Stavros
08-08-2017, 06:10 PM
Has racism been the key factor in the development of the USA since the 17th century? Tommy Curry, an advocate of Critical Race Theory and an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University has offered an at times profound, if flawed answer to this question, which is yes.
By way of background there is a long read in The Guardian (linked below) which explores the controversy that erupted earlier this year when The American Conservative came across a 2012 podcast relating to Tarantino's film Django Unchained and the way Curry explained the rationale behind the character Django taking part in the execution of whites in the film:
“I said in the initial conversation five years ago, the hypocrisy of self-defense proponents is that every group has a right to self-defense except historically oppressed groups like black Americans. My comments are about this historical contradiction. Black Americans’ right to defend themselves against white violence has historically been framed as hateful, whereas white Americans’ right [to] self-defense, which is often understood as their need to protect themselves from blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, is thought to be constitutional and an exercise of freedom..."
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/11/furor-over-texas-am-philosophers-comments-violence-against-white-people
Having presented a short-hand version of Curry's argument -'its ok to kill whites' The American Conservative unleashed a vitriolic level of abuse aimed at Curry and his family to the extent that they now need police protection.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/03/what-is-a-black-professor-in-america-allowed-to-say-tommy-j-curry
Because he is a professional philosopher Curry uses the language and jargon of philosophy to present his arguments, most recently in a book called The Man-Not (Temple University, 2017), and also in a fascinating article on Critical Race Theory (CRT), also linked below (click the download for easier access), which will be of interest to those familiar with this kind of academic presentation but others might find hard going, but worth exploring -
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2453_reg.html
https://www.academia.edu/2635853/Will_the_Real_CRT_Please_Stand_Up_The_Dangers_of_P hilosophical_Contributions_to_CRT
I will try to present the arguments in as simple a manner as I can:
1. Race is a concept that has no science, no biology and thus no real meaning, but Racism is the reality that has shaped the USA from early European settlement to just now.
2. Philosophy uses theory to give order and meaning to a world of chaos and confusion, but theory can only go so far in understanding Racism. Narratives are the key to unlocking the realities that arid theory at best fails to come to terms with, at worst deliberately ignores.
3. Narratives are the voices of Black people, whose stories tell the truth about racism in everyday life.
4. Black or 'African-a' Philosophy, cystallized in Critical Race Theory attempts to organize theories of racism to illuminate and ultimately destroy the edifice of racism that has killed, injured, crushed, distorted, exploited, ridiculed, and ignored Black lives (by implication it also applies to other ethnic non-white minorities).
5. Critical Race Theory is syncretic in that it attempts to bring together politics, economics, sociology, psychology, language and culture to show how in the USA white privilege and power has only been possible through the creation of Black inferiority. It is radical because it questions the very foundations of the USA, and because it questions the validity of rationalism, incremental progress, liberal humanism and the 'why can't we just all get along' aspirations of people who neither live nor understand the meaning of being Black in the USA. 'Post-racial humanity' is an illusion. There is no need for white people to feel guilty and 'atone' for the evils of slavery and segregation, it is not in their gift to liberate Black people from an embedded system that still exists.
6. Racism in the USA is not accidental, it is not an irrational 'aberration' but embedded in the logic of its history and development.
7.Reforms in the USA which ended segregation and extended the vote are described as 'interest-convergence' where the white elite 'allowed' a relaxation of racism in the system because it could do so without undermining its power, and because it looked good to outsiders. Thus Brown-vs-Board of Education (1954) was a Cold War tactic designed to show the rest of the world that the USA had humanity not prejudice at its heart when education was de-segregated.
8. Racism has had so profound an impact on Black people, in particular Black men, that neither philosophy nor psychology can yet unravel what has actually happened to the sense of being (known as ontology) that Black people have of themselves, because they have never been free. The perpetual condition of inferiority from slavery to 'legal freedom' must have an impact on being, not least if in reality, as the narratives -not the theory- will tell you jobs are hard to get, the law is always 'up your ass' if not shooting you to death, and even success can be rewarded with ridicule and prejudice.
-I have not covered all the ground, but it does seem to me that Curry and CRT have an important job to do. If there are flaws in this work, I am not sure that in terms of philosophy, the philosophy of language is as important as it could be, while the need for psychology to help unravel the mysteries of being is uncertain because psychology offers a weak approach not least because of contentious concepts such as the 'unconscious'.
-I appreciate the difference between race and racism but is it fair to insist that racism has been the primary factor in American history, rather than, say class, religion, or capitalism? Can these be seen separately or are they all part of the same system?
-There is an intensity to Curry's work which may come across to some as resentment, of the kind which one finds in some literature, for example in Frantz Fanon, and James Baldwin where the claims of white culture to humanity are regarded with cynical indifference in the light of slavery and Auschwitz. Resentment, though powerful a driver, is not the most effective way of dealing with problems -it is more a cause than a solution.
-I am not sure how Curry's philosophy fits with the Apartheid movement in 'Black America' which one associates with the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, the Nation of Islam, Africa Now and a whole list of Black nationalists from Marcus Garvey to the Panthers.
But these are fascinating arguments that will provoke, and that I think is the intention.
By way of background there is a long read in The Guardian (linked below) which explores the controversy that erupted earlier this year when The American Conservative came across a 2012 podcast relating to Tarantino's film Django Unchained and the way Curry explained the rationale behind the character Django taking part in the execution of whites in the film:
“I said in the initial conversation five years ago, the hypocrisy of self-defense proponents is that every group has a right to self-defense except historically oppressed groups like black Americans. My comments are about this historical contradiction. Black Americans’ right to defend themselves against white violence has historically been framed as hateful, whereas white Americans’ right [to] self-defense, which is often understood as their need to protect themselves from blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, is thought to be constitutional and an exercise of freedom..."
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/11/furor-over-texas-am-philosophers-comments-violence-against-white-people
Having presented a short-hand version of Curry's argument -'its ok to kill whites' The American Conservative unleashed a vitriolic level of abuse aimed at Curry and his family to the extent that they now need police protection.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/03/what-is-a-black-professor-in-america-allowed-to-say-tommy-j-curry
Because he is a professional philosopher Curry uses the language and jargon of philosophy to present his arguments, most recently in a book called The Man-Not (Temple University, 2017), and also in a fascinating article on Critical Race Theory (CRT), also linked below (click the download for easier access), which will be of interest to those familiar with this kind of academic presentation but others might find hard going, but worth exploring -
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2453_reg.html
https://www.academia.edu/2635853/Will_the_Real_CRT_Please_Stand_Up_The_Dangers_of_P hilosophical_Contributions_to_CRT
I will try to present the arguments in as simple a manner as I can:
1. Race is a concept that has no science, no biology and thus no real meaning, but Racism is the reality that has shaped the USA from early European settlement to just now.
2. Philosophy uses theory to give order and meaning to a world of chaos and confusion, but theory can only go so far in understanding Racism. Narratives are the key to unlocking the realities that arid theory at best fails to come to terms with, at worst deliberately ignores.
3. Narratives are the voices of Black people, whose stories tell the truth about racism in everyday life.
4. Black or 'African-a' Philosophy, cystallized in Critical Race Theory attempts to organize theories of racism to illuminate and ultimately destroy the edifice of racism that has killed, injured, crushed, distorted, exploited, ridiculed, and ignored Black lives (by implication it also applies to other ethnic non-white minorities).
5. Critical Race Theory is syncretic in that it attempts to bring together politics, economics, sociology, psychology, language and culture to show how in the USA white privilege and power has only been possible through the creation of Black inferiority. It is radical because it questions the very foundations of the USA, and because it questions the validity of rationalism, incremental progress, liberal humanism and the 'why can't we just all get along' aspirations of people who neither live nor understand the meaning of being Black in the USA. 'Post-racial humanity' is an illusion. There is no need for white people to feel guilty and 'atone' for the evils of slavery and segregation, it is not in their gift to liberate Black people from an embedded system that still exists.
6. Racism in the USA is not accidental, it is not an irrational 'aberration' but embedded in the logic of its history and development.
7.Reforms in the USA which ended segregation and extended the vote are described as 'interest-convergence' where the white elite 'allowed' a relaxation of racism in the system because it could do so without undermining its power, and because it looked good to outsiders. Thus Brown-vs-Board of Education (1954) was a Cold War tactic designed to show the rest of the world that the USA had humanity not prejudice at its heart when education was de-segregated.
8. Racism has had so profound an impact on Black people, in particular Black men, that neither philosophy nor psychology can yet unravel what has actually happened to the sense of being (known as ontology) that Black people have of themselves, because they have never been free. The perpetual condition of inferiority from slavery to 'legal freedom' must have an impact on being, not least if in reality, as the narratives -not the theory- will tell you jobs are hard to get, the law is always 'up your ass' if not shooting you to death, and even success can be rewarded with ridicule and prejudice.
-I have not covered all the ground, but it does seem to me that Curry and CRT have an important job to do. If there are flaws in this work, I am not sure that in terms of philosophy, the philosophy of language is as important as it could be, while the need for psychology to help unravel the mysteries of being is uncertain because psychology offers a weak approach not least because of contentious concepts such as the 'unconscious'.
-I appreciate the difference between race and racism but is it fair to insist that racism has been the primary factor in American history, rather than, say class, religion, or capitalism? Can these be seen separately or are they all part of the same system?
-There is an intensity to Curry's work which may come across to some as resentment, of the kind which one finds in some literature, for example in Frantz Fanon, and James Baldwin where the claims of white culture to humanity are regarded with cynical indifference in the light of slavery and Auschwitz. Resentment, though powerful a driver, is not the most effective way of dealing with problems -it is more a cause than a solution.
-I am not sure how Curry's philosophy fits with the Apartheid movement in 'Black America' which one associates with the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, the Nation of Islam, Africa Now and a whole list of Black nationalists from Marcus Garvey to the Panthers.
But these are fascinating arguments that will provoke, and that I think is the intention.