Theorizing Black Feminist Pragmatism: Forethoughts on the Practice and Purpose of Philosophy as Envisioned by Black Feminists and John Dewey

Abstract

The occasion of this inquiry into pragmatism is a concern about the use and ends of philosophy as a tool in the realization of an inclusive American democracy that would not level difference and dissent but would encourage social justice and cooperation. Recognizing no essential divide between theory and practice, a search for a methodology through which to think about democracy and the moral claims those of us interested in feminism and critical race theory must make against our current ways of thinking and practicing democracy for the goods of equality and freedom, pragmatism emerges as a possible partner in the struggle. Yet theorizing black feminism in relation to pragmatism is in a nascent stage. There is a growing tradition of acquaintance in the pragmatist theories of leading African American intellectuals, but considerably less work on the pragmatists has been done by those of us who use black feminism as our lens of critical engagement. That is not to say that many black feminists have not taken up the term pragmatism to name their endeavors; rather, it is to say that few black feminist projects concern ing the works of the classical American pragmatists?Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead?have emerged. In seeking new avenues for black feminist democracy theory, I suspect that a thorough encounter with the thought of John Dewey, especially his ideas on democracy, subjectivity, and the task of theory, would be a great supplement to the work already being carried out. In what follows, I intend to incite interest in such projects by briefly considering recent feminist and African American male scholarship on Dewey and suggesting that black feminists' concerns offer different insight into pragmatic methods because of their emphasis on experience that is both raced and gendered. It is not my intent to discount any of the prior feminist or African American male work on the pragmatists; rather, my goal, in keeping with what Dewey states to be the etymological meaning of philosophy, is to open