White ignorance. Epistemology of race and domination

Timetable

 Tuesday, 11:30-13:00

First meeting 8th October 2024

Place: room 046, Collegium Heliodori, Grunwaldzka street, no.6 

 

Module aim (aims)

The aim of the course is to examine a phenomenon of "white ignorance" and discuss its role in stabilising systems of racialised inequalities that have operated both in present-day and historical societies of the modern period. The course will start with presentation of the most important theories of white domination that have been developed in social sciences, philosophy and cultural studies. We will particularly focus on the epistemological aspect of this domination and analyse societal mechanisms that link power relations with the processes of knowledge (and "unknowledge") production. During the classes we will discuss selected instances of historical events and experiences, both individual and collective, that have become objects of such "unknowledge", and examine political as well as psychological stakes involved in its creation and perpetuation. The course will conclude with discussion on the prospects of overcoming "white ignorance" and with posing a question regarding adequate forms of knowledge (as well as standards of knowledge production) that could replace it.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Command of English sufficient to read and discuss literature on the subject in this language

Syllabus

Introduction: white privilege and ignorance

• Reni Eddo-Lodge "What is White Privilege?", in: Reni Eddo-Lodge Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race, Bloomsbury Circus 2017.
• Howard Griffin Black like me, New American Library Trade 2003 (fragments).
• Film: “Blue Eyed” (1996), Jane Elliott, directed by Bertram Verhaag.

Race and racism: a history

• Fredrickson, G. M. (2003). Racism: A Short History. Princeton University Press (fragments).
• West, C. (2001). Genealogy of Modern Racism. In: P. Essed, T. Goldberg David (eds.), Race Critical Theories. Text and Context. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Film: 13th (2016) directed by Ava Du Vernay

White supremacy - theoretical frameworks

• Delgado, R., Stefancic, J., & Harris, A. (2017). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (fragments).
• Mills, Ch. W. (2003). White Supremacy as Sociopolitical System: A Philosophical Perspective. in: A. Doane, E. Bonilla-Silva (eds.) White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism. Routledge.

Race and epistemologies of ignorance

• José Medina (2017). "Epistemic injustice and epistemologies of ignorance". In: Taylor, P. C., Alcoff, L. M., & Anderson, L. (eds.). The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race. Routledge.
• Mills, C. W. (2007). White ignorance. In: S. Sullivan, N. Tuana (eds.), Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance. State University of New York Press.

White ignorance - literature and philosophy

• Morrison, T. (1993). "Black Matters". In: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Reprint edition). Vintage.
• Alcoff, L. M. (2017). Philosophy and Philosophical Practice: Eurocentrism as an epistemology of ignorance. W The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice. Routledge.
• Michael D. Burroughs "Hannah Arendt, 'reflections on Little Rock,' and white ignorance". In: Critical Philosophy of Race, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015.

White ignorance and production of history: Haiti

• Michel-Rolph Trouillot "An Unthinkable History The Haitian Revolution as a Non-event". In: Trouillot, M.-R. (2015). Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, 20th Anniversary Edition (2nd Revised edition). Beacon Press.
• Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). (fragments)

White ignorance and the image of Africa

• Achebe, Chinua. „An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. The Massachusetts Review 57, nr 1 (2016): 14–27.
• Wainaina, Binyavanga “How to Write about Africa”, Granta
• Wainaina, Binyavanga “On Kapuscinski’s ‘gonzo orientalism’”  Mail & Guardian 20 march 2007 https://mg.co.za/article/2007-03-20-on-kapuscinskis-gonzo-orientalism/

Rhetorical strategies and producing ignorance

• Teun A. van Dijk (2001) "Denying Racism: Elite Discourse and Racism". In: Essed, P., & Goldberg, D. T. (eds.). Race Critical Theories: Text and Context. Wiley-Blackwell.

Intersectionality and white ignorance

• Hazel V. Carby, „White Women Listen!”, in: The Empire Strikes Back. Race and Racism in 70s Britain, Routledge, London, New York 1992.
• Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. University of Minnesota Press. (fragment)

Ethical motivations and reproduction of ignorance

• Danewid, I. (2017). White innocence in the Black Mediterranean: Hospitality and the erasure of history. Third World Quarterly, 38(7).

Non-white perspective on white ignorance

• Nora Berenstain, „Epistemic Exploitation”, Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy 3 (2016).
• hooks, bell. (1989) “Marginality as Site of Resistance”. In: Ferguson, R., Gever, M., Minh-ha, T.T., and West, C. (eds.) Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: MIT Press, pp. 341–343.

 

Reading list

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