Last Changes: 1/12/09

A core question of contemporary social morality concerns how we ought to handle racial categorization. By this we mean, for instance, classifying or thinking of a person as Black, Korean, Latino, White, etc. While it is widely agreed that racial categorization played a crucial role in past racial oppression, there remains disagreement among philosophers and social theorists about the ideal role for racial categorization in future endeavors. At one extreme of this disagreement are short-term eliminativists who want to do away with racial categorization relatively quickly (e.g. Appiah 1995, D’Souza 1996, Muir 1993, Wasserstrom 2001 /1980, Webster 1992, Zack 1993, 2002), typically because they view it as mistaken and oppressive. At the far opposite end of the spectrum, long-term conservationists hold that racial identities and communities are beneficial, and that racial categorization – suitably reformed – is essential to fostering them (e.g. Outlaw