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In the next installment of the Lyceum Lecture Series Fulfilling America's Promise: Racial Equity and Justice, Assistant Professor of Philosophy Ashley Atkins lectures on the issue of Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, with an emphasis on color blindness and interpretive injustice.

Atkins has always been interested in issues of racial and social injustice, but it was after reading the work of a couple philosophers on the issue of Black Lives Matter and All Lives matter, that she began to study the issue deeper and form her own interpretations.

When I read about the issue of Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, there always seem to be some kind of reference to color blindness. However, I looked at the issue a little bit differently. It wasnt until I read the work of philosophers like Judith Butler, that I began to study the issue differently and form my own interpretations on it, Atkins said.

Black Lives Matter is a movement that began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African American teenager Trayvon Martin. Since then, the group has been widely recognized for their protests and demonstrations following the shooting deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner. All Lives Matter began as a slogan in opposition to the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Atkins analyzes these two phrases and the negative criticisms that are associated with them. She cites the works Judith Butler and other philosophers to point out some issues with the phrase, All Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter.

For Butler, the problem with those who say all lives matter is to make a mistake of thinking that we can approach the question of which lives matter in a color-blind way. A more common view is that black lives matter marks an exclusion, but in an inclusive way. What it really means is that black lives matter, too, or All Lives Matter including black the black ones. The problem with this view is that objectors have an exclusionary interpretation, taking the phrase to mean something like only black lives matter, Atkins said.

She proceeds to talk about the issue of color blindness and whether it is at the root of the conflict over black lives matter and all lives matter. She argues that attempt to pin issues such as black lives matter having an exclusionary interpretation on things like color blindness or hope for a post racial society is unconvincing.

Atkins talks about the importance of justice and how the need to listen to others, specifically marginalized groups of people is how we began resolving the conflicts behind these racial justice issues. She proposes a suggestion by philosopher, Miranda Fricker on effective ways people can start listening to marginalized groups who also desire included in our social world.

Fricker recommends that we try to make sense of what speakers are saying, given what we, given what we would take them to be saying, in a setting which they do not face the prejudice of being members of a socially venerable group, Atkins said.

She concludes by reiterating the issue with the phrase All Lives Matter and how she interprets the meaning of the phrase.

We are struggling with questions of value. We need to pay attention not to whether, criminal, illegal, threatening and black lives among others are lives, we need to pay attention to whether their lives are regarded by us as having diminished value, Atkins said.

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The Lyceum Lecture Series emphasizes color blindness and interpretive injustice - Western Herald

This entry was posted on April 13, 2017 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |