Drafts by Tommy J Curry
Child sexual abuse is an under-researched area of public health scholarship and family conflict s... more Child sexual abuse is an under-researched area of public health scholarship and family conflict studies.
Quite often, the more popular an idea becomes the harder it is to question the rise of the idea. ... more Quite often, the more popular an idea becomes the harder it is to question the rise of the idea. Introducing skepticism, or questioning the propagandist aspects of what has become a cherished idea(l)-a belief thought to be obvious or intuitively correct is often seen a heresy. Feminism has become such belief. Over the last several decades, the history of white women's rights movements and its leaders have become increasing described as not only influenced by racism, but intimately committed to the preservation and imperial projection of white supremacy (Sneider 2008). For example, the historian Louise Newman (1999) has argued that "racism was not just an unfortunate sideshow in the performances of feminist theory. Rather it was center stage: an integral, constitutive element in feminism's overall understanding of citizenship, democracy, political self-possession, and equality" (p.183). Rather than being a generative critique of the racist legacy suffragists, segregationists, and the competing political ideologies of 20 th century America, much of the interpretive fervor given to the racism of American feminism has focused on the historical failure of integrating Black women into the feminist movement, and the contemporary absence of intersectionality amongst white women. The explanation of feminism's failures have been articulated as failures of inclusion-the exclusion of Black women. Little to no research has evaluated the cost of feminism racist caricatures and political appeal to white supremacy to Black men (Curry 2021a).
Research on Black men's experience in liberal arts graduate programs such as philosophy are pract... more Research on Black men's experience in liberal arts graduate programs such as philosophy are practically non-existent. The emphasis liberal arts disciplines place on theory often allows negative stereotypes and pathological assertions about Black men to remain unchallenged. Drawing from an analysis of Black men depicted by the Moynihan Report as well as contemporary educational literature, this article argues that Black males experience institutional and inter-personal forms of misandric aggression. The effect of these dehumanizing caricatures towards Black men results in negative physiological and psychological outcomes. The author advises Black men to recognize the anti-Black misandry of liberal arts disciplines and consider global job markets more open to exploring the experiences of Black men.
77 Fellow, Texas A&M University.
Published Articles by Tommy J Curry
Reimagining Black Masculinities and Public Space: Essays on Race, Gender and Social Activism, 2020
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 2018
Too often the idea of young Black boys as sexually aggressive or criminally assaultive displaces ... more Too often the idea of young Black boys as sexually aggressive or criminally assaultive displaces the idea that they can be victims at all. As such, Black boys are not theorized or researched as victims of sexual violations in current gender literatures. Instead they are almost exclusively represented as perpetrators of sexual violence, not victims of it. This study examines five snapshots of Black men who were victims of sexual violations as young boys. Our findings indicate that Black males are uniquely at risk for sexual impropriety and statutory rape, primarily via older women and teenage girl female-perpetrators (although risk also includes same-sex violations). This study, the first of its kind, argues that Black boys must be understood as a population at risk to be victims of sexual violations and require an earlier sex education emphasizing their sexual vulnerability.
Public philosophy has often meant a practice of thinking and commenting on the realities of the w... more Public philosophy has often meant a practice of thinking and commenting on the realities of the world that exceed the original boundaries of philosophy as a discipline. For Black scholars, however, scholarship has always been public and engaged the realities and sufferings of Black people and the world at large. Rather than debate the merits of whether or not philosophy should be publicly engaged, especially when considering the matter of race, this essay argues that a Black public philosophy is needed to correct the spread of misinformation, racist propaganda, and ill-informed theorizations given to the public under the banner of the Black public intellectual. The authors believe that Black public philosophy, a practice that offers theories to the public rooted in empiricism, historical findings, and an analysis of Black people's political circumstances in the United States, is necessary to socialize Black Americans away from the pathological accounts offered to account for their deviance and disadvantage.
The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Race, eds. Paul Taylor, Linda Alcoff, & Luvell Anderson (Routledge: New York, 2017), 2017
The presumed opposition between man and woman is a very recent phenomenon in the historical scope... more The presumed opposition between man and woman is a very recent phenomenon in the historical scope of gender. This is especially true for black Americans who were thought to be "ungendered" throughout history. In the nineteenth century only the white race was gendered-blacks were believed to be too savage to share these distinctions. The theory of gender that white ethnologists applied to black Americans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was also taken up by blacks, with implications for our current intersectional historiographies.
2016): 'You make me wanna holler and throw up both my hands!': campus culture, Black misandric mi... more 2016): 'You make me wanna holler and throw up both my hands!': campus culture, Black misandric microaggressions, and racial battle fatigue, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education To link to this article: http://dx.
Tommy J. Curry is an associate professor of philosophy at Texas A&M. Ebony A. Utley is an associa... more Tommy J. Curry is an associate professor of philosophy at Texas A&M. Ebony A. Utley is an associate professor of communication studies at California State University Long Beach. In this conversation, we define blackness and discuss its future.
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Drafts by Tommy J Curry
Published Articles by Tommy J Curry
Given that Ferris’s 1913 work was one of the only texts to question and positively implicate the role “academic philosophy” played in the success of racial advancement and Black empowerment, it deserves a renewed scholarly attention. In an effort to remedy the narrowness of Black figures in African American philosophy, I propose a two volume republication of William H. Ferris’s Philosophical Treatises (Sections I-III) from The African Abroad, along with his essays on Alexander Crummell, and the Negro personality. As with any ground-breaking work on a figure, I have written introductory essays for each volume highlighting the significance of Ferris’s The African Abroad in the study of African American philosophy, and the possible contributions Ferris’ thoughts on ethnological thought, the philosophy of history and the role race plays in the larger field of American philosophy. Given the breadth and complexity of Ferris’ encyclopedic work, the function of such an essay would be to explain to the reader the intellectual connections and importance of Ferris’s text in its own time and how his assumptions are in fact motivated by shared concepts and understandings among the Black thinkers of his time. The introductory essay highlights the cultural and racial distinctions of Ferris’s intellectual allegiances and explains the tensions that arise from the clash between his racial philosophy and his idealist inclinations.
William H. Ferris has virtually disappeared from the intellectual genealogies of African American thought, and American philosophy. To date, the only contemporary encounters of Ferris’ work have come in the form of one article, written over a decade ago in The Journal of Education (Moses 1991), and an alleged republication of Volume 2 of The African Abroad by Kessinger Press on “Amazon.com.” However, when one goes to Kessinger’s website, no reference to Ferris’ work can be found. It is worthwhile to note that volume 1 & 2 of Ferris’ work is available on “Google Scholar” as a PDF. file, but the quality is highly questionable, and of course lacks the prefatory insights of an apparatus. It is also important to point out the difference between Volume 1 and Volume 2 of The African Abroad. Volume 2 of The African Abroad is largely a reference book that gives an extensive history of African civilization. Volume 1, on the other hand, has never been republished and is a reflective text that deals with the application of philosophy to the race question and, moreover, with the understanding African-descended people should have of themselves in their study of history. Since there is not any readily available collection of William H. Ferris’ work, the republication of The African Abroad and some of Ferris’ unpublished essays would single handedly re-introduce Ferris to audiences in Africana studies as well as philosophy.
groups, exemplifying Black racial misandry.