24.00: Problems of Philosophy Prof. Sally Haslanger October 3. 2001 Racisms I Racist Propositions Appiah distinguishes three importantly different ideas relevant to race and racism Racialism there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race. These traits and tendencies characteristic of a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; and it is part of the content of racialism that the essential eritable characteristics. account for more than the visible morphological characteristics-skin color, hair type, facial features-on the basis of which we make our informal classifications. (5) In other words: A racialist is one who maintains that people who appear similar on the basis of certain inherited physical characteristics(such as skin color, hair type, facial features)share a distinctive"racial essence"that is responsible for a range of psychological and behavioral traits and tendencies i Appiah argues(elsewhere) that racialism is false: There is no"racial essence"(genetic or otherwise) underlying the morphological features shared by members of what we count as races that is responsible for(supposed)similarities in traits and tendencies among members of racial groups. In other words, even if there are what we might call superficial races, i.e., groups of people who share certain inherited visible features, there are no racial kinds, i. e, groups unified by sharing a racia essence i A consequence of Appiah's denial of racialism is that if there are any psychological/behavioral similarities("common traits and tendencies")among members of "superficial races", this is due either to historical/cultural/social causes, or it is due to contingent natural correlations, e. g it might be that the members of genetically isolated groups are similar in many ways, both visibly and psychologically, but in such cases one cannot assume that there is an underlying"nature"or essence"that explains all the similarities. The correlation of visible and psychological features may be accidental, or due to contextual features, and may break down immediately when the group disperses or when the group's genetic isolation ends i Appiah maintains that racialists are wrong in the sense that the hold a false or incorrect view, but because racialism makes no moral or evaluative claims(it doesn't say anything about what's good or bad, what we ought to do or not do) there is nothing wrong morally speaking in being a racialist. As he puts it, racialism"seems to be a cognitive rather than a moral problem. (5) Extrinsic racism extrinsic racists make moral distinctions between members of different races because they believe that the racial essence entails certain morally relevant qualities. The basis for the extrinsic racists' discrimination between people is their belief that members of different races differ in respects that warrant the differential treatment, respects-such as honesty or courage or intelligence-that are uncontroversially held. to be acceptable as a basis for24.00: Problems of Philosophy Prof. Sally Haslanger October 3, 2001 Racisms I. Racist Propositions Appiah distinguishes three importantly different ideas relevant to race and racism: Racialism: ...there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race. These traits and tendencies characteristic of a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; and it is part of the content of racialism that the essential heritable characteristics...account for more than the visible morphological characteristics­skin color, hair type, facial features­on the basis of which we make our informal classifications. (5) In other words: A racialist is one who maintains that people who appear similar on the basis of certain inherited physical characteristics (such as skin color, hair type, facial features) share a distinctive "racial essence" that is responsible for a range of psychological and behavioral traits and tendencies. ï Appiah argues (elsewhere) that racialism is false: There is no "racial essence" (genetic or otherwise) underlying the morphological features shared by members of what we count as races that is responsible for (supposed) similarities in traits and tendencies among members of racial groups. In other words, even if there are what we might call superficial races, i.e., groups of people who share certain inherited visible features, there are no racial kinds, i.e., groups unified by sharing a racial essence. ï A consequence of Appiah's denial of racialism is that if there are any psychological/behavioral similarities ("common traits and tendencies") among members of "superficial races", this is due either to historical/cultural/social causes, or it is due to contingent natural correlations, e.g., it might be that the members of genetically isolated groups are similar in many ways, both visibly and psychologically, but in such cases one cannot assume that there is an underlying "nature" or "essence" that explains all the similarities. The correlation of visible and psychological features may be accidental, or due to contextual features, and may break down immediately when the group disperses or when the group's genetic isolation ends. ï Appiah maintains that racialists are wrong in the sense that the hold a false or incorrect view, but because racialism makes no moral or evaluative claims (it doesn't say anything about what's good or bad, what we ought to do or not do), there is nothing wrong morally speaking in being a racialist. As he puts it, racialism "seems to be a cognitive rather than a moral problem." (5) Extrinsic racism: ...extrinsic racists make moral distinctions between members of different races because they believe that the racial essence entails certain morally relevant qualities. The basis for the extrinsic racists' discrimination between people is their belief that members of different races differ in respects that warrant the differential treatment, respects­such as honesty or courage or intelligence­that are uncontroversially held...to be acceptable as a basis for