"Emotional Truth"

Challenging White Supremacist Notions of Belief and Legitimacy

Authors

  • Samantha Podnar Student

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2024.59

Abstract

People of color speaking on their experiences are frequently discredited and disbelieved. A long theological, philosophical, scientific, and legal tradition has invalidated testimony from people of color and constructed a rigid and ultimately reductive definition of “truth”; moreover, racialization and oppression are lived experiences that are extremely difficult to articulate, often involving interactions in which racism is not explicitly apparent to non-marginalized people. The insidious nature of racism has forced non-white philosophers, writers, and artists to be creative in crafting tools to express the “emotional truth” of the experience of marginalization. White listeners must approach these works with humility and openness, employing a “hermeneutic of charity” and exercising empathy. This framework enables the questioning and reimagining of white supremacist notions of truth, aiming to center marginalized individuals’ experiences and include the “emotional truth” as a legitimate element of credible testimony.

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Published

2024-04-12

How to Cite

Samantha Podnar. (2024). "Emotional Truth": Challenging White Supremacist Notions of Belief and Legitimacy. Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2024.59

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2024): Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review

Section

Research

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Copyright (c) 2024 Samantha Podnar

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