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Ethics and Race

Past and Present Intersections and Controversies

Naomi Zack

This dynamic new text for ethics and philosophy of race courses brings together subjects philosophers have generally kept separate—ethics and race. But every issue concerning race is an ethical issue, and it's time we studied them as such.

Naomi Zack introduces students to historical and contemporary issues of race and racism and provides an ethical foundation for students to critically engage with these issues in the classroom and in their lives. The chapters discuss affirmative action and diversity, current protests from across the political spectrum, police killings, the relevance of race to the effects of disasters and climate change, white privilege as a cause for political impasse, racial identity (including mixed race identities), race and gender, and media representations of race.

While treating issues of race as moral subjects with suggested moral foundations, Zack does not lead the student to specific conclusions. Rather, through thought, discussion, and writing questions, students learn to construct their own chains of reasonings based on explicit moral foundations.

The book features:

• Up-to-date social and biological scientific findings

• Hot-button current issues

• discussion questions and writing prompts

• further reading lists and video resources

• a comprehensive glossary

• international examples to supplement US-based discussion

  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Features
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 274 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-5381-6671-0 • Hardback • August 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
978-1-5381-6672-7 • Paperback • August 2022 • $34.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-5381-6673-4 • eBook • August 2022 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
Subjects: Social Science / Race & Ethnic Relations, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race, Philosophy / Social, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Courses: Philosophy; Social & Political Philosophy, Philosophy; Ethics; Applied Ethics, Sociology; Race/Class/Gender; Race & Ethnic Relations

Naomi Zack is professor of philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. Her recent books are: The American Tragedy of COVID-19: Social and Political Crises of 2020 (2021), Progressive Anonymity: From Identity Politics to Evidence-Based Government (2020); Reviving the Social Compact: Inclusive Citizenship in an Age of Extreme Politics (2018).

Preface and Acknowledgments

Part I: Ideas and History of Race

1. What are Ethics and Race?

What is Ethics?

What is Race?

“Judged by the Content of Their Character”

2. Democracy and Social Ethics

Race, Friendship, and Marriage

The Tragedy of the Commons

The Common Good

3. The History of Race and Racism

Racism as Ideology

The History of Ideas of Race

White Supremacy and Eugenics

4. Science and Race

Moral Reasoning and Race

Race in Society and Social Science

The Lack of Physical Biology in Race

Intellectual Virtue, Science, and Race

Part II: Law and Policy

5. Civil Rights and Political Rights

The US Civil Rights Movement

The Voting Rights Act and Its Reversals

Welfare as Positive Rights

6. Immigration

US Immigration Before and After 1965

The Moral Issue of DACA

7. Affirmative Action and Diversity

The History of Affirmative Action and Diversity

Affirmative Action and Diversity Today: Comparisons and Pros and Cons

8. Compensation, Reparation, Rectification, and Reconciliation

Compensation

Reparation

Rectification

Reconciliation

Part III: Social Institutions

9. The US Criminal Justice System

Punishment

Demographics

Reform Projects Impacting Prisoners of Color

10. Police Reform

Police Actions in High-Profile Killings

US Supreme Court Rulings and Police Impunity

Police Reform and Its Obstacles

11. Dignity, Income, and Wealth

Racial Minorities and Economic Dignity

Income

Wealth

12. Education

The Structure of the US Educational System

Leisure Versus Work

Controversial Content

13. Health and Disability

Disparities in Racial and Ethnic Health

Wellness and Food

Disabilities and Mental Health

Part IV: Social Disruptions

14. Everyday Racism

Place Segregation

Anti-Racist Coping Strategies

Microaggression

White Privilege and White Status

15. Hate Speech and Hate Crimes

Hate Speech

Hate Crimes

Reporting and Punishing Hate Crimes

16. Protests from the Left and Right

Protests from the Left

Protests from the Right

Do Protests Work?

Part V: Identity and Representation

17. Mixed Race

Mixed Race and Social Construction

The Importance of the One-Drop Rule

Moral Aspects of Mixed-Race Identity

18. Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Complexities of Jewish Identity

Resistant Indigenous Identity

Cosmopolitan Ideals

19. Intersectionality and Gender

Black Women’s Recognition

Constructions of Black Male Gender

Latina identities

20. Representation in Media and Society

Latina Representation

Asian-American Representation

Memorials for African Americans and Native Americans

21. Sport

How Racism in Sport has Mirrored Society

Vulnerabilities of Athletes

How Star Athletes Have Spoken Out Against Injustice

Part VI – The Natural and International World

22. Natural Disaster

Disaster and Racial Social Construction

Preparation

Comparing Harvey and Maria

23. COVID-19

Increasingly Violent Racism Against Asian Americans and Jewish Americans

Pandemic Effects on African Americans, Hispanic/Latinx Americans, and Native Americans

24. Global Issues and Humanitarianism

The Capabilities Approach

The Human Security Paradigm

Climate Change and Humanity

Glossary

About the Author

In Ethics and Race, Zack focuses on the intersection of philosophical ethics with race studies. The book is designed for lower-level semester courses and begins by examining ethics and race separately to enable readers to access definitions, issues, and diverse perspectives. As an introductory text, the book simplifies many ideas. For teaching purposes, a background in philosophy will help with unpacking terminology, advanced explanations, and logical argumentation. Such a background will also allow students to move into deeper discussions and to better analyze the complexities and perspectives discussed. This reviewer therefore strongly recommends this volume for philosophical classroom use. The book can also be read successfully outside a course as it offers an expansive discussion of ethics and race, both individually and as they intersect. For those outside academia, this book is an excellent way to enter these difficult conversations but will require more detailed readings for readers to gain proficiency in the subject matter. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.


— Choice Reviews


Race is the most powerful concept of social organization and terror ever created in human history. Naomi Zack’s Ethics and Race offers a conceptually rich study of the ethical dilemmas race creates in law, science, and moral reasoning. In this well-done book, students and scholars alike will become well acquainted with the perils the race concept poses for our contemporary thinking and ethical decision-making.


— Tommy Curry, The University of Edinburgh, author of The Man-Not


Dr. Naomi Zack’s Ethics and Race is a refreshing and desperately needed bridging of philosophical ethics and philosophy of race. Lucid and rigorous, this text is an invaluable resource for educators and for anyone who is trying to make sense of our fraught social-political landscape.


— George N. Fourlas, co-editor of Radical Philosophy Review, professor, Hampshire College


Philosopher Naomi Zack offers comprehensive, highly readable analyses of critical ethical dimensions of contemporary racism. Digesting much social science and philosophical research, she provides thought-provoking analyses for students, teachers, and general readers. A timely book for Americans facing major anti-democratic challenges from white supremacist uprisings!


— Joe Feagin, Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University, and author of Racist America


Careful, complete, engagingly written, Zack’s approach in this book is fantastic. It is well organized, timely, and extremely useful for teaching.


— Emily McRae, associate professor, University of New Mexico


Ethics and Race is a revolutionary book that re-frames the study of ethics and the study of race, showing their profound intertwinement and offering lucid, concrete discussions of such timely issues. There is no other book like this, and indeed no philosopher other than Naomi Zack could have composed this book. The twenty-four chapters of Ethics and Race are precise and fecund; each topic is systematically laid out and supplemented with questions for discussion, videos, and a glossary. Ethics and Race is a gift to teachers and scholars. Zack’s vision for philosophy is that it should illuminate our reality and provide the conditions for us to become better humans, not through an abstract commitment to human nature or the good life, but through police reform, redistribution of wealth, supporting health care for the vulnerable, rejecting sexism, and challenging white supremacy.


— T Storm Heter, professor, director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Intercultural Studies, East Stroudsburg University


Professor Zack’s Ethics and Race: Past and Present Intersections and Controversies, offers instructors a very useful tool to help them engage and educate students on the perennial moral issue of race and racism.


— Rodney C. Roberts, associate professor of philosophy, East Carolina University


The author Naomi Zack is a reputable and well-known scholar, and this book is no exception to that record of scholarship. There definitely are valuable and insightful thought gems that emerge from the text, such as an insightful passage about microaggressions (132–133). This book is worth a look, especially in Liberal Arts and humanities classroom contexts related to racism, social issues, and social justice.


— Confluence: The Journal of the AGLSP


• Up-to-date social and biological scientific findings

• Hot-button current issues

• Discussion questions and writing prompts

• Further reading lists and video resources

• A comprehensive glossary

• International examples to supplement US-based discussion



Ethics and Race

Past and Present Intersections and Controversies

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • This dynamic new text for ethics and philosophy of race courses brings together subjects philosophers have generally kept separate—ethics and race. But every issue concerning race is an ethical issue, and it's time we studied them as such.

    Naomi Zack introduces students to historical and contemporary issues of race and racism and provides an ethical foundation for students to critically engage with these issues in the classroom and in their lives. The chapters discuss affirmative action and diversity, current protests from across the political spectrum, police killings, the relevance of race to the effects of disasters and climate change, white privilege as a cause for political impasse, racial identity (including mixed race identities), race and gender, and media representations of race.

    While treating issues of race as moral subjects with suggested moral foundations, Zack does not lead the student to specific conclusions. Rather, through thought, discussion, and writing questions, students learn to construct their own chains of reasonings based on explicit moral foundations.

    The book features:

    • Up-to-date social and biological scientific findings

    • Hot-button current issues

    • discussion questions and writing prompts

    • further reading lists and video resources

    • a comprehensive glossary

    • international examples to supplement US-based discussion

Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 274 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
    978-1-5381-6671-0 • Hardback • August 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
    978-1-5381-6672-7 • Paperback • August 2022 • $34.00 • (£25.00)
    978-1-5381-6673-4 • eBook • August 2022 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
    Subjects: Social Science / Race & Ethnic Relations, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race, Philosophy / Social, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
    Courses: Philosophy; Social & Political Philosophy, Philosophy; Ethics; Applied Ethics, Sociology; Race/Class/Gender; Race & Ethnic Relations
Author
Author
  • Naomi Zack is professor of philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. Her recent books are: The American Tragedy of COVID-19: Social and Political Crises of 2020 (2021), Progressive Anonymity: From Identity Politics to Evidence-Based Government (2020); Reviving the Social Compact: Inclusive Citizenship in an Age of Extreme Politics (2018).

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Preface and Acknowledgments

    Part I: Ideas and History of Race

    1. What are Ethics and Race?

    What is Ethics?

    What is Race?

    “Judged by the Content of Their Character”

    2. Democracy and Social Ethics

    Race, Friendship, and Marriage

    The Tragedy of the Commons

    The Common Good

    3. The History of Race and Racism

    Racism as Ideology

    The History of Ideas of Race

    White Supremacy and Eugenics

    4. Science and Race

    Moral Reasoning and Race

    Race in Society and Social Science

    The Lack of Physical Biology in Race

    Intellectual Virtue, Science, and Race

    Part II: Law and Policy

    5. Civil Rights and Political Rights

    The US Civil Rights Movement

    The Voting Rights Act and Its Reversals

    Welfare as Positive Rights

    6. Immigration

    US Immigration Before and After 1965

    The Moral Issue of DACA

    7. Affirmative Action and Diversity

    The History of Affirmative Action and Diversity

    Affirmative Action and Diversity Today: Comparisons and Pros and Cons

    8. Compensation, Reparation, Rectification, and Reconciliation

    Compensation

    Reparation

    Rectification

    Reconciliation

    Part III: Social Institutions

    9. The US Criminal Justice System

    Punishment

    Demographics

    Reform Projects Impacting Prisoners of Color

    10. Police Reform

    Police Actions in High-Profile Killings

    US Supreme Court Rulings and Police Impunity

    Police Reform and Its Obstacles

    11. Dignity, Income, and Wealth

    Racial Minorities and Economic Dignity

    Income

    Wealth

    12. Education

    The Structure of the US Educational System

    Leisure Versus Work

    Controversial Content

    13. Health and Disability

    Disparities in Racial and Ethnic Health

    Wellness and Food

    Disabilities and Mental Health

    Part IV: Social Disruptions

    14. Everyday Racism

    Place Segregation

    Anti-Racist Coping Strategies

    Microaggression

    White Privilege and White Status

    15. Hate Speech and Hate Crimes

    Hate Speech

    Hate Crimes

    Reporting and Punishing Hate Crimes

    16. Protests from the Left and Right

    Protests from the Left

    Protests from the Right

    Do Protests Work?

    Part V: Identity and Representation

    17. Mixed Race

    Mixed Race and Social Construction

    The Importance of the One-Drop Rule

    Moral Aspects of Mixed-Race Identity

    18. Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

    Complexities of Jewish Identity

    Resistant Indigenous Identity

    Cosmopolitan Ideals

    19. Intersectionality and Gender

    Black Women’s Recognition

    Constructions of Black Male Gender

    Latina identities

    20. Representation in Media and Society

    Latina Representation

    Asian-American Representation

    Memorials for African Americans and Native Americans

    21. Sport

    How Racism in Sport has Mirrored Society

    Vulnerabilities of Athletes

    How Star Athletes Have Spoken Out Against Injustice

    Part VI – The Natural and International World

    22. Natural Disaster

    Disaster and Racial Social Construction

    Preparation

    Comparing Harvey and Maria

    23. COVID-19

    Increasingly Violent Racism Against Asian Americans and Jewish Americans

    Pandemic Effects on African Americans, Hispanic/Latinx Americans, and Native Americans

    24. Global Issues and Humanitarianism

    The Capabilities Approach

    The Human Security Paradigm

    Climate Change and Humanity

    Glossary

    About the Author

Reviews
Reviews
  • In Ethics and Race, Zack focuses on the intersection of philosophical ethics with race studies. The book is designed for lower-level semester courses and begins by examining ethics and race separately to enable readers to access definitions, issues, and diverse perspectives. As an introductory text, the book simplifies many ideas. For teaching purposes, a background in philosophy will help with unpacking terminology, advanced explanations, and logical argumentation. Such a background will also allow students to move into deeper discussions and to better analyze the complexities and perspectives discussed. This reviewer therefore strongly recommends this volume for philosophical classroom use. The book can also be read successfully outside a course as it offers an expansive discussion of ethics and race, both individually and as they intersect. For those outside academia, this book is an excellent way to enter these difficult conversations but will require more detailed readings for readers to gain proficiency in the subject matter. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.


    — Choice Reviews


    Race is the most powerful concept of social organization and terror ever created in human history. Naomi Zack’s Ethics and Race offers a conceptually rich study of the ethical dilemmas race creates in law, science, and moral reasoning. In this well-done book, students and scholars alike will become well acquainted with the perils the race concept poses for our contemporary thinking and ethical decision-making.


    — Tommy Curry, The University of Edinburgh, author of The Man-Not


    Dr. Naomi Zack’s Ethics and Race is a refreshing and desperately needed bridging of philosophical ethics and philosophy of race. Lucid and rigorous, this text is an invaluable resource for educators and for anyone who is trying to make sense of our fraught social-political landscape.


    — George N. Fourlas, co-editor of Radical Philosophy Review, professor, Hampshire College


    Philosopher Naomi Zack offers comprehensive, highly readable analyses of critical ethical dimensions of contemporary racism. Digesting much social science and philosophical research, she provides thought-provoking analyses for students, teachers, and general readers. A timely book for Americans facing major anti-democratic challenges from white supremacist uprisings!


    — Joe Feagin, Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University, and author of Racist America


    Careful, complete, engagingly written, Zack’s approach in this book is fantastic. It is well organized, timely, and extremely useful for teaching.


    — Emily McRae, associate professor, University of New Mexico


    Ethics and Race is a revolutionary book that re-frames the study of ethics and the study of race, showing their profound intertwinement and offering lucid, concrete discussions of such timely issues. There is no other book like this, and indeed no philosopher other than Naomi Zack could have composed this book. The twenty-four chapters of Ethics and Race are precise and fecund; each topic is systematically laid out and supplemented with questions for discussion, videos, and a glossary. Ethics and Race is a gift to teachers and scholars. Zack’s vision for philosophy is that it should illuminate our reality and provide the conditions for us to become better humans, not through an abstract commitment to human nature or the good life, but through police reform, redistribution of wealth, supporting health care for the vulnerable, rejecting sexism, and challenging white supremacy.


    — T Storm Heter, professor, director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Intercultural Studies, East Stroudsburg University


    Professor Zack’s Ethics and Race: Past and Present Intersections and Controversies, offers instructors a very useful tool to help them engage and educate students on the perennial moral issue of race and racism.


    — Rodney C. Roberts, associate professor of philosophy, East Carolina University


    The author Naomi Zack is a reputable and well-known scholar, and this book is no exception to that record of scholarship. There definitely are valuable and insightful thought gems that emerge from the text, such as an insightful passage about microaggressions (132–133). This book is worth a look, especially in Liberal Arts and humanities classroom contexts related to racism, social issues, and social justice.


    — Confluence: The Journal of the AGLSP


Features
Features
  • • Up-to-date social and biological scientific findings

    • Hot-button current issues

    • Discussion questions and writing prompts

    • Further reading lists and video resources

    • A comprehensive glossary

    • International examples to supplement US-based discussion



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