The HCSPiP Presents, a Public Talk by

Prof. George Yancy, Emory University

A Letter of Love: And the Return of White Backlash

Wednesday, July 3, 2019, 4:10pm

The Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building

In this talk I will explore what it means to deploy love in the process of critically engaging whiteness. Love will be discussed as  a site of vulnerability, courageous listening, and the capacity to be what I call un-suturing. I will then explore some of the graphic white racist vitriol that I received as a result of asking white America to face its whiteness/racism.  I explore this hatred as a response grounded partly in the arrogance of whiteness and its failure to tarry with the fact that the "innocence" of whiteness no longer exists. I will conclude with a brief discussion about what it involves for whiteness to be in crisis, which I argue is a positive way of beginning to undo whiteness.       

Dr. George Yancy is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University. He received his BA in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh (with honors). His first MA in philosophy is from Yale University, and he obtained his second MA from New York University in Africana Studies, where he received the distinguished Henry M. MacCracken Fellowship.   He received his PhD from Duquesne University (with distinction) and was the first graduate student to receive the McAnulty Fellowship in the Department of Philosophy. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of over 20 books. Three of his books were named CHOICE Outstanding Academic Books. His book, Black Bodies, White Gazes received an Honorable  Mention from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. His co-edited book, Our Black Sons Matter was listed by Booklist as a Top Ten Diverse Nonfiction Book.  He is known for his influential essays and interviews in The New York Times' philosophy Column, The Stone. He has twice won the American Philosophical Committee on Public Philosophy's Op-Ed Contest. Yancy's three most recent books are his edited book, Educating Toward Critical Consciousness (2019);  his co-edited book, Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections (2019); and his authored book, Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America (2018). Regarding Backlash, Noam Chomsky writes, “George Yancy’s courageous appeal to White America “to confront the problem of whiteness; to cultivate a critical awareness of the specter of whiteness and white privilege that each one of you inherits” elicited a remarkable range of responses, some hideous beyond words, some welcoming what he rightly called a “gift.” This eloquent meditation on the events and their meaning calls on us, with piercing honesty, to think hard, and work hard, to excise the malignancy of white supremacy from our culture and our lives.” Yancy is currently at work on two authored books that are under contract: Thinking Across Black Spaces and Breaking the Silence: What Happens When Men Honestly Talking about Their Sexism.