This book offers a unique perspective on blackness from the Caribbean and Latin America, in an effort to think beyond the black/white U.S. centered racial binary. The demand and struggle for racial equality, identity, and justice by populations racialized as Black (and other people of color) in the Caribbean and Latin America remain a pressing yet under explored philosophical concern. The struggle for equality and justice requires theoretical articulations, but also practical accounts upon which to make the demands. Hence, the contributions in Philosophy and the Black Experience(s) think from the specificity of  the Caribbean and Latin America, demonstrating that the contributions of Afro-descendant peoples require exploration, showcasing, and articulation. As the field of philosophy stands, the Afro-descended contributions are neither fully appreciated nor given due global recognition. Whether those contributions come from Black Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, or elsewhere, their historical understanding and relevance to contemporary concerns must be adamantly asserted to avoid further marginalization. Philosophy and the Black Experience achieves this goal by focusing on topics of central philosophical concern like racism, democracy, language, gender, and aesthetics from Afro-descendant perspectives, which pave the way for an interrogation of the human itself. The book targets a broad academic audience interested in hemispheric perspectives on the Black or Afro-descendant experience that de-centers the United States as the only point of departure for thinking about blackness.

Stephanie Rivera Berruz is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA.

Sergio Armando Gallegos Ordorica is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA.