As a philosopher I have to say this:

Western philosophy is not the only philosophical tradition.

So much of our graduate studies is centered around knowing the Greek and European traditions. It's solipsistic, and it's disgusting.

An example: I was in grad school, and I wrote a paper on Heidegger's analysis of the tool in relation to slavery. I was told--in no uncertain terms--that what I was doing "wasn't philosophy," but instead sociology. I got the only B+ in my doctoral studies from that paper.

I write this because so much of how we train our students is centered on knowing the canon, the "classics." And yet, no one takes seriously the fact that Douglass analyzed power, or that Anna Julia Cooper wrote on ethics. We have to know Foucault, though!

And I'm not shitting on Foucault. He's important. Very much so. But we don't even consider that, maybe, Saidiya Hartman's reflections on slavery and subjection are just as powerful. We read De Beauvoir, but not Angela Davis. they don't show up on comp exams. It's such bullshit.

And it's also why I feel alienated. Very few of my colleagues have even read the ppl I read. No Lewis Gordon, no Naomi Zack or Lucius Outlaw. No Linda Martin Alcoff--hell, not even Judith Butler (unless you do "gender" and "sexuality"). It's like we don't exist. (which we don't.)

And in philosophy of religion, its even worse. We know Marion and Henry. We know Ricoeur and Jean-Luc Nancy. But William Jones? Nah, fam. Katie Cannon (who criticized the shit out of virtue and duty ethics)? Nah, that's just "womanism." Victor Anderson? nope.

This isn't an argument for inclusion so much as it is an outright condemnation of the hypocrisy of philosophical discourses and the professors who continue to move in this way. No wonder our institutions are unwilling to do anything of substance.

The very faculty who populate these institutions don't even READ us. But they'll be quick to quietly thank us for our service, though. somehow, I know your shit, but you don't know mine and don't want to know it. #blackintheivory is a thing. And it's so nasty and pernicious.