3.1 Comparing criteria for determining race
Although Glasgow’s thought experiment is fantastical, the conflict between different criteria for assigning someone’s race can exist in real life. Now you will listen to an audio outlining some possible criteria for determining what race someone is, and afterwards you will work through your intuitions on some cases where these criteria conflict.
Activity 2
In the following audio, Azita Chellappoo from The Open University outlines some possible criteria for determining what race someone is. Listen to the audio and then answer the questions that follow. You can pause the audio and answer the questions as you go.
1. Why is physical appearance often used to make judgements about what race someone is?
Discussion
1. Physical appearance is typically readily available information. It is also often assumed to be reliable evidence of someone’s ancestry.
2. How does the relationship between ancestry and race vary across societies?
Discussion
2. In the US and the UK, ancestry is often taken to be necessary and sufficient for determining what race someone is. In other countries ancestry is less important, and other criteria such as physical appearance are more important. Also, the rules for the relationship between ancestry and race vary across societies.
3. How might someone’s self-awareness of ancestry be different from their actual ancestry?
Discussion
3. One example is that a person could have one idea of what their ancestry is before taking a DNA ancestry test, and the results could indicate that their ancestry is different to the idea they had before taking the test.
4. How might public awareness of someone’s ancestry be different from their actual ancestry?
Discussion
4. One example is that people could make assumptions about someone’s race based on their physical appearance. However, if their actual ancestry was known they would be classified as a different race.
OpenLearn - What can philosophy tell us about race?
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