Course Description: In this course we will focus on an ongoing major conversation in contemporary political philosophy, which revolves around the connections between themes of race, liberalism, democracy, egalitarianism, and justice. We will do so by extensively reading and engaging with three major figures in the field, Elizabeth Anderson, Tommie Shelby, and Charles Mills. As we familiarize ourselves and grapple with their central arguments, we will discuss issues of segregation, affirmative action, colorblindness, dissent, solidarity, and self-expression. Over the course of the semester we will attempt to answer questions surround the compatibility of liberalism with racial justice, the best ways to theorize about existing unjust societies, and what commitments egalitarianism demands of us.
T 8/18: Course Introduction: what is liberalism?
Weeks 1-5: Elizabeth Anderson, The Imperative of Integration
R 8/20: Segregation and Social Inequality
T 8/25: Racial Segregation and Material Inequality in the United States
R 8/27: Segregation, Racial Stigma, and Discrimination
T 9/1: Racial Segregation Today: A Normative Assessment
R 9/3: Democratic Ideals and Segregation
T 9/8: The Imperative of Integration
R 9/10: Understanding Affirmative Action
T 9/15: The Folly and Incoherence of Colorblindness
R 9/17: The Ordeal and Promise of Integration
Weeks 6-9: Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghettoes: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform
T 9/22: Introduction: Rethinking the Problem of the Ghetto
R 9/24: Injustice
T 9/29: Community
R 10/1: Culture
T 10/6: Crime
R 10/8: Punishment
T 10/10: Impure Dissent
R 10/15: Epilogue: Renewing Ghetto Abolitionism
Weeks 10-14: Charles Mills, Black Rights, White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism
T 10/19: Occupy Liberalism!
R 10/22: Racial Liberalism
T 10/26: “Ideal Theory” as Ideology
R 10/29: Racial Exploitation
T 11/3: Tommie Shelby, Race and Social Justice: Rawlsian Considerations
R 11/5: Rawls on Race/Race on Rawls
T 11/10: Retrieving Rawls for Racial Justice
R 11/12: Tommie Shelby, Racial Realities and Corrective Justice: A Reply to Charles Mills
T 11/17: Toward a Black Radical Liberalism
R 11/19: Wrap-up