Course Description
This course is structured around the metaphysical, ontological, and epistemological issues that are generated by our concepts of "race" and "racism." The kinds of questions we will explore in the first part of the course include: What is race? Do races exist? If races do not exist, what ought we to do? If races exist, in what sense are they real? What would be necessary for races to be considered “scientifically objective” entities? What does it mean to call races “social constructions” and what are some of the problems with thinking of "race" in this way? In the second half of the course, we will apply what we learned in the first half and address questions such as: What is racism? Where does racism originate from? What sorts of things can be racist (e.g., persons, acts, beliefs, feelings, places, or institutions)? Is there such a thing as “unintentional” racism? What does it mean to say that racism is “structural” or “institutional”? Is it better to define racism in a narrow or broad sense? Is racism a set of beliefs (e.g., an ideology), a way of comporting oneself in the world (e.g., a vice), a set of feelings (e.g., biases), all of the above, or something else?
Meeting Times
This class will meet Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30-3:20pm, in SAV 136
Office Hours
Office hours will be held Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:30pm, in Savery Hall 385
Readings for the Course
All readings will be available online. So, there are no books to buy for this course. See Course Reading Schedule below.
Course Grading Scale
(roughly each 1% increment between grades is equivalent to 0.1)
A 95% = 4.0
B 85% = 3.0
C 75% = 2.0
D 65% = 1.0
Assignment Guidelines for Undergraduates
1. Reading Quizzes (35% of course grade)
Each quiz will consist of about 5-20, mostly multiple-choice, questions. There is no time limit and the questions chronologically follow the reading. You are therefore strongly encouraged to take the quiz as you complete the readings. Quizzes will be available for only 14 days. So, do not fall too far behind and keep in mind there is no way to make up the quizzes once the quizzes are closed.
2. Short Writing assignments (30% of course grade)
There will be two short writing assignments (about 2,500 words in length) throughout the term.
3. Final Paper (35% of course grade)
This assignment should be between 2,500 to 6,000 words. The format for this paper is as follows: double-spaced, 12-point font, in Times New Roman or something similar, and margins should be at least one inch wide but no more than 1.25 inches wide. Citations should follow either APA, MLA, or Chicago style. Papers should be turned in through Canvas and NOT by email.
Assignment Guidelines for Graduate Students
Term Paper
No less than 10 pages, but be no longer than 25 pages.
Please meet with instructor about a topic by week 9.
Course Reading Schedule:
Week One (Sept 24th): The Story of "Race"
Required Viewing:
Sept 24th (Wednesday): Race: The Power of an Illusion: “The Difference Between Us” (Episode 1)
Sept 24th (Wednesday): Race: The Power of an Illusion: “The Story We Tell” (Episode 2)
Week Two (Sept 29th and Oct 1st): Conserve or Eliminate "Race"?
Required Readings:
Sept 29th (Monday): K. Anthony Appiah: "Why There Are No Races" (1999)
Sept 29th (Monday): W.E.B. DuBois: “The Conservation of Races” (1897)
Oct 1st (Wednesday): K. Anthony Appiah: “The Uncompleted Argument: DuBois and the Illusion of Race” (1985)
Required Viewing:
Oct 3rd (Monday): Race: The Power of an Illusion: “The House We Live In” (Episode 3)
Week Three (Oct 6th and Oct 8th): Race as a Social (Re)Construction
Required Readings:
Oct 6th (Monday): Michael Omi and Howard Winant: "The Theory of Racial Formation" (2015)
Oct 8th (Wednesday): Joshua Glasgow: "A Third Way in the Race Debate" (2006)
Required Viewing:
Oct 6th (Monday): Black in Latin America: (Episode 1) Haiti and Dominican Republic
Black in Latin America: (Episode 3) Brazil: A Racial Paradise?
Week Four (Oct 13th & Oct 15th): Population Naturalism and Political Constructivism
Oct 13th (Monday): Robin O. Andreasen: "A New Perspective on the Race Debate" (1998)
Oct 15th (Wednesday): Sally Haslanger: "A Social Constructionist Analysis of Race" (2012)
Required Viewing:
Oct 13th (Monday): The Eugenics Crusade
Week Five (Oct 20th and Oct 22nd): The Contemporary Debate Over Racial Naturalism
Required Readings:
Oct 20th (Monday): Adam Hochman: "Against the New Racial Naturalism" (2013)
Oct 20th (Monday): Quayshawn Spencer: "The Unnatural Racial Naturalism" (2014)
Oct 22nd (Wednesday): Quayshawn Spencer: "A Radical Solution to the Race Problem" (2014)
Week Six (Oct 27th and Oct 29th): Making Racial Constructivism Work
Required Readings:
Oct 27th (Monday): Adam Hochman: "Unnaturalised Racial Naturalism" (2014)
Oct 27th (Monday): Adam Hochman: "Replacing Race: Interactive Constructionism about Racialized Groups" (2017)
Oct 29th (Wednesday): Michael O. Hardimon: "Why Social Constructionists Should Embrace Minimalist Race" (2022)
Week Seven (Nov 3rd and Nov 5th): The Source of "Racism"
Required Reading:
Nov 3rd (Monday): Jorge L.A. Garcia: “The Heart of Racism” (1996)
Nov 5th: (Wednesday): Tommie Shelby: "Is Racism in the “Heart”?" (2002)
Week Eight (Nov 10th and Nov 12th): The Sites of "Racism"
Required Readings:
Nov 10th (Monday): Lawrence Blum: "Racism: Its Core Meaning" (2002)
Nov 12th (Wednesday): Tommie Shelby: "Racism, Moralism, and Social Criticism" (2014)
Week Nine (Nov 17th and Nov 19th): Criticisms and Defenses of Individualist Accounts of Racism
Required Readings:
Nov 17th: (Monday): Sally Haslanger: "Oppressions: Racial and Other" (2004)
Nov 19th: (Wednesday): D. C. Matthew: "Against Institutional Racism" (2024)
Week Ten (Nov 24th and Nov 26th): Institutional Racism: A Defense
Required Readings:
Nov 24th: (Monday): César Cabezas: "Is Conceptual Inflation a Problem for a Theory of Institutional Racism? (2024)
Nov 26th (Wednesday): No Class
Week Eleven (Dec 1st and Dec 3rd): Current Virtue and Doxastic Accounts of "Racism"
Required Readings:
Dec 1st: (Monday): Ian Peebles: "Toward a Virtue‑Based Account of Racism" (2024)
Dec 3rd: (Wednesday): Jordan Scott: Putting Racism Back in the Head (2025)