Blackness Visible : Essays on Philosophy and Race /

In this tightly interwoven collection of essays Mills (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) develops his version of a critical race theory, maintaining that race is not real in the sense that biological categories lack scientific validity, although it is real in that these categories are used to discriminate. Relying on a profusely referenced survey of postcolonial literature, he strategically uses race to understand mainstream political theory, in a manner similar to feminists' use of gender and patriarchy to challenge hegemonic and alternative belief systems. He proposes the term "white supremacy" instead of racism to characterize the European global domination of nonwhites since the 16th century and insists that racial biases in the philosophy of central figures are not marginal to their political theories. In several chapters he discusses Kant's "Herrenvolk ethics." A Kantian framework of respect for persons is used to discuss black-Jewish relations. After presenting similarities and differences that indicate the different locations of blacks and Jews in the racial system, Mills explains black-Jewish conflict as a clash of "narratives of identity and oppression"--two groups of subpersons vying for respect. An excellent companion text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in political philosophy. T. L. Lott San Jose State University

Mills, a philosophy professor, takes his profession to task for its silence on race even while it expounds on ethics. He skewers esteemed philosophers, including Immanuel Kant and John Locke, whose biased views so informed their work that they could exhort the sanctity of individual rights, taking as a given that nonwhites (nonpersons) were never intended to be covered by such rights. The upshot has been the seeming contradiction of a nation with a philosophical base founded on individual rights that nonetheless has a history of brutal treatment of nonwhites. There is no contradiction, 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, this is tough going for the uninitiated but an outstanding work that addresses one of the many racial issues of our times. (Reviewed April 1, 1998)080143467XVanessa Bush

The title of this collection of eight engagingly written, erudite essays by an African American professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois is a take-off on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, in which Ellison graphically portrayed the American black person as systematically obliterated from society's consciousness. 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 addresses 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.‘Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.