This is part of the Political Philosophy and Race Speaker Series.
The location will be posted closer to the date.
Title: “Not Like Us”: Respect, Standing, and White Tribalism
Abstract:
There are supposed to be deep contradictions between Enlightenment moral ideals and inherited slavery. This has led to undying inquiry into Western slavery’s moral justification, as if such a possibility is conceivable. The standard story locates normative error in mistaken beliefs about human beings or vicious attitudes now commonly understood to be racist. I reject that story and an underlying emphasis on lack of respect for enslaved Africa-identified persons (“blacks”) by “white” Europeans. Social standing, I argue, is normatively more fundamental than respect. Acknowledged status as human beings does not presuppose or rationally entail social standing as members of a law-governed community that ultimately answers to its own insider norms and prerogatives.
