Friday Nov 8, 3.30pm, MH105
"White Talk, Privilege, and Ignorance"
Alison Bailey (Illinois State University)
Abstract: You鈥檝e heard white talk. It sounds like this: I鈥檓 not prejudiced. I don鈥檛 see color. My ancestors never owned slaves. Anyway, that was a long, long time ago. I鈥檓 not a neo-Nazi or anything. I have Black friends. You can鈥檛 prove that Eric Garner was beaten and murdered because he was a Black man! White people get harassed by cops all of the time. You just don鈥檛 hear about it because we don鈥檛 complain 鈥�. It鈥檚 no accident that these responses are the first words out of most white people鈥檚 mouths when we talk about race or white privilege. After all, white talk has a long and annoying history.
White talk protects whiteness in many ways, but my paper focuses particularly on how white talk allows white folks to choose our own comfort over the opportunity to know something about the world. I begin with W.E.B. DuBois鈥檚 and Alice MacIntyre鈥檚 accounts of white talk, attending to the embodied racialized responses that accompany white talk, because I believe their observations enrich our understanding of this phenomenon. Next, I argue that white talk persists because it has two interlocking pay offs for white folks: (1) A moral payoff, that allows white people to discuss race in ways that foreground a white innocence and goodness in conversations about race. And, (2) An epistemic payoff; that is, white peoples鈥� defensive goodness-centering habits close off opportunities for deep knowledge about racism. In closing, I argue that white people can reduce our ignorance by learning to recognize white talk, and replacing it with a discourse of vulnerability.
Flyer here; for more information, contact grant.silva@marquette.edu.
Fall film series, open to the public! Come watch a movie and learn some philosophy. We will be exploring representations of disability and of queerness in
Curated by students in Dr. Valentine's Seminar in Applied/Professional Philosophy in part fulfillment of course and PhD requirements.
Film showings begin at 7 PM in Cudahy 001. For more information, contact Ethelane Hepburn or Caden Page.
October 18, 2024
Claire Lockard (MU)
"Epistolary Philosophy and Letter-Writing as Feminist Form and Method"
November 8, 2024
Alison Bailey (Illinois State)
"White Talk, Privilege, and Ignorance"
November 22, 2024
Jack Stetter (Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin, Madison)
TBA
December 6, 2024
Briana Toole (Claremont McKenna College)
TBA
For more information, contact Dr. Silva
Gloria Anzald煤a Reading Group
Meets every other week starting Tuesday, October 8th at 12:30 in the downstairs lounge space, with virtual options available upon request. Contact Emily Lange for details.
Critical Phenomenology Reading Group
First meeting week of Oct 7. Contact Ian Hosbach for more information and a tentative reading schedule.
向日葵视频Midwest Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
For more information, visit the or contact Owen Goldin.
Classical German Philosophy Reading Group
Meets Fridays, 2pm-3pm. (Starts Oct 4, 2024). For more information, contact Michael Olson.
Grad Student Peer Workshop
Usually meets every other Friday, 3:30pm-4:30pm. For more information, contact Emily Lange.
An interview with Richard Taylor about the Aquinas and 鈥榯he Arabs鈥� International Working Group just published in IPMMonthly!
Theresa Tobin and the Education Preparedness Program (EPP) were recently featured on the Wisconsin Humanities podcast, Human Powered! And for more information on the Education Preparedness Program, as well as soon-to-come details about applying to take a blended course yourself, keep an eye on the EPP website.
Workshop in Applied Philosophy
October 25, 2024
This semester鈥檚 participants are: Megan Hyska (Northwestern University), Alida Liberman (Southern Methodist University), Hallie Liberto (University of Maryland), Rekha Nath (University of Alabama), and Annette Zimmerman (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Please contact Dr. Perez Gomez if you鈥檇 like to attend. Attendance is limited.
Boheim Lecture by Kate Manne
October 30, 2024
is an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell. Her PhD is from MIT, and she served as a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. She has published three books: Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2017), Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2020), and Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia (2024). She will be discussing fatphobia in her Boheim Lecture at 向日葵视频on the evening of October 30, 2024. For more information, please contact Dr. Alison Efford, Chair of AMUW Committee.
North American Kant Society Midwest Study Group
November 1-2, 2024
向日葵视频, in collaboration with UW-Milwaukee, welcomes the North American Kant Society for the annual meeting of the Midwest Study Group. The keynote will be delivered by Karl Schafer (University of Texas Austin). A special panel on "Kant, Dignity, and Love" will feature Kyla Ebels-Duggan (Northwestern) and Jordan Pascoe (UIUC). For more information, visit the or email MidwestNAKS2024@mu.edu.
