“What Can I Do to Prevent or Diminish The Effect of the White Gaze That I Possess?”
One of my students asked me that question today
On the one hand, I was thrilled by the question, as a young student is thinking about this issue and wanting to learn more about it. On the other hand, I was trepidatious about answering it; who am I to say how to do this?
Black Skin, White Masks, White Gazes
In my Introduction to Philosophy courses, I used the philosophy textbook that I wrote. The textbooks offered by big corporate publishers leave out too much, like the philosophy of race and racism.
We discuss W.E.B. DuBois, Alain LeRoy Locke, Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, James Baldwin, and current philosophers who deal with issues of race and racism. I feel strongly that this unit, along with a unit on feminist philosophy, is necessary for an Introduction to Philosophy course.
This term, one student resonated with the concept of the “white gaze” that philosophers have identified. That gaze is when white people objectify Black people — not seeing Blacks as people and feeling discomfited by the “alien” presence of the Black person. In the presence of white people, Black people have to move, act, and speak differently, according to the…
