Color Conscious by Appiah & Gutmann
Notes: Mark Friedman www.third-culture.com -6/16/02
1903 - W.E.B. Du Bois “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line.”
Affirmative action, multiculturalism, welfare reform, and crime bitter arguments about.
Take race into account or not take into account when hiring?
US political institutions rest on principles of individual freedom and equality that expressly deny race…they are color blind….US constitution is color-blind.
In the name of individual freedom and equality, US exterminated Native Americans, kidnapped and enslaved millions of Africans, and held Japanese-Americans in internment camps during WWII.
From 1790-1952, restricted legal naturalization to “white” persons. BTW, what is a “white” person?
Appiah: “if we are to ever realize the promise of individual freedom and equality we shall have to move beyond current racial identities.”
Gutmann: “In order to treat individuals fairly, the ultimate goal of a just society, it will sometimes be necessary to enact color conscious policies….color conscious policies must be both valuable for overcoming racial injustice and consistent with the fundamental equality of all human beings.”
Is race the same as culture?
Can you simply make up any self you choose? Or, do you make yourself up from a tool kit made available by our society?
Where are you from? Who are you?
Black pride runs the risk of replacing tyranny of racism with the tyranny of racial expectations.
Politicians and political theorists base arguments about diverse topics such as government funding for the arts, prayer in school, and pornography on claims about culture…so it is important for us to get sophisticated in this subject.
Appiah: “Race is parasitic on scientific claims about racial divisions.”
Racial theories:
Thomas Jefferson: skin color is linked to moral traits such as truthfulness or bravery.
Neo-Darwinist: speciation of humans into distinct races wit their own unique physical and mental traits.
Herrnstein & Murray: blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites.
Appiah: there is simply no credible scientific evidence to support the idea that the current racial designations
In the US capture any meaningful physical, intellectual, or moral differences among races.
There are no races as that term has come to be understood there are only social groups.
Public discourse about equality, fairness, efficiency is at least as misunderstood as the concept of race.
Scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering and computer technology will challenge many of our assumptions about individuality, and merit.
Now to Gutmann.
How should a democracy respond to racial injustice?
Color blindness is not fair in a society where racism exists.
Fairness, not color blindness, is the fundamental principle of justice in a nonideal world.
But society may reject a policy, no matter how justified in response to present injustice, that moves us too far.
A court case where a white teacher with equal seniority was laid off in favor of a black teacher.
Law and morality are not identical.
Principles of justice must speak to the actual conditions in which we live.
Qualifications and criteria for hiring and firing depend on the social purposes society wants to achieve.
There’s politics: some responses to racial injustice will garner more support than others. This is the reality. Politics will play a greater role than law or moral theory.
Do all blacks share the same political interests and prefer the same candidates?
Blacks are more likely than whites to place overcoming racial injustice at the top of their list of legislative priorities.
Races are nothing more than a social construct masquerading as scientific fact.
Though there are no races (according to Appiah and Gutmann), many Americans continue to act as though there are. How does this equate to European treatment of assimilated jews during WWII? What if someone doesn’t know you’re jewish? Then you’re OK?
What message is conveyed to individuals abut their own identities when government distributes benefits and burdens (and takes your racial measure) on the basis of race?
Should there, is there a difference in racial hiring for universities, government institutions, and private business?
Is college admission a prize for achievement or social policy?
Racial solidarity and mutual aid can easily slide into simple cronyism.
Is the moral significance of racial identity the same for all races in the US? Blacks, Asians, Jews, Latinos?
We also have ascriptive identities such as gender and sexual orientation.
What is your culture?
Asians don’t share a common culture…contrast an aristocratic third generation Chinese with a Vietnamese boat person. Same with Latinos.
The level of segregation experienced by blacks today is very different from the experience of Asians and Latinos.
Throughout US history, blacks have been potrayed as lazy, stupid, dirty, licentious, and prone to criminal behavior.
Is the US system flawed but better than all the available alternatives?
Du Bois believed in the ability of reasoned deliberation to bring us closer to realizing our noble democratic aspirations…reasoned deliberation among people of good will is the best hope for solving the color problem.
Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
“HEAR MY CRY, Oh God the Reader; vouchsafe that this book may fall not still-born into the world-wilderness. Let there spring, Gentle One, from out its leaves vigor of thought and thoughtful deed to reap the harvest wonderful…Thus in Thy good time may infinite reason turn the tangle straight, and these crooked marks on a fragile leaf be not indeed THE END.