Abstract

Traditional philosophical conceptions of racism are inadequate to capture all facets of racism: treatment based unconsciously on race, treatment based on statistics about race, and the asymmetry between anti-white racism and racism against people of color tend to be neglected by such accounts. In this dissertation, I explore these phenomena, discussing the extent to which they can be termed facets of "racism". I conclude that true racism must involve a mental trace; that is, a mental event in which racial identity and moral evaluation are connected---whether consciously or otherwise. This means that people of color can be racist, and that bad treatment based strictly on statistical racial generalizations is not, strictly speaking, racism. Nevertheless, I argue that a long history of this mental connection of racial identity with moral evaluation has influenced the social world to such an extent that we often unconsciously connect race with status. I term this social phenomenon "Background racism." ;Background racism, I go on to argue, affects our perceptions, language, and evaluative practices. It affects expectations in a way that produces "automatic racism"---unconsciously racist acts---and can result in institutional policies and practices that are properly called "racist". It makes actions that are not strictly racist---such as those based on statistical racial generalizations---nevertheless harmful, and makes white racism against people of color more damaging than anti-white racism. ;Affirmative action can help dismantle this background racism. By consciously valuing members of previously derogated groups, producing role models, and redistributing wealth and social power, such programs can begin to detach racial identification from moral evaluation. However, concerns about the inherent status hierarchy of racial identification, and the possibility of reifying socially created groups, must be addressed. I offer a new conception of racial identity that does not obviously fall prey to concerns about reification or "balkanization" and, further, will not detract from our goal of recognizing a common humanity, even as we recognize and attempt to redress past injustices