Theories of Race Flashcards
There is a biological foundation that generates discrete racial groupings, where all and only members of one race share the same set of biological characteristics
This biological foundation is inherited from generation to generation can be traced genetically
Genealogical investigation should identify each race’s geographic origin
The inherited biological foundation manifests in physical and/or behavioural characteristics
Racial Naturalism
Objections of Racial Naturalism
- Empirical counter examples
- Restricting possibility and potential
- Arbitrariness of what traits matter
The concept of race should be discarded altogether
Racial Elimininativism
Objection of Racial Elimininativism
- Race, or at least ideas of race, do have an impact on people
- Some people find positive influences from identifying as a specific race
Even if biological race is false, human culture and decisions have created races that continue to exist and have real consequences
Racial Constructivism
Versions of Racial Constructivism
a. Thin Constructivism
b. Interactive Kind Constructivism
c. Institutional Constructivism
Humans are grouped by ancestry and genetically insignificant phenotypic properties
Thin Constructivism
People ascribed a certain racial category will have certain common experiences
Interactive Kind Constructivism
Race is a social institution, specific to the society in which it is embedded, and doesn’t apply across culture or history
Institutional Constructivism
- Our species is prone to distortions of judgment, especially when it reflects partiality
- Many people are unable to give up beliefs that play a part in justifying the special advantages we gain from our place in the social order
- Extrinsic racism helps to maintain these advantages in the area of race
- Sometimes, even those who are put at a disadvantage by these beliefs (if the racist belief is widely accepted) resist the truth of a proposition countering that belief
Irrationality of Racist Dispositions
Race is a social institution, specific to the society in which it is embedded, and doesn’t apply across cultures or history
Institutional Constructivism