Philosophy, Religion, Race, and Queerness: A Question of Accommodation or Access

In this paper I consider recent feminist critiques of the whiteness of philosophy’s secularism. Building on the distinction in disability studies between accommodation and access, I argue that, in order to effectively address philosophy’s whiteness and heteronormativity, critiques of philosophy’s secularism must be accountable to religion’s historical and contemporary role in perpetuating harm against queer people. While it is absolutely crucial to critique and work to undo the whiteness of mainstream philosophy, it is equally important to do so in a way that does not further marginalize queer people. I build on Gloria Anzaldùa’s distinction between spirituality and religion, Sara Ahmed’s discussion of willfulness, and the distinction between accommodation and access in disability studies to suggest a nonadditive concept of pluralism that moves toward the transformation of philosophy.