"The Racial Politics of Listening": Clifton Granby in conversation with Ronald Sundstrom

Deference is often required of the politically vulnerable: the powers and institutions who have control over their lives often come to expect deference, demand it, reward people who give it, and penalize people who don't. How do we reverse the uneven flow of epistemic and political currency—whether that gets described as trust, authority, entitlement, or the salience of certain considerations, voices, and representatives? This conversation will explore the recalcitrant aspects of racial injustice in the US, particularly those that block effective communication and practices of accountability. By centering the insights of black religious thinkers and black literary figures, Clifton L. Granby’s new book The Racial Politics of Listening transforms existing literatures focused on epistemologies of race, ignorance, and social injustice. Together with Ronald Sundstrom, Granby will discuss the expansiveness of black philosophical traditions and the importance of critically listening and responsibly deferring to them—or how mainstream philosophy might become attuned to the shifting keys and dynamic concerns of black political and cultural life.

Clifton Granby is Professor of Ethics, Philosophy, and Africana Studies. His current projects focus on the ethics of love, the politics of listening, and the practice of social criticism. His work weaves together insights from Black studies, pragmatism, cultural and literary studies, and the history of philosophy and theology. His book The Racial Politics of Listening: Deference, Power, and Relationality is forthcoming at Oxford University Press.

Ronald Sundstrom is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. His research focuses on the philosophy of race and related areas, including racism, xenophobia, and mixed-race identity; political philosophy and urban policy; and figures in African American political theory, particularly Frederick Douglass.

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