George Yancy

This book is a must read whether or not one is familiar with the work of African American philosopher George Yancy. The editors have collected essays that chronicle and critique Yancy’s career and writings. The contributors discuss Yancy's ability to bring together philosophy and African American intellectual knowledge to advance an inclusive standard in philosophical inquiry that has been lacking. The essays investigate various ways in which Yancy uses and expands beyond traditional white philosophical limits. The focus of the essays ranges from existentialism and phenomenology to the influence, social and political, of Yancy’s writings on critical theory, race discussions, and issues of whiteness—his use of “love-laden” “academic and improvisational” skills requires readers to stand and experience unsettling situations to address ways forward. Readable and philosophically impactful, this collection is required reading for philosophy, critical studies, and fields that touch on any of these issues. Read on university-wide and administrative levels, this book will open important discussions on race. Essential. All readers.

* Choice Reviews *

[T]his collection gives George Yancy’s transformative work in social and political philosophy and the philosophy of race the critical attention it has long deserved.... Similar to critical readers, which are designed to acknowledge the scholarly work of outstanding thinkers, George Yancy: A Critical Introduction consists of multiple insightful and deeply generative interpretations of Yancy’s work within the areas of critical whiteness studies, critical philosophy of race, critical phenomenology (especially, with respect to racial embodiment), critical pedagogy, and philosophy of the Black experience. Yancy’s contributions to these disciplinary matrices are explored from diverse perspectives, numerous interdisciplinary orientations, and philosophical standpoints. Accordingly, George Yancy: A Critical Introduction is not an occasion for uncritical genuflection to Yancy’s philosophically imaginative work. Rather, the volume represents the convergence of various critically engaging, imaginative, and creative mediations on Yancy’s challenging and philosophically fecund work.

* PESA Agora *

If philosophy is about promoting and engaging in self-reflection, George Yancy is a consummate philosopher.... What Professor Yancy offers, and what this volume—always personally and often eloquently demonstrates—is the necessity and the difficulty of confronting oneself on the way to confronting our deeply racist society.

* Philosophy and Social Criticism *

George Yancy is a towering figure on the contemporary philosophical landscape! His piercing intellect, moral courage and sensitive soul lead him and us to forms of analysis, zones of compassion and options for praxis in an unprecedented manner. He is grounded in conversations with great voices of the philosophical past yet also immersed in dialogues with grand figures in the present searching for a better future. George Yancy is what philosophy should embody and enact in our dim and grim 21st century!

-- Cornel West

George Yancy has been a vital voice in philosophy for many a long year. In this book, a diverse group of scholars working in many disciplines explore for us what they have learned from him, inviting us into the world of his insights.

-- Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, NYU

This essential collection pays tribute to the most prolific, plugged-in contemporary philosopher of race, culture and public values in the United States.

-- Anita Allen, University of Pennsylv