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Book Cover for: Blackness Visible, Charles W. Mills

Blackness Visible

Charles W. Mills

Charles W. Mills makes visible in the world of mainstream philosophy some of the crucial issues of the black experience. Ralph Ellison's metaphor of black invisibility has special relevance to philosophy, whose demographic and conceptualized "whiteness" has long been a source of wonder and complaint to racial minorities. Mills points out the absence of any philosophical narrative theorizing and detailing the centrality of race to the recent history of the West, such as feminists have articulated for gender domination.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Cornell University Press
  • Publish Date: Apr 7th, 1998
  • Pages: 272
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.90in - 6.00in - 0.70in - 0.90lb
  • EAN: 9780801484711
  • Recommended age: 18-UP
  • Categories: Cultural & Ethnic Studies - American - African American & BlMinority StudiesAnthropology - Cultural & Social

About the Author

Mills, Charles W.: - Charles W. Mills is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is the author of Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race, also from Cornell, and From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism.

Praise for this book

A collection of eight engagingly written, erudite essays.... There are two major themes here: the first concerns the philosophical professoriate, which is predominately--and, the author contends, dominatingly--white; the second is whether or not race moderates philosophical consciousness. These are deep questions, and in dealing with them, Mills address a broad spectrum of issues: black-Jewish relations, gender (the progress of women vs. blacks), white supremacy, racism, genocide, jurisprudence, and much more. The thought of philosophers and others from ancient times to the present is given incisive analyses, as are epistemological, metaphysical, ethical, political, sociological, and literary considerations. The subject of this book is long overdue for airing. Highly recommended for a variety of pertinent academic and larger public library collections.

-- "Library Journal"

According to Mills... racism is not an aberration of an otherwise nearly ideal American democratic political system but is part of the political fabric, inherited from European imperialists. Mills examines emergent critical race theory and its movement beyond the political and sociological arena to the venerable territory of philosophy. Copiously researched and footnoted, it is an outstanding work that addresses one of the many racial issues of our times.

-- "Booklist"

The effort to make the reality of racism and black life visible is achieved-- with a great deal of thought-provoking ideas.

-- "Ethics"