Not much to say this week.
That is a lie, there is a lot to say this week, but it should not be coming from me. It should not be coming from certain individuals we have been led to believe, or have convinced ourselves, will give us all the thoughts and answers that we will need to function in society and brave any development that may come our way.
There is a whole lot that needs to be read, watched, heard, and discussed, and it will all have to come down to us. Us meaning an individual reader, a classroom, a friend group, a family, a discord chat; a community. Community will be the remedy to 2020, a remedy to our lost discourse, our corrupt leaders and protectors, our tribal fears of the Other.
Protest or not, defund police or not, post on Instagram or not, this is not about any of that. We cannot escape the mirrors held up to all aspects of society any longer. In fact, we have moved most of our lives into the panoptical Culture of Narcissism (a la Christopher Lasch) and it is perhaps this very reality that is the source of our fear, and Community may very well be our only roadmap away from it. It seems to reason that we must rely upon our communication skills to facilitate the proliferation of Community as virus through society at large, and whether you want to listen to Dale Carnegie, Dr George Thompson, Angela Davis, Bruce Lee, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the list goes on, we all have a lot of learning to do, regardless of any feigned division that might be constructed between us.
Change requires action, action requires information, information requires data, data comes from listening, and listening is an action. That said, for the modest readership of this newsletter, below will be yet another list of resources, books, videos, what have you from as diverse of voices as possible that have paramount importance to 2020:
Towards a phenomenology of racial embodiment - older article, and some of the “Race theory today” section reads a bit off now, but the ideas of philosophically approaching race is a good a starting point as any to better understand the space being developed and occupied by Critical Race Theory today.
African-American Philosophy curated repository from PhilPapers - stemming from the philosophical bent from above, this list of readings, curated by University of Edinburgh’s Dr Tommy Curry, provides a wide range of sources of philosophical African American thought. Get to know PhilPapers a bit first (you will have to scroll down to see the list of readings) if you might wish to rely upon this works cited resource, the website has some powerful functionality that may not be self-evident. Their introduction page is as good a place as any to begin should you be interested.
History of Philosophy’s Africana Philosophy - for those who prefer the auditory education methods, King’s College London, Oxford University Press, and Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München have a wonderfully vast undertaking with their History of Philosophy without any gaps podcast series. This two-part episode in particular, with its included works cited, is a great way to start hearing some of the ideas mentioned above.
Injustice from Migrant Media - I have heard some criticism of this documentary saying that it is too partisan or one-sided in its nexus, but the stories it covers remain what they are: injustice for many across Britain. This is not quite Netflix’s 13th - and it does predate (as well as focus on an entirely different nation) than the ideas generated by the oft-quoted The New Jim Crow (which had a 10th anniversary update this year, prior to the protests) - but it sheds a light on some of the media coverage, narratives, and differences between the two for a different population of society that perhaps many could be unaware of.
The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin (audio here) - This is paramount to dozens of fields of study touching upon philosophy, politics, and societal structure. Many quote it, many more meme it, and far fewer read it. I am not here to preach its merits or refute every sentence in the book. But if you want to be exposed to bedrock-level foundations before really looking into the pros and cons of the Protest/Riot/Looting discussions, this work may as well be required reading - any voice of authority you may turn to for these discussions have certainly read it.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire - Again, oft-quoted but not fully read as often. Another foundational text for the studies of pedagogy and the ability to learn, the opening ideas of affirming one’s identity as human, it is easy to see how these fundamental questions are also at the heart of what we are witnessing today. This is more philosophical, and I have read a fair amount of criticism on the translation into English (originally written in Brazillian Portuguese two years before the 1970 English translation) it is far from unreadable.
The End of Policing by Alex Vitale - Easily the most political work here, I am mostly adding it because of Verso Press’ decision to allow the ebook to be free in response to the calls to defund police and the questioning of police authority/brutality. Subscribe to either ACAB or Thin Blue Line mindsets, philosophically we as a society should be more than ready to question and redefine what the position of an officer of the law is to be. I am still looking more, personally, into understanding what a proposed society without police forces as we know them currently looks like, so I will not comment much upon that, but it is a discussion that seems to have a lot of momentum, and we should be looking at both sides of the argument regarding it. Remember: this is just one side of it, I am still seeking more to add from the other side.
Remember, you should be able to express your opinions and questions - that is what a lot of these protests are about. I wish not to hear about Closet Conservatives saying that they cannot express their opinions because of “rabid SJWs shutting them down” or of Radical Progressives feeling they need to block family members because of their different views of Black Lives Matter or something similar - formulate your opinions, and truly listen to one another. Yes, it is action and takes effort to think and speak for yourself, but you do not have to take a gas canister to the lung or a rubber bullet to the leg to do it. At least not yet.
Feel free to share this modest list if you are so moved and feel free to message me with any and all criticisms. If you believe I missed something, quoted a low-quality source, or simply do not agree with a certain claim, let me know. I am here to listen and learn, and it is harder to do that with just my own voice.
Stay safe out there.