Race and Racism

The eighteen essays in this new book deal with the meaning of two highly contested ideas: race and racism. Race is variously declared to be a self-evident fact of nature, a natural kind, a biological category, a political category, a social construction, an invention, and a fiction. Similarly, although racism is commonly defined as colour prejudice, some maintain that it is ill-will towards certain races; others that it is a belief, or sometimes an ideology or theory of racial superiority and inferiroity; and still others that it is the practice of unjust racial discrimination. In this volume, Bernard Boxill has collected a wide range of analytical writing that discusses the nature of these controversial ideas. With an introduction exploring the themes and conflicting ideas present in the book, and including a previously unpublished piece on the alleged racism of Immanuel Kant, this book will stimulate a critical understanding of the true meaning and far-reaching implications of an understanding of race and racism. As part of the successful Oxford Readings in Philosophy series, this book engages the reader with a range of ideas that will contribute to a greater understanding of race and racism.