Achieving Our Humanity Through This Class (mic drop?)

Working with Emmanuel Eze's book was a very unique experience- both in terms of the expectations I had going into the text and in their contrast to the actual content of the book. Achieving Our Humanity was not terribly difficult to read, although it was difficult to understand at first what exactly Eze was trying to accomplish. Initially, I believed that Patrick, Michael, and I were going to embark on a long-winded hypothetical description of a "world without race," or at least some argument leading to a situation were that world might be possible. As it turned out, what Eze was getting after was a discussion about a postracial philosophy. This goal, at least to me, implies that the current state of philosophy is not only racialized, but racist. That may seem like a strong claim, but after reading the first half of Eze's book (which is a description of the creation and cementing of "race" by the most historically important philosophers) it becomes obvious that the author has a specific agenda in mind- one that involves a complete overhaul of the way the history of philosophy is taught and seen by the world.

Once I finished Achieving Our Humanity, I was able to take a step back and look at Eze's argument as a whole. What struck me from his conclusion that a postracial philosophy is possible only through the implementation of an "open-textured racial history" was the idea that Eze would have approved and promoted our class and Dr. J's selected curriculum for this year. What we have done has been so helpful to me personally, not just on the surface- in terms of a widening of my knowledge of history and philosophical theory regarding race, but in a much deeper and more profound way. I brought up in class how our "open-textured" discussion of historical texts led us to an "open-textured" discussion about the world around us- I was speaking about the class period that we spent discussing white privilege at Rhodes; namely, listing out instance after instance of day to day activities in which white students have an advantage over their peers. This is a conversation that Dr. J said simply wouldn't have been possible 15 years ago.

Our class has fundamentally changed the way I perceive the world around me. I can honestly say that this is the first time that this has happened (at least to this degree) for me in a class at Rhodes. This has manifested itself in a few ways. First, I am more aware of the magnitude at which race and racial thought plays into our day to day lives. Second, I understand infinitely more about the origin of that thought. Third, and perhaps most important and startling for me, is that I have begun to understand the foundation of my own race-related thought- for everything from a racist joke playing out and perpetuating a fundamental cultural misunderstanding to an increased awareness of some of the things that have happened to my girlfriend (who is black) and I over the past two years in Houston.

Reading Achieving Our Humanity was the ideal way to end the semester. It refreshed my memory of a lot of material that we learned in class and it provided a tangible reason for why the class itself is so important. It was not until reading Eze's work that I could specifically outline (as I did in the previous paragraph) how this class has changed me. When it comes time to bubble in the obligatory questionnaire about our experience in Philosophy of Race, I won't be lying when I give it the scores it deserves.