The Role of Race in Racial Discrimination

Frederikke Egestrand

Aarhus University

What is the role of race in racial discrimination? The philosophical debate about race has usually focused on two related questions: (1) if anything that we term “race” exists, and (2) if so, what is the nature of such category. Within this debate there are two major camps, viz., realists and anti-realists. Realists hold that race exists, but they differ in their answers concerning its nature. In contrast, anti-realists hold that nothing in the world can rightly be called “race” thereby denying its existence. Despite lively discussion in the metaphysics of race, the debate has resulted in a deadlock between realists and anti-realists.

In this talk, I will present an alternative means of making progress in this deadlock. I will argue that since it is common ground among all theories of race that racial discrimination exists, we ought to consider what theory of race is best able to account for the existence and nature of racial discrimination. In other words, is the existence of racial discrimination best explained in terms of the existence of races or is it better explained without reference to races as a real property?

I will argue that by conceiving of the debate about race as such, provide promising desideratum for making progress in the debate. I will not seek to answer the question of which of these provides the proper theory. Instead, I aim to show that we ought to abandon our prior commitments to explicating the existence and nature of race with reference to what “race” refers to. By focusing on the role of race in racial discrimination as opposed to what “race” refers to, we may also gain better understanding how to mitigate racial discrimination, as it is essential to understand on what basis racial discrimination occurs if we are to counteract racial injustice.

Chair: tba

Time: September 13th, 16:00-16:30

Location: HS E.002