___ Philosopher Michael Huemer thinks we should stop talking to kids about race so much, at least in their social studies classes at school. In a recent piece for the Fake Nous, he argues that if racism is at all evident in today’s culture, it probably has to do with the fact…

  • Whose Racism? Which Enlightenment?

    By Kevin Currie-Knight ___ Like so much else, the Enlightenment seems to be a flash point in the contemporary culture wars. Some, like Douglas Murray and Stephen Pinker, suggest that we are moving too far away from “enlightenment values” like liberty, equality, and the idea of a universal human nature (to which they oppose the…

  • The Uses of Diversity

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ Imagine that you are in charge of some workplace. You look around and notice that while you are located in an area chock full of diversity of all kinds – racial, religious, and the like – your staff and customers are quite homogenous. Suppose that in your case, you are concerned…

  • Getting Personal About Race and “Transracial” Families

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ Sheena (SUNY Oneanta) and Kevin (East Carolina University) continue an ongoing conversation about the idea of race and Sheena’s arguments about racelessnes. This episode gets more personal about Sheena’s and Kevin’s respective connections to “transracial” families. Sheena was adopted into a “transracial” family and Kevin is adopting a daughter who is…

  • Race Talk

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ Race talk – using racial categories as descriptors in conversation – is inevitably clunky. For the past several years I’ve noticed this, especially as the teacher of an Introduction to Diversity class where we discuss racial diversity, among other things. Race is a hard thing to talk about sensibly, not just…

  • Beyond Polarization

    by Bharath Vallabha___ Our society is becoming more polarized. Nuance and subtlety are marginalized as things are reduced to all-encompassing binaries such as red vs. blue. This is as absurd as sorting items in a house in terms of their color instead of their function. Who in their right mind would give up categories such…

  • Race Skepticism and the Racial Satire of George Schuyler

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ Kevin Currie-Knight and Sheena Mason (SUNY Oneonta) discuss Sheena’s theory of racelessness, why she is a race skeptic and eliminativist, and their mutual interest in the race satire of Harlem Renaissance writer George Schuyler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRkhokQ2ol0&t=11s&ab_channel=ElectricAgora :05 – Why talk about race always seems so polarized and partisan 7:45 – Sheena is…

  • The Enigma (and Necessity) of George Schuyler

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ When we think of the Harlem Renaissance, names like Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston come readily to mind. Those with deeper knowledge might also think of James Weldon Johnson and Countee Cullen. Few are likely to think of George Schuyler. Despite being one of the most engaging black writers (and…

  • Sources of Human Diversity

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ___ People differ in all sorts of ways. Most of our differences generally go unnoticed when we interact. For example, with regard to a store clerk yesterday, I didn’t notice what her eye color or dominant hand is. But other differences, as the saying goes, make a difference. Historically and into the…

  • Dilemmas of Difference

    by Kevin Currie-Knight _____ When confronted with those different from us, when should we notice and take the difference seriously, and when is it best to look past the difference and act as if it doesn’t exist? To use the language of a modern discussion, should we be “colorblind” and move to treat people of…