Theories of Race

Question 1

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

Answer 1

Racial Naturalism

Question 2

Objections of Racial Naturalism

Answer 2

• Empirical counter examples
• Restricting possibility and potential
• Arbitrariness of what traits matter

Question 3

The concept of race should be discarded altogether

Answer 3

Racial Elimininativism

Question 4

Objection of Racial Elimininativism

Answer 4

• Race, or at least ideas of race, do have an impact on people
• Some people find positive influences from identifying as a specific race

Question 5

Even if biological race is false, human culture and decisions have created races that continue to exist and have real consequences

Answer 5

Racial Constructivism

Question 6

Versions of Racial Constructivism

Answer 6

a. Thin Constructivism

b. Interactive Kind Constructivism

c. Institutional Constructivism

Question 7

Humans are grouped by ancestry and genetically insignificant phenotypic properties

Answer 7

Thin Constructivism

Question 8

People ascribed a certain racial category will have certain common experiences

Answer 8

Interactive Kind Constructivism

Question 9

Race is a social institution, specific to the society in which it is embedded, and doesn’t apply across culture or history

Answer 9

Institutional Constructivism

Question 10

• 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

Answer 10

Irrationality of Racist Dispositions

Question 11

Race is a social institution, specific to the society in which it is embedded, and doesn’t apply across cultures or history

Answer 11

Institutional Constructivism