A01=Amy Gutmann
A01=Kwame Anthony Appiah
Affirmative action
African Americans
Anti-discrimination law
Author_Amy Gutmann
Author_Kwame Anthony Appiah
Black nationalism
Black people
Brown v. Board of Education
Bush v. Vera
Category=JBFA
Category=JBFA1
Category=JBSL
Category=JPA
Category=JPVH
Category=QDTQ
Color blindness
Consideration
Cultural diversity
Culture and Anarchy
Deliberation
Democratic ideals
Disadvantage
Discrimination
Employment discrimination
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Equal opportunity
Ethnocentrism
Fighting Discrimination
Good and evil
Hilary Putnam
Ideal type
Individual and group rights
Just society
Miller v. Johnson
Morality
Multiculturalism
Multiracialism
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Nominalism
Oppression
Original position
Person of color
Philosophy of language
Physiognomy
Plessy v. Ferguson
Political philosophy
Politics
Profession
Public morality
Public policy
Puritans
Race (human categorization)
Race and intelligence
Racial segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racialism
Racism
Racism in the United States
Reasonable person
Redistricting
Religion
Richard Kahlenberg
Scientific racism
Sexism
Sexual Preference (book)
Slavery
Social liberalism
Statistical discrimination (economics)
Superiority (short story)
The Philosopher
Tokenism
Tyranny of the majority
Uncle Tom
Voting
White Americans
White privilege
White supremacy
Workfare
Product details
- ISBN 9780691059099
- Weight: 28g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 05 Apr 1998
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In America today, the problem of achieving racial justice--whether through "color-blind" policies or through affirmative action--provokes more noisy name-calling than fruitful deliberation. In Color Conscious, K. Anthony Appiah and Amy Gutmann, two eminent moral and political philosophers, seek to clear the ground for a discussion of the place of race in politics and in our moral lives. Provocative and insightful, their essays tackle different aspects of the question of racial justice; together they provide a compelling response to our nation's most vexing problem. Appiah begins by establishing the problematic nature of the idea of race. He draws on the scholarly consensus that "race" has no legitimate biological basis, exploring the history of its invention as a social category and showing how the concept has been used to explain differences among groups of people by mistakenly attributing various "essences" to them.
Appiah argues that, while people of color may still need to gather together, in the face of racism, under the banner of race, they need also to balance carefully the calls of race against the many other dimensions of individual identity; and he suggests, finally, what this might mean for our political life. Gutmann examines alternative political responses to racial injustice. She argues that American politics cannot be fair to all citizens by being color blind because American society is not color blind. Fairness, not color blindness, is a fundamental principle of justice. Whether policies should be color-conscious, class conscious, or both in particular situations, depends on an open-minded assessment of their fairness. Exploring timely issues of university admissions, corporate hiring, and political representation, Gutmann develops a moral perspective that supports a commitment to constitutional democracy. Appiah and Gutmann write candidly and carefully, presenting many-faceted interpretations of a host of controversial issues.
Rather than supplying simple answers to complex questions, they offer to citizens of every color principled starting points for the ongoing national discussions about race.
K. Anthony Appiah is Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy at Harvard University. His books include the award-winning In My Father's House. Amy Gutmann is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Her books include Democratic Education (Princeton). David B. Wilkins is Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law and Director of the Program on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School.
