Black is Beautiful A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics

• The first extended philosophical treatment of an important subject that has been almost entirely neglected by philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of art
• Takes an important step in assembling black aesthetics as an object of philosophical study
• Unites two areas of scholarship for the first time – philosophical aesthetics and black cultural theory, dissolving the dilemma of either studying philosophy, or studying black expressive culture
• Brings a wide range of fields into conversation with one another– from visual culture studies and art history to analytic philosophy to musicology – producing mutually illuminating approaches  that challenge some of the basic suppositions of each
• Well-balanced, up-to-date, and beautifully written as well as inventive and insightful
• Winner of The American Society of Aesthetics Outstanding Monograph Prize 2017
  

Preface and Acknowledgments vii

1 Assembly, Not Birth 1

1 Introduction 1

2 Inquiry and Assembly 3

3 On Blackness 6

4 On the Black Aesthetic Tradition 12

5 Black Aesthetics as/and Philosophy 19

6 Conclusion 26

2 No Negroes in Connecticut: Seers, Seen 32

1 Introduction 33

2 Setting the Stage: Blacking Up Zoe 35

3 Theorizing the (In)visible 36

4 Theorizing Visuality 43

5 Two Varieties of Black Invisibility: Presence and Personhood 48

6 From Persons to Characters: A Detour 51

7 Two More Varieties of Black Invisibility: Perspectives and Plurality 58

8 Unseeing Nina Simone 63

9 Conclusion: Phronesis and Power 69

3 Beauty to Set the World Right: The Politics of Black Aesthetics 77

1 Introduction 77

2 Blackness and the Political 80

3 Politics and Aesthetics 83

4 The Politics–Aesthetics Nexus in Black; or, "The Black Nation: A Garvey Production" 85

5 Autonomy and Separatism 87

6 Propaganda, Truth, and Art 88

7 What is Life but Life? Reading Du Bois 91

8 Apostles of Truth and Right 94

9 On "Propaganda" 98

10 Conclusion 99

4 Dark Lovely Yet And; Or, How To Love Black Bodies While Hating Black People 104

1 Introduction 105

2 Circumscribing the Topic: Definitions and Distinctions 107

3 Circumscribing the Topic, cont'd: Context and Scope 109

4 The Cases 110

5 Reading the Cases 115

6 Conclusion 129

5 Roots and Routes: Disarming Authenticity 132

1 Introduction 132

2 An Easy Case: The Germans in Yorubaland 134

3 A Harder Case: Kente Capers 136

4 Varieties of Authenticity 138

5 From Exegesis to Ethics 144

6 The Kente Case, Revisited 151

6 Make It Funky; Or, Music's Cognitive Travels and the Despotism of Rhythm 155

1 Introduction 156

2 Beyond the How�]Possible: Kivy's Questions 157

3 Stimulus, Culture, Race 159

4 Preliminaries: Rhythm, Brains, and Race Music 162

5 The Flaw in the Funk 168

6 (Soul) Power to the People 172

7 Funky White Boys and Honorary Soul Sisters 174

8 Conclusion 177

7 Conclusion: "It Sucks That I Robbed You"; Or, Ambivalence,

Appropriation, Joy, Pain 182

Index 186

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