PHIL 2270-170R
Philosophy and Race
The Civil Rights Movement represented an impressive leap forward for racial justice. However, there are good reasons for thinking that the United States remains profoundly
racially unjust. In this course, we use social science, journalism, and philosophical analysis to try to understand racial injustice on a deeper level.
What is it? Does it still exist? If so, what causes it?
We will begin by exploring what race and racism are before going on to engage with topics like racial segregation, police violence, racial profiling, color-blindness, white privilege, mass incarceration, and immigration. Answering these questions will entail using and perfecting your ability to effectively think, listen, argue, read, and write. Our efforts will not be just an academic exercise in which we merely study what others have thought. Instead, you will be joining an active and ongoing effort to better
understand a world shot through with racial injustice, and to think about how we should respond.
In other words, in this course, you are going to be doing philosophy rather than reading about philosophy
Arts & Sciences Gen Ed: Arts & Humanities
Arts & Sciences Core Requirements: Diversity-Global Perspective -OR- Diversity-US PerspectiveÂ
3 credit hours