3.2 Assessing your intuitions about race

Now you will take a look at two cases that test your intuitions about which criteria determine racial identity. In these cases the criterion of ancestry conflicts with other possible criteria for determining someone’s race. Your responses to these puzzles will indicate your own intuitions on the criteria for determining race. The cases are adapted from the 1998 essay ‘But What Are You Really? The Metaphysics of Race’ by the philosopher Charles Mills. Mills is writing within an American context, and thinking about race within the American racial system. You may have different responses to these cases than Mills does, depending on your own understanding of race.

You’ll be asked to consider what race the person in each case would be judged to be depending on each criterion, and put down what your own intuition is. Once you’ve answered, you’ll be able to see what Mills’ intuition is.