Apr 9
Multi/Race/Less/Ness: Toward a Responsible Abolishing of Racial Categories
It is not new, or radical, to suggest that 'race' is a social construct. The idea has been prominent in social, political and philosophical discourse for decades. The bold challenge put forward by Jon Ivan Gill is that this idea is just a halfway house – questioning the fixity of race while doing nothing to lessen the trauma caused by its continued presence as a category of human identity. Can we truly end racism before we dissolve the notion of race itself, and if we do then what are we left with? In MultiRaceLessNess, Jon Ivan Gill challenges us to take the next step and abolish the very category of race.
Jon Ivan Gill (they/he/him) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College and co-owner of Aesthetic Religion Records and Texts in Saint Peter, Minnesota and Tijuana, Mexico. His work revolves in the realm of Whiteheadian process philosophies, metaphysics of present day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, futurisms, poststructuralism, philosophies of (post)race, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, etc. They are also a solo Hip-Hop artist using the moniker “Gilead7” and a member of Chicago Hip-Hop collective Tomorrow Kings, Southern California-based Echoes of Oratory Muzik, and the duo Crystal Radio along with Michael Adame, also known as Phantom Thrett. His newest book, Multi/Race/Less/Ness: A Process Philosophy, was released by Bloomsbury on 11/13/2025. Their first monograph entitled Underground Rap as Religion: A Theopoetic Examination of Process Aesthetic Religion, is in the Routledge Studies in Hip-Hop and Religion series, edited by Monica R. Miller and Anthony B. Pinn. Toward Afrodiasporic and Afrofuturist Philosophies of Religion, a second text, is an edited volume of Pomona and Pitzer College student essays from a class Ivan taught at Pomona College (Claremont, CA) and was published by Wipf and Stock.
from Philosophy