Philosophy & Race

2/17/2014/ Monday
Theories of Race & Racism: Racial Beliefs In America (Gunnar Myrdal)
Important Terms
- higher law vs. free society
- dogma of natural inequality/ dogma of race
- inconsistency of Democracy & race 113
- preponderance of nature vs. nuture 119
- biological inferiority 116 vs. American social sciences
- scientific thought vs. popular belief (theoretical commmitments) 119
race dogma:
physical appearance = capacities & aptitudes
(intelligence, morality, economic success, social mobility,
culture, personal hygiene)
2/18/2014
After Identity: Ch. 1 (1-48)
According to Myrdal the concept of race is a new concept.
Fairly new that coins sides with the rise of capitalism.
Why was it necessary to have slavery? How did it come about?
-slavery, south has big investment -> cotton gin
- (113) slaves represented an enormous investment to the slave owners,
agricultural economy was slave based
Eli Whitneys cotton gin in 1794 increase price of slaves
-(116) Negroes biological inferiority
moral apology for, slavery
American Creed
perpetuated via literature & scientific thought
North and South of America similar to Italian divided culturally
Race -> function
What is races function
F(x) = device that performs a certain work
Has certain type of utility
For whom? For what? Is the utility for?
We as people like to make divisions, them & us mentality
Human tendency to distinguish ourselves from us vs. them
Concept of race is something new Myrdal

Bacons rebellion (1676) shows the moment in which an executive decision is made
from the elite colonial administrators to decide to met out punishment to the rebels,
rebels where indentured servants both black and white. They rose up against the
colonial administrators because they were unhappy
-blacks were hung, whites pardoned
- creating division of slave A and slave B, ensures you loyalty of white underclass
Marx tension of class that owns means of production and those that dont own
(buy and sell)
-owners of capital & machine, workers need to feed land with their
labor, surplus is taken by capital class
-Class of those who have and those who DONT have
-have nots consist of poor whites & blacks
-haves consist of rich whites
differences between races are demonstrable
we as people perpetuate belief biologists, poets, etc.
-they give different evidence for these divides
After Identity Chapter I pg. 15
Key Concepts
-Sex vs. Gender [societys assocations]
-Nature vs. Nurture
-Gender Identity + roles [binaries vs. grey areas]
-Environment + conditioning
-Moral psychology vs. Hermeneutics [meanings]
-Sexual orientation [tendency]
-phalocentrism [differential significant of genital parts]
-primacy of reproduction
-point of view situatedness of observer
- contexuality of terms
- validity [proof] of definitions
2/19/2014
Hermeneutics: branch of philosophy specializes on the problem or issue of
interpretation, how interpretations work, and suggest different ways to explain the
process of interpretation; process of interpretation
-Schleiermacher Theologian/Philosopher
-Schleier = veil macher =maker
Key Concepts
-Social constructionist (Omi & Winant)
race is something we made up, came from structures of power that have
contributed to a certain classification and treatment of people

- looping effect (Hacking) -> macro vs. micro racial

macro is the external institution that affects our micro
micro is what shapes our life and our reactions based on our macro
- one drop test
- perspective of power (contradictory standards & application)
personal interest of that is different from the interests of that group
those in power have control of what they want
- passing (French existentialist Sartre & Anthony Appiah)
-relies on theoretical commitment
-there is a way to be that race
-theoretical commitment: even if this person does not have all outward
appearance of being black or gay, I can somehow demonstrate that this
person is black or gay
- even if we dont have the instruments to measure the objective truth of the
identity of that person, we hope to demonstrate that this person is of that
identity through some sort of proof
- politics of recognition (67)/ racial conservation (WEB Du Bois)
1-minorities & women should fit their political construction & not try to
reshape their construction
2- badge of race we have already been classified, we should continue to
demand affirmative action, we are still not at equality. Should we organize
ourselves
- identity politics (Taylor & Kymlicka)
- racial consciousness (Fanon)
- theoretical commitments
- recreational identity (Appiah)
Chapter 3
Workings of history (Wirkungsgeschichte)
-A series of measure that have contributed to some aspect
-Institutional policies contribute to the concentration of poor people
Fanon I am not a slave of history
Micro has the possibility to change the discourse and impact the macro
Medical aspects in terms of race
- useful for doctor to identify their synoptoms and use their ancestry to
develop a diagnosis

2-20-2014
Chapter 3
All terms from epistemology: branch of philosophy that occupies itself with
knowledge
(84) to go imperial (Appiah)=/= recreational
-we cannot escape from our race, but we can opt out of being a baseball fan.
-we all should have recreational identities instead of imperial identities
(86) suppose we look at not at the structure of racial construction but the structure of
racial understanding: structure of racial understanding
-context of the particular object of understanding
- think of it as an architectural term
- there are layers of history & bias from prior experiences/judgments
-previous events that underscore our understanding
-Warnke wants us to delay our judgement Descarte suspencion of
judgement
(86-87) understanding texts & artworks
-hermenutic circle
- understanding should be coherent
(96) the possibility of producing change in the hermeneutic circle: the possibility of
novel readings/ interpretations
(99) concept of a correct understanding (as internal & contextual coherence)
(100) a plausible reading
(109) possibility of violating conditions of understanding
-when you insist that people have certain race and predisposed thought
*(119) conditions for the possibility of understanding
-what would have to be in place for true understanding or correct
understanding(s)
Chapter 4:
Uses of Sex
Social integration & genetic survival
(156) Anne Fausto-Sterling
5 part system
CAH shows that there is no binary system
Chapter 7:
Situational account of identity
-ex. Eminem was immersed in a culture to which he transcended into the
black rap culture despite his skin color

Benign Neglect
Kymlikca the necessity of affirmative remedies for the racial inequalities faced
- the idea that a nation composed of many different groups has been based
on equality, but it is fiction
- says no such thing as benign neglect, there are powers who decide who
will be part of the group
Ways of Life: Wittgenstein important philosopher
- life can be understood as a series of language games
2/21/2014
Azande
Effective history:Wirkungs geschichte
How we organize perception in general
Variation (within one race) vs deviations (different races themselves) (9)
Kant systematic philosophy
- most influential latin philosopher
- rational human, systematic thinking, logical
2/24/2014
Darwin pg. 55
- we can all interbreed thus we are all same species
2/25/2014
Franz Boas plasticity of humans & the idea that groups of humans arent stable
- focus on the environment (favorable conditions promote growth & vice
versa)
- CNS lasts longer than rest of the body, more influenced
Alain Locke
- race & culture cant be talked together
- discarding of race for ethnicity
- social race: groups of race in a culture
o blood intermixture & cultural assimilation
Ashley Montagu
- mentions Blumenbach:
- race is commonly accepted, complains race is forced upon
- omelet metaphor: describing the whole doesnt explain the parts of the
omelet
- conjuring up

Du Bois
-

believes in a common history

8 different kinds or races
as an isolated group one can assimilate into society
building an imagined community (Benedict Anderson)

Anthony Appiah
- biological differences of race
o small percentage of difference in our genetic makeup
- impossibility of politics of recognition
- faulty thinking of segregating yourself and perpetuating inequality, not
more equality
2/26/2014
key concepts
- nature of mixed races vs purity (140-143)
o Alcoff passes as white, but isnt truly white
o How individual perceives themselves & how they are psychologically
affected
o What is the affect of history on a particular body of a person
- Nordic vs Roman cultures
- Mixed races treated as colonial aggression (143)
o Rape as a form of submission
- Lefts vs right pol discourse on race
- Cultural dilution
- Fluidity vs fixity
o Fixity comes from a viewpoint of fluidity (WASP), assumes others
should conform to WASP normative identity
o Seen as fixed if they dont form with the WASP identity
- Cultural hierarchy
- Assimilationism/ universal
o Universal concept pretends to be colorblind
o Assimi. Is a melting pot
But contradiction to us wanting purity
Subsume (subsumption)
Idea of a certain cookie cutter to bring it to shape
-

Racial identities public/ private

Commodification & fetidization of indigenous cultures
Mestiza identity (157)
o Positive reconstruction of raced identity
Getting a lack of legitimacy
o Separates between mestizo and mestizo, theres a lacking of privilege
Mestizo: half breed

miscegenation :practice of interbreeding

Black Cinderalla of Brazil

- public sphere all enlightened people will be allowed to participate in a
discursive market place
o poor and black, no one will listen to you in Brazil
2/27/2014
Michael Omi & Howard WInant
- haunted race, spectre,
- racial legacies of the past continue to shape the present. It reveals both the
deep involvement of the state in the organization & interpretation of race,
and the inadequacy of state institutions to carry out these functions
o organization & interpretation parallel to structure & representation
interpretation- way groups are treated, thought about, sung
about,
- What is Race?
o Race is a sign
Particular concept that is signified through a social conflict
Sign is arbitrary & irrelevant
Relevance points to a conflict
The medium of sign is human bodies
Sign refers/signifies/represents/means/points to/
Race has an essence to its being, which attaches its depth to a
group
- Racial Formation
o Process by which essential identities are proclaimed or decreed
o Racial projects are interests (acquiring land)
Ex. Affirmative action
o Macro and micro
Micro-common sense
Ongoing stereotypes perpetuate the common sense
about race that takes place in time
On-dit que: one says that
Unattrituble tribute
- Racial dictatorship & racial democracy
o Concept of hegemony (Macchiavelli & Gramsci)
A combination of coercion & consent
The less coercion, the more better off hegemonic is
Racial dictatorship uses slavery and the law, legalized
discrimination,
Racial democracy would be content with the arrangement.
Progressive change is possible
- Structure, interpretation, representation

2/28/2014
under colorblindness we see a group retaining its hegemony over its other group
-

projects are the building blocks not just of racial formation, but of hegemony
in general
o struggle and conflict fought along racial lines
structural =/= overt discrimination
o racial projects: ex. Certain schools get better property tax
lending practices
Racism
o Organized & essentialized
o Combination of prejudice, discrimination, and institutional inequality
o Privus lex (private/de-prived law)
racial projects are the conceptual tool in which we can maintain our
emphasized on structure and process and representation. How certain groups
are represented that maintain a higher tier over them.

Black Feminism
- embodied experience
- Antithesis
3/4/2014
Key Concepts
- White ontology: study of being and what there is in a way that is associated
with whites
o Study of the peculiarities of the ways of beings of different things
o Whiteness comes in many colors
- Good vs bad whites
o good: those who do
o bad: those who dont recognize the guilt
- Silence & invisibility of whiteness
- Imarginlization of black people
- Perception/ distortion identity (6)
o What identities are already given without any actuality
What is Whiteness?
- What is the being of Whiteness?
- Whiteness is an inheritance
o Inheritance is all the actions conducted in the name of whiteness
Privilege, guilt: moral responsibility/indictment
Standard to be normal, equal
Antithesis to the other
Set of norms that excludes others
Advantages of invisibility
o Element of Wage of Whiteness

Overdetermination: fact of color triumphs any actual meaning

Race trumphs class
Chapter 1:
Mills argues that cultural exploitation is brought about through the position of a
certain races superiority due to their endowed abilities and talents. In order to
make a paradign shift towards a direction of justice
-

Supremacy vs privilege
o Privilege does not capture the normative
o We are talking about the systematic structure
White supremacy can be seen paralleling the distribution of
wealth in the country
It is no accident, it is systematic
What is justice or fairness if we live in a system in which a lot of outward talk
is about equality of opportunity, but we see opportunity measured
differentially.
o What kind of justice is envisioned
o

3/15/2014
Mills punch-line for chapter 1: philosophy should explore these areas more
systematically, face the resistance and start with our own force. Or else philosophy
will be for no use.
Bad faith: you lie to yourself,
-when you lie to others they dont know the truth
-Satre
-garcon de caf, waiter is oppressed and lies about his facticity

facticity: we are situated in the world, we are thrown into a situation that is
beyond our control
-what family were born into, what town, etc.
transcendence: is the possibility of contributing to shape what you have been
given, what you have been determined by
one can overcome them, but to a certain degree
White person

Pure transcendence: you work hard you reap the rewards

Im in control of my life
The Other is central to the definition of transcendence
Chapter 4
Metaphor of conjuring
Philosophy self consciously deploys concepts and uses them as part of theoretical
frameworks and proposes them to understand the world

Conjuring
o To constitute realities by endowing objects and situations with
meaning
o Africana philosophy uses conjuring to come up with how things came
up in the world
o Provides an explanation of how things can happen
Economic situation
Nominalism pg 94 WWLL

3/6/2014
- Geist transcendental spirit for Hegel
- Hegel
o Collective soul, god has to be both (non)existence, perfection is the act
of becoming into existence.
o All encompassing, dialectics,
o Master-slave dialectic
Master needs an other, has to be human, or else master wont
feel mighty or as complete
Clash of wills, master depends on the slave, cant conceive of
himself without the slave
Slave can stand up to the master
Slave is created through his work, develop the
relationship with the work he does
Master is parasitic
Slave stands up to the master
Master is willing to fight to the death & slave cowers
o Slave values his life
Outcome 2: slave fights it out to the death, through the
clash there are enlightened into liberation
- We think of ourselves as rational consumers, everything we did as a result of
an analysis for possible benefits
o Every transaction is mediated by money
o Enlightenment begins when an individual can rationalize
Idea of a thinking being able to measure cost benefits and
ultimately take the right decision for himself
Unhindered by tradition or social bonds from
community
- Philosophy commentating on other philosophers, no philosophers can claim
to create anything, it is a hermeneutical circle per excellence
Monday reading
Jim crow ch 1-2

Fanon uses a passage in Aime, slave goes to masters bedroom and goes to kill
master. When master sees slave is about to kill him
Aime Cesaire: negritude notebook return to native country
3/10/2014
The New Jim Crow
Class, race, and class system
Marxist analyst
Primitive accumulation: someone comes in and either seizes you (as property) or
land, now this person is absolutely detached from any protection that would be
given from the social network and by land, this person now conceived as a source of
labor (proletarian).
Reproduction, worker needs to produce himself again to show up for work
Slave internalize cost
- Worker- external cost of production
o flexibilization of labor
outsource of labor
Haiti, every time theres disaster, labor becomes
cheaper (cheap t-shirt production)
o Race was used in the creation of a caste that still remains in our day
- Qui bono? (For whom is this a good)