Larger, Freer, More Loving

Today, we’re talking with Tommy Curry and John Youngblood about Black masculinities. We begin by talking about the Black male experience, particularly in academia, as a means of defining Tommy’s man-not and the multiplicitousness of Black masculinities. Following that, we apply this knowledge as a critique of intersectionality with the hopes of propelling intersectionality towards new growth and understanding, and we conclude by discussing Black Boy Joy.

We’re continuing a line of thought we’ve been working on for the past few episodes. Last time, we mentioned that we’d been talking about current racial dynamics and crises of structural, environmental racism like COVID-19 within too narrow of a Black/White binary. In this episode, we’ve got intersectional indigenous activists, Desiree Kane and Tewentenhawihtha Aldrich. We begin by asking, Can you both speak to us about US naivety in relation to the issues affecting native folks? How do you feel about land acknowledgment statements? And what can be done to make them more impactful?

Today, we’re talking with Stephanie Rivera Berruz and Taina Figueroa about race and racism in the university and their particularly cities (i.e. Milwaukee and Atlanta). We focus on LatinX identities and their relation to the Black/White Binary, especially in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. By asking, What are some ways y’all think current discussions concerning COVID-19 and/or institutional racism need to involve discussions of LatinX identities? Disability? Or other marginalized groups? Next, we zoom in on some particular examples of the pervasive problem of race and racism within the US through a discussion of Milwaukee’s segregation and Mayor Keisha Bottoms’ response to #blm in Atlanta.

Today, we’re talking with Charles Mills, Linda Alcoff, and Shelley Tremain about a more specific issue than we have in our previous episodes. That said, it’s an issue that we believe connects up with racism and ableism not only in the discipline of philosophy, but also racism and ableism as it is experienced globally. In particular, we want to talk about the news that came out several weeks ago about a seven year, $2.78 million grant that was awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a project entitled “Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy”. While the goals of the project sound great, “to change the standards of practice in philosophy to enable the discipline to become inclusive and diverse by retrieving philosophical works of women and individuals from other marginalized groups across historical periods from 1400 through 1940 and sustaining the presence of these figures and their works in the history of philosophy” you all will immediately notice that the project is run almost exclusively by white women, with a few white men thrown in. Some might even say that it also seems to be primarily interested in uncovering the works of white women. There was a good deal of discussion about this at the DailyNous and the philosophy internet world.

In this episode, we talk about how James Baldwin influenced our podcast, and his connection to Juneteenth and Pride. Following that, we talk about whiteness, Trump, and the importance and history of Juneteenth and Pride, especially the way that the Trans community fought during the 1960s.

In this episode, we focused our conversation on what it takes to live-out being a committed anti-racist ally, particularly one needs to critically engage democracy, education, and one's community. Towards the end of this episode, we dialogue about the police protest over the last month, looting, policing, defunding the police, and other current topics.

The ethos of this episode can be felt in this James Baldwin quote, "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models. That is exactly what our children are doing. They are imitating our immorality, our disrespect for the pain of others."