Race

Reflecting on the idea of “race” and the normative significance of race relations is an essential part of the enterprise of political philosophy. The principal goal is to think systematically about whether, and if so how, race should figure in our evaluation of institutional arrangements and power relations, in our treatment of each other within civil society, and in our self-conceptions and group affiliations. This article discusses the idea of race, racism, racial discrimination and social justice, responding to racial injustice, and racial identity and community.African and African American Studie

Racism, Morality, and Social Criticism

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Tommie Shelby is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is lecturing on racism, morality, and social criticism.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent webpag

The Ethics of Uncle Tom's Children

African and African American Studie

Justice, Work, and the Ghetto Poor

In view of the explanatory significance of joblessness, some social scientists, policymakers,and commentators have advocated strong measures to ensure that the ghetto poor work, includingmandating work as a condition of receiving welfare benefits. Indeed, across the ideological po-litical spectrum, work is often seen as a moral or civic duty and as a necessary basis for personaldignity. And this normative stance is now instantiated in federal and state law, from the tax schemeto public benefits. This Article reflects critically on this new regime of work. I ask whether thenormative principles to which its advocates typically appeal actually justify the regime. I concludethat the case for a pro tanto moral or civic duty to work is not as strong as many believe and thatthere are reasonable responses to joblessness that do not involve instituting a work regime. How-ever, even if we grant that there is a duty to work, I maintain that the ghetto poor would not bewronging their fellow citizens were they to choose not to work and to rely on public funds for ma-terial support. In fact, I argue that many among the black urban poor have good reasons to refuse towork. Throughout, I emphasize what too few advocates of the new work regime do, namely, thatwhether work is an obligation depends crucially on whether background social conditions withinthe polity are just.African and African American Studie

Liberalism, Self-Respect, and Troubling Cultural Patterns in Ghettos

African and African American StudiesPhilosoph

Prisons of the Forgotten: King on Ghettos and Economic Justice

King believed that racial injustice and economic injustice have always been linked in America. Tommie Shelby takes up the race-class nexus by considering King's analysis of ghetto poverty. Like Jim Crow segregation, ghetto conditions are a threat to dignity. But they are also incompatible with economic fairness and non-exploitative labor relations. Shelby discusses King's practical proposals for ending poverty in the United States and considers four principles of economic justice (each found in King's writings) that might justify these recommended remedies. He also takes up the question of what kind of egalitarian King was and whether he is best described as a socialist

Impure Dissent: Hip Hop and the Political Ethics of Marginalized Black Urban Youth

African and African American Studie