Into the Fire: The Intersection of Race and Communication

Through the presentation of various perspectives, this collection of essays addresses some of the intersections of race and communication. The topics addressed include, but are not limited to, how we communicate about race, what our race communicates to others, how we can do a better job of educating others on race-related issues, and how we can better define certain terms often utilized in conversations about race. The perspectives shared in this volume contribute much-needed depth to the discussion of the philosophical and practical considerations of race and communication, broadly.

Introduction: Restoring Our Humanity
Eddy Souffrant
Africana Studies Department
Chapter 1
The Semantic Foundations of White Fragility and the Consequences for Justice
Jennifer Kling
University of Colorado
Leland Harper
Siena Heights University
Chapter 2
Putting Whiteness First? Why Reparations Discourse Needs a Critique of White Advantage
Joseph Frigault
Claremont McKenna College
Chapter 3
Whitesplaining and Racesplaining: A Philosophical Account
Felipe E. Oliveira
Syracuse University
Chapter 4
A More Pernicious Form of Blackwashing: The Intersection of Black Lives Matter and Capitalism
Casey Rentmeester
Bellin College in Green Bay, WI
Chapter 5
“The Revised School Code”: Educational Standards and Communicating About Race in the United States
Elizabeth LaFray
Siena Heights University
Chapter 6
Building Systems Resilient to Biased Epistemic Agents
Violet Victoria
Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College
Chapter 7
You Aren’t Really Black, You Aren’t Really White: Racial Denials and Epistemic Injustice in the Black-White Multiracial Community
Erica Preston-Roedder
Occidental College
Chapter 8
Revisiting the Case of Jimmy the Greek in the George Floyd Era: Sports, Racism, Media and Freedom of Speech
Gabriel Andrade
Ajman University
About the Authors
Index

Leland Harper received a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK) and is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at Siena Heights University. His areas of research include philosophy of religion, particularly issues in the epistemic status of religious experience, and philosophy of race, particularly issues in racism, racial solidarity and injustice. He is co-author (with Jennifer Kling) of ‘Racist, Not Racist, Antiracist: Language and the Dynamic Disaster of American Racism’ (Lexington, 2022), the author of ‘Multiverse Deism: Shifting Perspectives of God and the World’ (Lexington, 2020), as well as articles in ‘Res Philosophica, Forum Philosophicum, Global Discourse’, and ‘The International Journal of Philosophy and Theology’. He is also the editor of ‘The Crisis of American Democracy: Essays on a Failing Institution’ (Vernon, 2022) and the series editor of the Philosophy of Race series at Vernon Press. Dr. Harper’s work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Carnegie Mellon Foundation, and the Heller Center for Arts and Humanities. He is the organizer of the Great Lakes Philosophy Conference, an annual international interdisciplinary conference, and the founder of Leland Harper Consulting, a Toronto-based consulting firm specializing in diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism.

Race; communication; critical race, education, justice; racism; commentary; language; semantics; George Floyd; America