Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race

📘 Book Details

• Author: Charles W. Mills

• Publisher: Cornell University Press

• Language: English

• Edition: 1

• ISBN: 9780801484711

• Pages: 244

• Cover: Paperback

• Release Date: 01-04-1998

• Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.0 x 0.9 inches

• Illustrations: 3 diagrams

📝 About The Book

The Racial Contract by Charles W. Mills challenges the traditional, Eurocentric narrative of Western philosophy by making race visible within philosophical discourse. Mills explores the black experience and exposes the centrality of race in the recent history of the West, a topic often marginalized or ignored in mainstream philosophical thought.

Using Ralph Ellison’s metaphor of black invisibility, Mills critiques the whiteness of philosophy and how racial domination is largely absent in the traditional narratives of philosophy. He delves into the ontological and metaphysical aspects of race, showing how racial identity has been historically constructed through expropriation, settlement, slavery, and colonialism.

Through insightful essays, Mills examines a variety of topics, including standpoint epistemology, the metaphysics of racial identity, black-Jewish relations, racial conspiracy theories, and more. His work is a revolutionary take on the philosophy of race, offering new theoretical perspectives that challenge conventional wisdom and encourage deeper engagement with racial justice.

The Racial Contract is a must-read for those interested in social justice, critical race theory, and the intersections of race and philosophy.