# 5 What is racism?

You have learned about two positions in the metaphysics of race debate – two answers to the question ‘what is race?’. Race and racism are linked ideas, especially for those who think that race itself only exists when racism (in the form of a social hierarchy) exists. But what, exactly, is racism? As with race, people have very different ideas about what racism is and when something is or is not racist.

The philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah wrote of racism that:

> We see it everywhere, but rarely does anyone stop to say what it is, or to explain what is wrong with it.

(Appiah, 1990, p. 3)

One thing that philosophers do is try to clarify everyday concepts, such as racism. Philosophy can provide the tools of rigorous reasoning and analysis through which we can arrive at a more precise, more accurate, or more thorough understanding of the idea under investigation.

In the case of racism, philosophers have debated what racism, fundamentally or primarily, is. Is it based in features of institutions or social structures? Is it primarily interpersonal (about interactions between individuals)? Is something racist only when individual perpetrators have racist hearts or racist beliefs? Can something be racist if it has harmful or discriminatory effects, regardless of anyone’s intentions?

Why does providing an account of racism matter? One reason is that, in general, there is a shared sense that racism is something bad, to be gotten rid of or stamped out. Identifying something as racism means identifying something that should be eliminated. Furthermore, one might think that racism, compared with, say, mere prejudice, ignorance, or unkindness, is particularly bad – perhaps it should be a priority to eradicate racism in society. So, working out what racism is and therefore what counts as racism and what doesn’t is crucial to pinpointing what we should direct our efforts towards eliminating. In addition, the sorts of solutions that are most appropriate or appealing might differ depending on what we think racism is. For example, whether we ought to be focusing on changing people’s hearts and minds, whether we should be focusing on reducing harmful effects, or whether we should be focusing on remedying racist institutions or social structures.

Now you will watch a clip from a conversation with Dr Helen Ngo, who is a research fellow at Deakin University in Australia and an expert on the philosophy of racism. In this video Dr Ngo discusses how different definitions of racism impact how racism is identified and addressed.

## Activity 7

Spend about twenty minutes on this activity

Watch the following video.

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Transcript

After watching the video, answer the following questions. You may need to watch the video again, pausing as you go.

1. In the video, Dr Ngo says that in the Australian context the dominant way that racism is understood is primarily as ‘actions or behaviours between individuals that are intended to subjugate another person’. What, according to Dr Ngo, is the problem with defining racism in this way?

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### Discussion

1. According to Dr Ngo, this definition is too narrow. It can lead to a ‘politics of politeness’, where the way to deal with racism is to ‘be nice to each other’. Following this strategy would not address underlying racial disparities in society.

2. Dr Ngo discusses the example of children’s books predominantly featuring white protagonists. How does this example illustrate the effect of a definition of racism on what is identified as a problem?

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### Discussion

2. If racism is defined as being predominantly interpersonal or as something that must be consciously intended, then the over-representation of white protagonists in children’s books would not count as racism. However, there are harmful effects for children and educators that arise from the racial disparity in protagonists of children’s books, which Dr Ngo claims are important to capture within our definition of racism.

Providing a philosophical account of racism can give us a principled way to look out into the world and pick out what counts as racism and what does not, and therefore what we should try to get rid of and what we shouldn’t. The racial disparity in protagonists of children’s books provides one illustration of this.

OpenLearn - What can philosophy tell us about race?
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