charles mills

intro’d to Charles via Clint here:

Check out Charles Mills’ lecture at King’s College where he discusses the social & historical construction of race: https://t.co/yV1K7CxWr0

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/ClintSmithIII/status/699734797376233472

Does Race Exist? – 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epAv6Q6da_o

race does exist.. but not biological but sociopolitical.. reality that is socially created.. not intrinsic..no natural demarcation.. rather..lines artificially drawn by human beings.. in response to particular political charges

race then becomes a system.. when ask.. what is your race.. asking… where are you located in respect to the system

the system varies.. can move from one country to another and assume a diff race

we can’t assume race is constructed.. so it is unreal..

being categorized.. slots you in a particular position in this racial system.. immense influence on opportunities… et al… as such.. likely to have impact on your consciousness as well..

so social reality not taken to imply not something that matters.. it matter hugely.. we need to locate the proper meta physics of it… a social ontology

in talking about race.. more illuminating to talk about a race system than racism..

we  need to not just focus on racism.. but racial denomination..

you can have a black guy in the white house and still have a system of white domination

thinking Baldwin – if i was a nigger in your eyes.. that’s something about you..something you needed

The Racist Roots of Liberalism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEr-xXHVjKk

liberalism far from condemning.. colonialism, slavery… has usually been complicit with all of them

racial liberalism… patriarchal liberalism…

rules all become racialized.. diff set of rules once cross lines of color..

things like self-ownership et al.. shaped by this racial lens..

even if in past.. (which is not true) … how has liberalism been shaped by racism..  have liberalism via dominant make up .. so interest via whites

clearest manifestation.. failure to deal with racial injustice... huge material on justice..

part of explanation… racial injustice is recent.. so not appropriately philosophical.. so not seen as important..

reasons why wrong: 1\ race is injustice distinctive to modernity… 2\ major crimes – genocide, slavery 3\ race is weird subject.. 4\ racial injustice has effected fate of majority of world’s population

why no interest from philosophers in part of racial injustice: overwhelming white profession

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Materializing Race

i’m not saying we should materialize race.. i’m saying it’s already material… an attempt to explain.. if it is in the first place.. how so..

meta physics of race –

owners of means of production have preferential pull – marx/engles… class supposed to be a more foundational.. because it’s material.. cannot assimilate historical materialism to naturalistic materialism

12 min – political economy relating to race…

16 min – you want a materialism that is sensitive to history…

18 min – marx didn’t recognize white supremacy –

19 min – race as modern phenom..- marx – would say racism exists. but not race.. racism to rationalize super exploitation

21 min – material is exhausted by class.. only class system is capitalism… denied that they could have racial interests… limits race to ideological level of racism…

what to do in response… (to marx) .. recognize white supremacy as a system in itself analogous to class domination

24 min – need to not just look at basic income.. but wealth – provides cushion against medical catastrophe et al… median white household has 10x wealth of median black household.. bottom 5th of white has 400x black.. larger at working class level..

materiality of race can be cashed out.. white worker has better chance of getting ahead… in this way.. race is material..

28 min – more controversial – linda’s work – crucial diff between race and sex… gender identities… ubiquitous.. gender is far older than race.. embedded in the specie

how do you focus on distinctive political economy of race and link to gender and class..

29 min – socialist feminism.. before rise of post structuralism .. said marx’s feminism orthodox.. radical fem’s .. a whole lot of gender subordination.. socialist.. said let’s bring these two bodies together.. try to theorize gender as material -…. start organizing around claim.. since women have children.. they should raise children.. male denomination..

32 min – from my perspective.. need a triple system.. incorporating race… even w/o class ideology.. still need to eat to survive.. women bear children… nothing in race that corresponds to that… racial biological differentiation is superficial… so what could make race material..

orthodox marxist would say.. nothing to match others  – so race is just class at a diff scale..

35 min – my claim – we should see person as a category that is both ethical (human) and political economic (norms for application are not determined by intrinsic features of human beings… rather social)

36 min – how racially restricted personhood is… ie: whiteness was a pre req for personhood.. sub population – people of color..

so advent of modernity removes formal class barriers.. europeans, serfs… replaces with race.. then have triple system: production/reproduction; person/subpersonhood; subhuman people of color – personhood not recognized

37 min – racial membership entitled to or barred from normal human treatment… categories of capitalist/worker,male/female… categories that appear natural.. but part of a political economy.. human race is extensive with white race.. those outside not quite human

39 min – the materiality of race can’t be conceptualized as others… once decision to bring race into existence.. race takes on life/materiality of its own… since race is demarcation of human… less than human.. it means you get a category.. not just ideological …manifested in institutions/practices .. et al.. body in this world now require .. the markos on these bodies bespeak fully/not fully human

40 min – where materiality occurs… again from linda – tacit .. almost hidden in view.. why they’re resistant to erasure.. the role in unconscious habit (revealing whiteness)..white privilege not just in the head.. but the nose, throat, et al..

42 min – materiality comes in.. it’s voluntary.. but once comes in .. is resistant…  in coercive ways.. blinds us… shaping views… largely immune to intervention.. our bodies (material) have learned to see other bodies (material)…. race is indeed material…

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find/follow Charles:
http://www.philosophy.northwestern.edu/people/continuing-faculty/mills-charles.html

Charles W. Mills is a Caribbean philosopher from Jamaica. He is known for his work in social and political philosophy, particularly in oppositional political theory as centered on class, gender, and race.