Adequacy Conditions for a Prescriptive Theory of Racism: Toward an Oppression-Centered Account

Abstract

This chapter articulates criteria for a prescriptive theory of racism and introduces an oppression-centered theory of racism. The author proposes three adequacy criteria. First, prescriptive theory ought to accommodate usage of “racism” that corresponds to the legitimate need we have for the convention. Second, the explanatory condition holds that a theory of “racism” should seek to explain one form of racism in terms of more basic forms, viz. those that most closely meet the need for the convention. Third, a theory of racism should, as much as possible, resolve practical problems prompted by ordinary usage of “racism,” and should avoid generating any practical problems of its own. The author’s case for defining “racism” as racial oppression is made by reference to these three criteria. Along the way, he repudiates Tommie Shelby and Charles Mills’ arguments against moralist accounts of racism and draws from his oppression theory to illustrate how it might be used to show that implicit racial bias and white privilege are racist phenomena.