"""I'm Not a Racist, But..."""

The Moral Quandary of Race

Lawrence Blum

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English

Cornell University Press
14 November 2001

Social & political philosophy; Social discrimination; Ethnic studies

"Not all racial incidents are racist incidents, Lawrence Blum says. ""We need a more varied and nuanced moral vocabulary for talking about the arena of race. We should not be faced with a choice of 'racism' or nothing."" Use of the word ""racism"" is pervasive: An article about the NAACP's criticism of television networks for casting too few ""minority"" actors in lead roles asks, ""Is television a racist institution?"" A white girl in Virginia says it is racist for her African-American teacher to wear African attire.

Blum argues that a growing tendency to castigate as ""racism"" everything that goes wrong in the racial domain reduces the term's power to evoke moral outrage. In ""I'm Not a Racist, But ..."", Blum develops a historically grounded account of racism as the deeply morally-charged notion it has become. He addresses the question whether people of color can be racist, defines types of racism, and identifies debased and inappropriate usages of the term. Though racial insensitivity, racial anxiety, racial ignorance and racial injustice are, in his view, not ""racism,"" they are racial ills that should elicit moral concern. Blum argues that ""race"" itself, even when not serving distinct racial malfeasance, is a morally destructive idea, implying moral distance and unequal worth. History and genetic science reveal both the avoidability and the falsity of the idea of race. Blum argues that we can give up the idea of race, but must recognize that racial groups' historical and social experience has been shaped by having been treated as if they were races."

By: Lawrence Blum
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 907g
ISBN: 9780801438691
ISBN 10: 0801438691
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 14 November 2001
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Lawrence Blum is Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His previous books include Moral Perception and Particularity and Friendship, Altruism, and Morality.

Reviews for """I'm Not a Racist, But...""": The Moral Quandary of Race

With an impressive combination of moral acuteness, precision of reasoning, and wide-ranging empirical knowledge, Lawrence Blum, a fine philosopher, dissects our concepts of race and racism. He argues that 'racism' has all too frequently been a catch-all label for people and conduct of many different types, and that we will gain as a society if we make many more careful distinctions; between actions and traits of character, between the acts of dominant groups and reactive actions of subordinated groups, and above all, between racism, a morally grave failing involving inferioriaztion or animosity, and other moral failings, such as racial insensitivity, race-related ignorance, and deficient appreciation of individuality. Written in a lively, clear, and accessible style, Blum's book makes a major contribution toward a style of politics that rejects mere epithets and slogans in favor of thoughtful deliberation about shared problems. Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freud Professor of Law and Ethics, The University of Chicago