Shannon Sullivan

Nancy Tuana

Offering a wide variety of philosophical approaches to the neglected philosophical problem of ignorance, this groundbreaking collection builds on Charles Mills's claim that racism involves an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance. Contributors, explore how different forms of ignorance linked to race are produced and sustained and what role they play in promoting racism and white privilege. They argue that the ignorance that underpins racism is not a simple gap in knowledge, the accidental result of an epistemological oversight. In the case of racial oppression, ignorance often is actively produced for purposes of domination and exploitation. But as these essays demonstrate, ignorance is not simply a tool of oppression wielded by the powerful. It can also be a strategy for survival, an important tool for people of color to wield against white privilege and white supremacy. The book concludes that understanding ignorance and the politics of such ignorance should be a key element of epistemological and social/political analyses, for it has the potential to reveal the role of power in the construction of what is known and provide a lens for the political values at work in knowledge practices. Book jacket.

Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance

Underscoring the continued relevance of Dewey's thought, Sullivan brings him into conversation with Continental philosophers - Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty - and feminist philosophers - Butler and Harding - to expand thinking about the body. Emphasizing topics such as the role of habit, the discursivity of bodies, communication and meaning, personal and cultural structures of gender, the improvement of bodily experience, and understandings of truth and objectivity, Living Across and Through Skins acknowledges the importance of the body's experience without placing it in opposition to psychological, cultural, and social aspects of human life.

Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism, and Feminism

Living Across and Through Skins

The Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism

Good White People

"[A] lucid discussion of race that does not sell out the black experience." -- Tommy Lott, author of The Invention of Race Revealing Whiteness explores how white privilege operates as an unseen, invisible, and unquestioned norm in society today. In this personal and selfsearching book, Shannon Sullivan interrogates her own whiteness and how being white has affected her. By looking closely at the subtleties of white domination, she issues a call for other white people to own up to their unspoken privilege and confront environments that condone or perpetuate it. Sullivan's theorizing about race and privilege draws on American pragmatism, psychology, race theory, and feminist thought. As it articulates a way to live beyond the barriers that white privilege has created, this book offers readers a clear and honest confrontation with a trenchant and vexing concern.

The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege

Revealing Whiteness

Argues for the necessity of a new ethos for middle-class white anti-racism. Building on her book Revealing Whiteness, Shannon Sullivan identifies a constellation of attitudes common among well-meaning white liberals that she sums up as “white middle-class goodness,” an orientation she critiques for being more concerned with establishing anti-racist bona fides than with confronting systematic racism and privilege. Sullivan untangles the complex relationships between class and race in contemporary white identity and outlines four ways this orientation is expressed, each serving to establish one’s lack of racism: the denigration of lower-class white people as responsible for ongoing white racism, the demonization of antebellum slaveholders, an emphasis on colorblindness—especially in the context of white childrearing—and the cultivation of attitudes of white guilt, shame, and betrayal. To move beyond these distancing strategies, Sullivan argues, white people need a new ethos that acknowledges and transforms their whiteness in the pursuit of racial justice rather than seeking a self-righteous distance from it.

Erin C. Tarver

Widely regarded as the father of American psychology, William James is by any measure a mammoth presence on the stage of pragmatist philosophy. But despite his indisputable influence on philosophical thinkers of all genders, men remain the movers and shakers in the Jamesian universe—while women exist primarily to support their endeavors and serve their needs. How could the philosophy of William James, a man devoted to Victorian ideals, be used to support feminism? Feminist Interpretations of William James lays out the elements of James’s philosophy that are particularly problematic for feminism, offers a novel feminist approach to James’s ethical philosophy, and takes up epistemic contestations in and with James’s pragmatism. The results are surprising. In short, James’s philosophy can prove useful for feminist efforts to challenge sexism and male privilege, in spite of James himself. In this latest installment of the Re-Reading the Canon series, contributors appeal to William James’s controversial texts not simply as an exercise in feminist critique but in the service of feminism. Along with the editors, the contributors are Jeremy Carrette, Lorraine Code, Megan Craig, Susan Dieleman, Jacob L. Goodson, Maurice Hamington, Erin McKenna, José Medina, and Charlene Haddock Seigfried.

Feminist Interpretations of William James

Emily Peck-McClain

Danyelle Trexler

J. Paige Boyer

Jen Tyler

Leading while female—whether in business, politics, the home, local communities, or the church—can be incredibly life-giving and spiritually fulfilling, yet lonely and difficult. “We Pray with Her” means supporting all the hers, both established and just starting up the ladder, who are leading the charge in today’s culture. It is a commitment to let them know that they are not alone, and that we are praying with along with them. In a world of glass ceilings, harassment, and “boy’s clubs,” women often encounter obstacles when they seek to forge ahead in their work to leave a positive mark through their labor, personal efforts, and causes. Women business leaders, political candidates, clergy, and trailblazers of all kinds need the support and encouragement of their fellow women. We are not intended to walk through life alone, and by raising each other up in prayer we will in-turn be inspired in our own efforts, grow in our faith, be understanding of shortfalls, and celebrate successes along with our fellow women. This inspiring devotional is a collection of 100 entries written by the women of WePrayWithHer, a grassroots movement turned online collective of women faith leaders, explores themes such as call, vocation, persistence, resistance, and struggle. Whether you’re a woman leader looking for personal inspiration, in a supportive role to a leader, an aspiring leader, or a woman who wants to support her sisters in Christ, you’ll find a home within these pages. Join the movement with your prayers, by mentoring, and through daily acts of solidarity with the women in your life and community. In these readings you’ll be emboldened to support one another as we strive to live the life to which God has called us.

Encouragement for All Women Who Lead

We Pray with Her

While gender and race often are considered socially constructed, this book argues that they are physiologically constituted through the biopsychosocial effects of sexism and racism. This means that to be fully successful, critical philosophy of race and feminist philosophy need to examine not only the financial, legal, political and other forms of racist and sexism oppression, but also their physiological operations. Examining a complex tangle of affects, emotions, knowledge, and privilege, The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression develops an understanding of the human body whose unconscious habits are biological. On this account, affect and emotion are thoroughly somatic, not something "mental" or extra-biological layered on top of the body. They also are interpersonal, social, and can be transactionally transmitted between people. Ranging from the stomach and the gut to the hips and the heart, from autoimmune diseases to epigenetic markers, Sullivan demonstrates the gastrointestinal effects of sexual abuse that disproportionately affect women, often manifesting as IBS, Crohn's disease, or similar functional disorders. She also explores the transgenerational effects of racism via epigenetic changes in African American women, who experience much higher pre-term birth rates than white women do, and she reveals the unjust benefits for heart health experienced by white people as a result of their racial privilege. Finally, developing the notion of a physiological therapy that doesn't prioritize bringing unconscious habits to conscious awareness, Sullivan closes with a double-barreled approach for both working for institutional change and transforming biologically unconscious habits. The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression skillfully combines feminist and critical philosophy of race with the biological and health sciences. The result is a critical physiology of race and gender that offers new strategies for fighting male and white privilege.

The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression

Kendra Leah Fuller

Jackson Hole Historical Society

The majestic beauty of Grand Teton National Park has moved people throughout time. Native Americans believed in the spiritual power of the towering mountain peaks and journeyed there to gain special powers. Early fur traders, who had just crossed less ominous mountain ranges, viewed with trepidation the massive obstacle that loomed before them on their passage to the Pacific Northwest. In others, the Tetons ignited vision and passion a vision to preserve for all generations to come and a passion to protect the independent way of life known by the first settlers of this western frontier. The formation of Grand Teton National Park spanned the course of nearly 70 years. Although there were many people who shared the struggle before them, it was not until Stephen Mather and Horace M. Albright took up the fight in 1915 that steps towards success were taken. Albright s tenacity and ability to convey his vision to philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. set in motion a very long journey that culminated with Pres. Harry S. Truman signing today s Grand Teton National Park into existence on September 13, 1950."

Grand Teton National Park

Some embrace the idea of white privilege as an important concept that helps us to make sense of the connection between race and social and political disadvantages, while others are critical or even hostile. Regardless of personal views, it can be difficult to agree on what 'white privilege' even means. Philosopher Shannon Sullivan cuts through the confusion and cross-talk to challenge what ‘everybody knows’ about white privilege. Using real-life examples, she offers a candid assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the term, to present a better understanding of how race functions in our societies. She argues that white privilege is about more than race, that not only white people can have white privilege, and that feeling guilty about privilege can have a negative effect on the very people you feel guilty towards. In the end, she offers practical solutions for eliminating white privilege and building a fairer society. Sullivan's forcefully argued book will inspire you to think again about white privilege and what it entails.

Shannon Sullivan

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