Introduction to Charles Mills's “The Wretched of Middle‐Earth: An Orkish Manifesto”

Abstract

An introduction to the posthumously published essay by Charles Mills, "The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto."The recent death of Charles Wade Mills (January 3, 1951-September 20, 2021 was a tragic loss to his family, friends, and the philosophical community. His writings, lectures, and teaching greatly shaped multiple generations of philosophers interested in race and racism, Africana philosophy, social and political philosophy, and ethics. At the Spindel Conference on New Social Ontologies of Race, a memorial session was held in memory of Mills, led by Chike Jeffers, who Mills designated as his literary executor. We are therefore pleased to contribute to the Spindel Conference Proceedings of The Southern Journal of Philosophy a previously unpublished work by Mills

Social Ontologies of Race and their Development

“…After discussing this session with Jeffers, we thought this Spindel issue on social ontologies of race would be the perfect home for this previously unpublished essay on fictional ontology that informs and is informed by our racial history. Jeffers and I also decided it deserved its own introduction (Jeffers and Gray 2022), and it appears before the essay in this volume.…”