This study seeks to examine the life and work of Charles Hamilton Houston and the scope of this project will focus on the implementation and organization of the proposed plan in three ways: philosophical ideas, constructive engagement, and lasting contributions of this legal scholar activist. When compiling scholarly articles for this volume, the challenge was examining not just legal precedents of Houston, but his contributions to the study of civic engagement, with emphasis on privilege, racism, disparity, and educational philosophy.

Philosophy in Multiple Voices invites transactional dialogue, critical imagination, and the desire to travel to enter those discursive spaces where the love of wisdom gets inflected through both lived embodiment and situational history. The text raises significant meta-philosophical questions around the issue of who constitutes the "philosophical we" through a delineation and valorization of multiple philosophical voices-African-American, Afro-Caribbean, Asian-American, Feminist, Latin-American, Lesbian, Native-American and Queer-that set forth complex concerns around canon formation, the relationship between philosophical discursive configurations and issues of gendered, sexed, racial and ethnic identities, the dynamic of shifting philosophical historical trajectories, differential philosophical visions, sensibilities, and philosophical praxes that are still largely underrepresented within the institutional confines of "mainstream" philosophy. The text encourages philosophical heterogeneity as a value that ought to be nurtured.

Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge collects key philosophical writings of Lewis R. Gordon, a globally renowned scholar whose writings cover liberation struggles across the globe and make field-defining contributions to the philosophy of existence, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, philosophy of human sciences, aesthetics, and decolonization. Gordon’s expansive output ranges across phenomenology, anti-Blackness, activist thinkers, sexuality, Fanon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Jewish struggles, critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis, and Ubuntu philosophy. Edited by Rozena Maart and Sayan Dey, two decolonial thinkers from South Africa and India, this reader shifts attention away from colonial centres of power, encouraging global dialogue across students, scholars, and activists. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated novelist and postcolonial thinker, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this reader includes a mixture of research articles, short critical essays, reflections, interviews, poems, and photographs in the creative pursuit of liberation.

Fanon and the Decolonization of Philosophy explores the range of ways in which Frantz Fanon's decolonization theory can reveal new answers to perennial philosophical questions and new paths to social justice. The aim is to show not just that Fanon's thought remains philosophically relevant, but that it is relevant to an even wider range of philosophical issues than has previously been realized. The essays in this book are written by both renowned Fanon scholars and new scholars who are emerging as experts in aspects of Fanonian thought as diverse as humanistic psychiatry, the colonial roots of racial violence and marginalization, and decolonizing possibilities in law, academia, and tourism. In addition to examining philosophical concerns that arise from political decolonization movements, many of the essays turn to the discipline of philosophy itself and take up the challenge of suggesting ways that philosophy might liberate itself from colonial and colonizing assumptions. This collection will be useful to those interested in political theory, feminist theory, existentialism, phenomenology, Africana studies, and Caribbean philosophy. Its Fanon-inspired vision of social justice is endorsed in the foreword by his daughter, Mireille Fanon-Mendes France, a noted human rights defender in the French-speaking world."

This is an innovative work in Africana philosophical thought that links the phenomenon of nihilism in black America, in particular black American youth, to modern traditions of Western philosophy. Black Nihilism and Antiblack Racism engages defining themes of black existential life by offering a framework for considering the relationships between antiblack racism, pessimism, nihilism, weakness, strength, maturity, freedom, and hope in the 21st century. This book readdresses themes popularly raised by Cornel West in 1994 regarding the nature, causes, evaluations, diagnoses, and prognoses of what has been called, "nihilism in black America." Black Nihilism and Antiblack Racism seeks to recontextualize discussions of nihilism and its possibilities for American cultural life. As a result, this book bears important questions, offers unique analyses, and suggests radical responses that are relevant for studies of black life and theories of justice in twenty-first century America.

Women of color remain arguably the most economically, politically, and socially marginalized group in the United States and the Third World. In Spoils of War, a diverse group of distinguished contributors suggest that acts of aggression resulting from the racism and sexism inherent in social institutions can be viewed as a sort of 'war, ' experienced daily by women of color.

For the past 30 years, Paget Henry has been one of the most articulate and creative voices in Caribbean scholarship, making seminal contributions to the study of Caribbean political economy, C.L.R. James studies, critical theory, phenomenology, and Africana philosophy. In the case of Afro-Caribbean philosophy, he inaugurated a new philosophical school of inquiry. Journeys in Caribbean Thought: The Paget Henry Reader outlines the trajectory of Henry's scholarly career, beginning and ending with his most recent work on the distinctive character of Africana and Caribbean philosophy and political and intellectual leadership in his home of Antigua and Barbuda. In between, the book returns to Henry's early consideration of the relationship of political economy to cultural flourishing or stagnation and how both should be studied, and to the problem with which Henry began his career, of peripheral development through a focus on Caribbean political economy and democratic socialism. Henry's canonical work in Anglo-Caribbean thought draws upon a heavily creolized canon.

For the past 30 years, Paget Henry has been one of the most articulate and creative voices in Caribbean scholarship, making seminal contributions to the study of Caribbean political economy, C.L.R. James studies, critical theory, phenomenology, and Africana philosophy. In the case of Afro-Caribbean philosophy, he inaugurated a new philosophical school of inquiry. Journeys in Caribbean Thought: The Paget Henry Reader outlines the trajectory of Henry's scholarly career, beginning and ending with his most recent work on the distinctive character of Africana and Caribbean philosophy and political and intellectual leadership in his home of Antigua and Barbuda. In between, the book returns to Henry's early consideration of the relationship of political economy to cultural flourishing or stagnation and how both should be studied, and to the problem with which Henry began his career, of peripheral development through a focus on Caribbean political economy and democratic socialism. Henry's canonical work in Anglo-Caribbean thought draws upon a heavily creolized canon.

Cities' transportation systems affect people, ecosystems, and future generations, and they increase tensions between historical preservation, social justice concerns, and future needs. In turn, all of these factors deserve consideration, but not equally. A just and moral way forward must prioritize values in how we give preference in planning decisions. Shane Epting illustrates that the problem of "moral prioritization" rests at the heart of these problems. To overcome such challenges, he develops a multi-tiered assessment system that shows how to evaluate complicated affairs in urban mobility. This book brings philosophical underpinnings of public works into full view, showing how the love of wisdom benefits the ongoing and future transportation issues of our increasingly urbanized world.

In this book, philosopher and social critic Lewis Gordon explores the ossification of disciplines, which he calls "disciplinary decadence." In response, he offers a theory of what he calls a "teleological suspension of disciplinarity," in which he encourages scholars and lay intellectuals to pay attention to the openness of ideas and purposes on which their disciplines were born. Gordon builds his case through discussions of philosophy of education, problems of secularization in religious thought, obligations across generations, notions of invention in the study of ideas, decadence in development, colonial epistemologies, and the quest for a genuine postcolonial language. These topics are examined with the underlying diagnosis of the present political and academic environment as one in which it is indecent to think.

Not Only the Master's Tools: African American Studies in Theory and Practice brings together new essays on the ongoing value of black thought. In the service of what the editors call epistemological decolonization of African American studies, the first part examines the grounding of theoretical reason from various perspectives such as Africana philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and black literary theory. The second part offers theoretical explorations of practical reason as it unfolds in the study of slavery, education, queerness, politics, and ethics. Responding to Audre Lorde's famous dictum that "The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house," the editors and these internationally renowned scholars ask: "Why not instead devote attention to using those and other tools to build new, more open houses?"Important for anyone interested in the ongoing importance of ideas, the book is well suited for students and scholars of Africana studies, philosophy, literary theory, educational theory, social and political thought, and postcolonial studies.

This book offers a theory of disaster in modern and contemporary society and its impact on the construction of social and political life. The theory is premised upon what the authors call "the sign continuum," where disaster spreads across society through efforts to evade social responsibility for its causes and consequences. Phenomena generated by such efforts include the social manifestation of monstrosity (disastrous people and other forms of living things) and an emerging antipolitics in an effort to assert rule and order. A crucial development is the attack on speech, a fundamental feature of political life, as manifested by the increased expectations of categories of people whose containment calls for shunning and silence.

This book offers a theory of disaster in modern and contemporary society and its impact on the construction of social and political life. The theory is premised upon what the authors call "the sign continuum," where disaster spreads across society through efforts to evade social responsibility for its causes and consequences. Phenomena generated by such efforts include the social manifestation of monstrosity (disastrous people and other forms of living things) and an emerging antipolitics in an effort to assert rule and order. A crucial development is the attack on speech, a fundamental feature of political life, as manifested by the increased expectations of categories of people whose containment calls for shunning and silence. The book closes with an exploration of the significance of the mythic motif of eliminating monsters before dawn and its collapse in nihilistic times, where such conflicts now continue beyond dawn.

Gathering researchers from or towards Global South epistemologies, this book enriches the debate on crucial questions for liberation in the South and the improvement of South relations. It argues that coloniality and colonialism are not outdated phenomena of the historical past, but contemporary marks that remain repressed. The dominance of Eurocentric paradigm in the social sciences explains the long-lasting detachment between thinkers and politicians from the Global South, which have been historically presented according to their respective relations with the West (Europe and North America). The dialogue on common problems and challenges to people and societies in the South, largely derived from their colonial past and condition, is still sparing. This book actively promotes and demonstrates the value of intercultural dialogue and debate amongst voices from within the Global South on issues to do with decoloniality, cultural rights, law and politics.

The intellectual history of the last quarter of the 20th century has been marked by the growing influence of Africana thought - an area of philosophy that focuses on issues raised by the struggle over ideas in African cultures and their hybrid forms in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. This book presents an introduction to the field of Africana philosophy and aims to help define this rapidly growing field. Lewis R. Gordon introduces and discusses Africana existential thought for a general audience, covering a range of both classic and contemporary thinkers - from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois to Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis and Naomi Zack.

Antiblack racism avows reason is white while emotion, and thus supposedly unreason, is black. Challenging academic adherence to this notion, Lewis R. Gordon offers a portrait of Martinican-turned-Algerian revolutionary psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon as an exemplar of "living thought" against forms of reason marked by colonialism and racism. Working from his own translations of the original French texts, Gordon critically engages everything in Fanon from dialectics, ethics, existentialism, and humanism to philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and political theory as well as psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Gordon takes into account scholars from across the Global South to address controversies around Fanon's writings on gender and sexuality as well as political violence and the social underclass. In doing so, he confronts the replication of a colonial and racist geography of reason, allowing theorists from the Global South to emerge as interlocutors alongside northern ones in a move that exemplifies what, Gordon argues, Fanon represented in his plea to establish newer and healthier human relationships beyond colonial paradigms.

Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge collects key philosophical writings of Lewis R. Gordon, a globally renowned scholar whose writings cover liberation struggles across the globe and make field-defining contributions to the philosophy of existence, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, philosophy of human sciences, aesthetics, and decolonization. Gordon’s expansive output ranges across phenomenology, anti-Blackness, activist thinkers, sexuality, Fanon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Jewish struggles, critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis, and Ubuntu philosophy. Edited by Rozena Maart and Sayan Dey, two decolonial thinkers from South Africa and India, this reader shifts attention away from colonial centres of power, encouraging global dialogue across students, scholars, and activists. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated novelist and postcolonial thinker, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this reader includes a mixture of research articles, short critical essays, reflections, interviews, poems, and photographs in the creative pursuit of liberation.

Antiblack racism avows reason is white while emotion, and thus supposedly unreason, is black. Challenging academic adherence to this notion, Lewis R. Gordon offers a portrait of Martinican-turned-Algerian revolutionary psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon as an exemplar of "living thought" against forms of reason marked by colonialism and racism. Working from his own translations of the original French texts, Gordon critically engages everything in Fanon from dialectics, ethics, existentialism, and humanism to philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and political theory as well as psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Gordon takes into account scholars from across the Global South to address controversies around Fanon's writings on gender and sexuality as well as political violence and the social underclass. In doing so, he confronts the replication of a colonial and racist geography of reason, allowing theorists from the Global South to emerge as interlocutors alongside northern ones in a move that exemplifies what, Gordon argues, Fanon represented in his plea to establish newer and healthier human relationships beyond colonial paradigms.

In this book, philosopher and social critic Lewis Gordon explores the ossification of disciplines, which he calls "disciplinary decadence." In response, he offers a theory of what he calls a "teleological suspension of disciplinarity," in which he encourages scholars and lay intellectuals to pay attention to the openness of ideas and purposes on which their disciplines were born. Gordon builds his case through discussions of philosophy of education, problems of secularization in religious thought, obligations across generations, notions of invention in the study of ideas, decadence in development, colonial epistemologies, and the quest for a genuine postcolonial language. These topics are examined with the underlying diagnosis of the present political and academic environment as one in which it is indecent to think.

Not Only the Master's Tools: African American Studies in Theory and Practice brings together new essays on the ongoing value of black thought. Important for anyone interested in the ongoing importance of ideas, the book is well suited for students and scholars of Africana studies, philosophy, literary theory, educational theory, social and political thought, and postcolonial studies.

The intellectual history of the last quarter of this century has been marked by the growing influence of Africana thought - an area of philosophy that focuses on issues raised by the struggle over ideas in African cultures and their hybrid forms in Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean.
Existentia Africana is an engaging and highly- readable introduction to the field of Africana philosophy and will help to define this rapidly growing field. Lewis R. Gordon introduces and discusses Africana existential thought for a general audience, covering a wide range of both classic and contemporary thinkers - from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois to Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis and Naomi Zack.

Gathering researchers from or towards Global South epistemologies, this book enriches the debate on crucial questions for liberation in the South and the improvement of South relations. It argues that coloniality and colonialism are not outdated phenomena of the historical past, but contemporary marks that remain repressed. The dominance of Eurocentric paradigm in the social sciences explains the long-lasting detachment between thinkers and politicians from the Global South, which have been historically presented according to their respective relations with the West (Europe and North America). The dialogue on common problems and challenges to people and societies in the South, largely derived from their colonial past and condition, is still sparing. This book actively promotes and demonstrates the value of intercultural dialogue and debate amongst voices from within the Global South on issues to do with decoloniality, cultural rights, law and politics.

Antiblack racism avows reason is white while emotion, and thus supposedly unreason, is black. Challenging academic adherence to this notion, Lewis R. Gordon offers a portrait of Martinican-turned-Algerian revolutionary psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon as an exemplar of “living thought” against forms of reason marked by colonialism and racism. Working from his own translations of the original French texts, Gordon critically engages everything in Fanon from dialectics, ethics, existentialism, and humanism to philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and political theory as well as psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Gordon takes into account scholars from across the Global South to address controversies around Fanon’s writings on gender and sexuality as well as political violence and the social underclass. In doing so, he confronts the replication of a colonial and racist geography of reason, allowing theorists from the Global South to emerge as interlocutors alongside northern ones in a move that exemplifies what, Gordon argues, Fanon represented in his plea to establish newer and healthier human relationships beyond colonial paradigms.

A pillar of African American literature, Richard Wright is one of the most celebrated and controversial authors in American history. His work championed intellectual freedom amid social and political chaos. Despite the popular and critical success of books such as Uncle Tom's Children (1938), Black Boy (1945), and Native Son (1941), Wright faced staunch criticism and even censorship throughout his career for the graphic sexuality, intense violence, and communist themes in his work. Yet, many political theorists have ignored his radical ideas. In The Politics of Richard Wright, an interdisciplinary group of scholars embraces the controversies surrounding Wright as a public intellectual and author. Several contributors explore how the writer mixed fact and fiction to capture the empirical and emotional reality of living as a black person in a racist world. Others examine the role of gender in Wright's canonical and lesser-known writing and the implications of black male vulnerability. They also discuss the topics of black subjectivity, internationalism and diaspora, and the legacy of and responses to slavery in America. Wright's contributions to American political thought remain vital and relevant today. The Politics of Richard Wright is an indispensable resource for students of American literature, culture, and politics who strive to interpret this influential writer's life and legacy.