On Monday, September 18th the Philosophy Department at McGill hosted philosopher George Yancy to do a talk titled “The Spectacular and Subtle Violence of Whiteness.” The event was open to students and faculty in the philosophy department as well as anyone taking philosophy classes. A mix of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students attended the event, filling up the room with about seventy-five people.
Yancy is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy at Emory University and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College. He primarily studies critical philosophy of race, studies of Whiteness, critical phenomenology, and the philosophy of the Black experience.
In his talk, Yancy discussed his experience as a Black man fearing police violence and being an object of fear to White people. He described how society and individuals view the Black body itself as a weapon, providing the example of hearing the “click” of people locking their cars when they saw him as a manifestation of White violence. In this act of locking their car, these people were, as Yancy described, performing Whiteness as in need of protection from Blackness. Further, he explained that while White people are often described as performing crimes, Black people are criminals.
He also discussed the role of White people in perpetuating anti-Blackness and the role they must play in dismantling it. He discussed the subtle manifestations of White violence in everyday life, such as the white gaze, which ascribes meaning to Blackness, and the way in which White hegemony constructs the white view as the only “real” view. He shared that it will take courageous listening and vulnerability for white people to address anti-Blackness. Further, he spoke of the importance of individual White people recognizing and taking responsibility for their role in the perpetuation of Whiteness and not just evading responsibility by writing it off as a systemic issue they are removed from.
Finally, Yancy addressed the issue of studying the philosophy of race as a Black person. Much of his insights on how his work impacts him personally were prompted by questions from audience members. He shared that, as a Black man living in America, he is constantly in a state of self-surveillance. He also shared that living under White supremacy, he always has a sense of dread and mourning. But, Yancy claimed that these feelings do not have to be juxtaposed with happiness and one can even find comfort in them.
In conversations with students after the event and from comments shared during the Q&A portion, attendees shared that they found the talk to be very powerful and even that it made them emotional. One anonymous attendee, upon being asked to comment on the talk, shared that they were sorting through their thoughts. Another anonymous attendee who identifies as white shared that they found the talk “gave [them] a lot to reflect on regarding [their] own whiteness” and the way that “existing in a white body can be a form of violence.”
