McMaster Philosophy Talks: Reckoning with Racism

Join host Dr. James Sikkema along with panelists Dr. Brad Stone, Philosophy and African American Studies professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, Peace Studies and History professor and Director for the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice at McMaster University.

The manifestations of colonial racism are multiform: it can be as overt as the hurling of an epithet, or as subtle as the way a racialized other is represented in the dominant media. It can be an ideological commitment made manifest in a program of research and writing, and can also be institutionalized in the educational system obtaining its curriculum on the basis of such ideology. It can be present in the framing of a law, or in the enforcement of one - or both. It can be either intentional or unconscious, malicious or indifferent, systematic or disorganized. It is both historical and contemporary in scope, both global and local in scale. For some it is thought to be no longer present, for others it is never absent. For some it is a topic of the greatest concern, for others that of great discomfort.

In this talk we aim to investigate to the historical and systemic aspects of racism by addressing three questions: how might those who do not recognize racism come to identify it? Who bears the responsibility today of racist policies enacted in the past? What does reconciliation and restorative justice with respect to colonial racism look like?