keep in mind

It also ignores the mental toll that poverty takes like maybe your home made veggie filled recipe isn’t crazy expensive but it also involves prep time and cooking time and organization in terms of fresh food that a lotta poor people can’t manage.

Not to mention if you can only afford to get to the store once every couple weeks via bus or cab then you can’t keep fresh veg on deck.

Hello everyone! As many of us who study philosophy in some form are likely aware, people of color, especially black philosophers, are radically underrepresented in the field (composing only 1.32% of all philosophers in the US). In order to combat such marginalization, and in attempt to help amplify black voices within the field of philosophy, I have complied a series and links & information here for learning more about African/black philosophy, especially within the US. Please feel free to add to this post if you feel that anything is missing, esp if ur a black person!

Overview:

According to Wikipedia.org: “African philosophy is the philosophical discourse produced by indigenous Africans and their descendants, including African Americans. African philosophers may be found in the various academic fields of philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. One particular subject that many African philosophers have written about is that on the subject of freedom and what it means to be free or to experience wholeness.”

Articles to start with: 

“What African Philosophy Can Teach You About the Good Life.”

“A truly African philosophy.”

“African Philosophy.”

“Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons.’” 

“Does Western Philosophy Have Egyptian Roots?” 

“What You Should Know About Contemporary African Philosophy.” 

“Philosophy in Africa - A Case of Epistemic Injustice in the Academy.” 

“The African Enlightenment.”

“The Radical Philosophy of Egypt.” 

“The first God.” 

“African Philosophy Is More Than You Think It Is.” 

And some introductory texts:

Barry Hallen, A Short History of African Philosophy. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (2009).

Samuel Oluoch Himbo, An Introduction to African Philosophy. Lanham et al.: Rowman and Littlefield (1998). 

Dismas Masolo, African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (1994).

Kwasi Wiredu, A Companion to African Philosophy. Malden, Oxford, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing (2004). (PDF version linked here.)

Key essays:

“The Struggle for Reason in Africa” by Mogobe Ramose in The African Philosophy Reader eds. P.H. Coestzee & A.P.J. Roux

“Appeal,” David Walker 

“What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”, Frederick Douglass

“Ain’t I a Woman?”, Sojourner Truth 

“The Black Woman’s role in the Community of Slaves,” Angela Davis

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois (first chapter esp.)

“A Problem of Biography in African Thought” & “What Does It Mean to Be a Problem?” by Lewis Gordon in Existentia Africana 

“Racism and Feminism,” by bell hooks in the PDF linked here

“Recognizing Racism in the Era of Neoliberalism,” Angela Davis

“Nonviolence and Racial Justice,” Martin Luther King, Jr. 

“The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X

“The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Audre Lorde

“Whiteness as Property,” Cheryl Harris

Important contemporary black philosophers:

Cornel West (political philosophy, philosophy of religion, ethics, race, democracy, liberation theology)

Angela Davis (also a writer and social activist & just a general badass, really worth knowing about regardless of whether or not you have an interest in philosophy)

bell hooks (race, capitalism, sexuality & gender through a postmodern perspective)

Lewis Gordon (Africana philosophy, black existentialism, phenomenology)

Kwame Anthony Appiah (probabilistic semantics, political theory, moral theory, intellectual history, race and identity theory)

Patricia Hill Collins (sociology of knowledge, race, class, gender studies)

John H. McWhorter (linguistics) 

George Yancy (Critical philosophy of race, critical whiteness studies, African philosophy, philosophy of the body)

Kwassi Wiredu (African philosophy)

Franz Fanon (20th century Marxism, psychoanalysis, colonialism)

Online podcasts, blogs, & videos:

Podcast on Africana philosophy (the website linked here also contains several useful links and resources for further reading)

Youtube series on African Philosophy

Award-winning blog run by a Nigerian-Finnish woman which “connects feminism with critical reflections on contemporary culture from an Africa-centred perspective.”

Other links & resources:

Journal on African Philosophy

Wikipedia page, which includes a list of African philosophers

History of African Philosophy

Online bibliography on African Philosophy

25 Black Scholars You Should Know

Aphrodite Ourania rose out of blood and the ocean and walked to land fully-formed. This Aphrodite is a Titaness, older even than the generation of Zeus. She has no mother. She is never an infant. She is the ultimate generative power, the fish, born from a male (upending societal norms) and wielding the power of creation and invention.

Aphrodite Areia is a war goddess - this is the title made famous by Athena and Ares, but Aphrodite does not get this title from her lover. She is a goddess of soldiers and fights on the battlefield of Troy. She is also Aphrodite Hoplismena, the armed, depicted in full armor with a shield and sword. This is the Aphrodite of Sparta.

Aphrodite Nikephoros is not only Aphrodite armored and armed, but Aphrodite commanding the power of Nike - Nike, the goddess usually found at Zeus’s side, ensuring victory. This Aphrodite is not one to be crossed on the battlefield, because you will not win.

Or maybe we just aren’t on the same page as the ancients when it comes to a “love goddess.” Aphrodite Pandemos is a goddess of frenzy, a goddess who incites war and madness, a goddess to whom it was said even the Fates would bend their will. To some Hellenes, Aphrodite was the goddess of creation because she is the spark of all love and desire - and to others, she was the creator of all.

“Being with a prostitute is like having a cup of coffee- once you’re done with it, you throw it out.” Source

“I have an easier time treating them worse.” Source

“For gods sake woman…I just want you to get naked and suck my cock!…If you like big tits, she is your girl. Too much like hard work for me.” Source

“Some of the girls are lovely but most are just holes to f*ck.” Source

“She’s a sad waste of good girl flesh.” Source

“If you want an attractive receptacle for your semen she will do.” Source

“LOL what beautiful girls OMG! WTF are you talking about dogg??? They are all old as fuck and the only young ones are ugly junkies lol rather fuck a blow up doll lol” Source

A sense of entitlement to sex any way they want it with no regard for the woman they exploit

“I don’t want them to get any pleasure. I am paying for it and it is her job to give me pleasure. If she enjoys it I would feel cheated.“ Source

“…She said “NO!” Sorry, what do you mean NO, this is what I paid for.” Source

“Well, she certainly knows what she’s doing and how to please a man. And there’s no damn nonsense about ‘don’t do this’ and ‘I don’t want it in there’ either. So, in a word, a perfect whore.” Source

“She was definitely on something…her oral (covered) was mechanical to say the least…No interaction at all. I know not all the girls enjoy it, but I’m not paying them to enjoy it- just to pretend that they are.” Source

“I took the lead and it was like shagging a corpse…Someone should inform her that a part of the job is to show some enjoyment and give some pleasure back to the punter.” Source

An opportunity to control and dominate a woman and perform degrading sex acts on her that their female partners refuse

“THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES” Source

“If my fiancée won’t give me anal, I know someone who will.” Source

“You get to treat a ho like a ho…you can find a ho for any type of need - slapping, choking, aggressive sex beyond what your girlfriend will do - you won’t do stuff to your girlfriend that will make her lose her self esteem.” Source

“I guess the big thing is the control aspect of it. When you’re with a prostitute you have control over what happens. You get to have control over what you do, when, how, in what order, and I like that.” Source

“I would have no issue making a girl do what I want, after all that is what I pay for. 60 minutes of HER time to make ME happy doing whatever I want. If she doesn’t like it she is in the wrong game. I never spit on a girl but I have raised my hand to a girl.” Source

Recognising that the women they buy are unwilling participants

“I wish she had loosened up or pretended to be into it more. She grimaced as I came on her which was a turn off…Would recommend for those interested in ethnic girls, big boobs…just wish she’d lighten up a bit.” Source

“[She] pulled away, which really put me off. She didn’t seem to like her hair being touched…she just seemed really on edge for the whole, short time I was with her.” Source

“She had the gagging expression on her face…again she just lay there and complained about it hurting.” Source

“I got the impression she was somewhere else, and even though she looked, she wouldn’t make eye contact. Total waste of cash. The management should starve girls like this to make them perform.” Source

“Overall, she is quite attractive, but doesn’t have a great attitude and gives the impression that she doesn’t really want to be here.” Source

Describing signs of women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation

“Onto the sex which was the best part as Hana was tight and able to take instuctions [sic] well. Her English is non existant [sic] in April but may be better now. Lucky for me i was able to converse in some Korean with her.”- ‘Might and Power’, Punter Planet, 19 June 2011

“The thing that struck me was the absence of the usual cheerful welcoming manner I enjoy with most other Thai girls. She did flash a pretty smile once or twice but mostly made it glumly obvious that my visit was just a chore for her. So although I got my semen extracted, I couldn’t call that a joyful hour.” Source

“Cold and passive. I tried to talk to her to understand if there was an issue: homesickness, personal event? Unfortunately with her poor English, I could barely get a few words as an answer…She remained passive and distant.” Source

“Ukrainian brunette in her teenage years…She seemed disinterested and took off her clothes as if she was merely doing a duty, alarm bells started ringing as she lay down on the bed without a word, no attempt at trying to warm up and break the ice…Her English is poor…[she] seemed nervous and fidgety.” Source

Solomon’s Shield is the name of the app

https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx

But TBH I prefer the MIT Open Coursewear approach. Feel like taking a class on the policy and economics of nuclear engineering? MIT’s got you covered:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic/#cat=engineering&subcat=nuclearengineering&spec=nuclearsystemspolicyandeconomics

In fact they’ve got  you covered with A LOT of their courses, everything from fine arts to immunology.

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If y’all use a decent box mix and use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, an extra egg, and milk instead of water, no one can tell the difference. I sure as hell can’t. 

Also, if you add a little almond extract to vanilla cake, or a little coffee to chocolate cake, it sends it through the roof. 

Baking from scratch means you’ve got to buy a whole tin of baking powder and only use a spoonful, and a whole thing of flour, and maybe multiple kinds of sugar, and maybe cocoa powder, maybe spices, and there’s no way you’re going to use up any of those, you’ll just have to pitch them when you move out.

Not to mention that you’ve got maybe one measuring cup, and there’s no way you’ve got a sifter, and you probably don’t have measuring spoons and how sure are you that your eating spoon is actually the right size…

I bake some things from scratch. Anything requiring creaming a mix is basically a sad joke because all the work is the creaming. Standard cake is not one of them.

Of course, me being me, a standard cake is usually just a component - I don’t actually like “just cake” that much and canned frosting is terrible. So while I don’t scratch bake cake, that cake is getting saturated with tres leches, or put in a trifle, or getting add-ins before baking anyway.

In taste tests they’ve found that while customers may ask for a cake from scratch they often end up preferring the taste and texture of the doctored mixes when all is said and done.

Unless you have some particular allergies or some other reason to avoid box mixes they are often the better way to go.

I’ve been looking into opening up a home bakery and part of the task of producing food for the public is making sure your items are standardized so that every person who gets a cupcake (for instance) is getting the same quality, size, etc., etc.

My standard cake is box mix + milk for water + melted butter for oil + dash vanilla extract + frosting from scratch. This really seems to hit the right spot for people of “mmm, homemade” but also “exactly like Mom used to make.” (Do that for a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, add candles, and serve to a college student, for the maximum “this is exactly what I didn’t want to admit I wanted” potential.)

Seconding the addition of coffee to chocolate cake; a tablespoon of instant coffee powder in a dark chocolate cake makes it taste chocolatey-er without actually adding a perceptible coffee flavor (I don’t like coffee flavor, personally, and I still do this).

Another good option is a box lemon cake mix plus maybe 3 lemons. Zest the lemons, set the zest aside, then juice them and use that in place of the water; then use the zest to flavor the frosting. Adds a nice fresh kick.

Chocolate chips can be dumped straight into chocolate cake mix without fussing with anything to compensate. Sprinkles can go into white cake mix to make your own “confetti cake” with any specific color combo you like. Any kind of dried fruit can be chopped to raisin-size, soaked in hot water (or, better yet, hot juice with a couple of citrus peels added) for an hour, drained, and then added to batter.

Replacing part (up to maybe 1/3) of the water with yogurt (and then the rest with milk as usual) will give you a denser cake; make sure to check if it’s cooked through, and bake a little longer if necessary.

Swirling things through batter for that fancy marbled look is easy. Consider melting chocolate chips with butter, or mixing brown sugar with cinnamon and a little melted butter, or making up two different cake mixes and swirling those together.

Hey artists, C. Spike Trotman, founder of Iron Circus Comics, just posted an invaluable thread on depicting different types of black hair. I’d do the thing where you screencap the whole thread and post it but it’s just too long (which is great because it’s a whole lot of useful information!) Give her a follow while you’re there.