Defining Racism: "Ideology that Oppresses" (Tommie Shelby)

(6 minute read)

According to Shelby, racism is an illusory ideology that legitimizes racial oppression. Hence, on his view, racism is fundamentally a belief system rather than internal animosity, discriminatory actions, or inequitable systems. Having said that, these beliefs aren't stagnant. Instead, they play a social-moral function: legitimizing oppression. Ideologies about a racial group might legitimize subjugation, subordination, exploitation, or systemic mistreatment of that racial group, and the legitimization might take the form of enabling, excusing, justifying, or perpetuating these harms. Alternatively, these ideologies (hereafter, "beliefs") might function to legitimize indifference and inaction among those who could resist racial oppression. The bottom line: racism is a racialized ideology that functions to enable––even empower––race-based oppression.

Cases like the following illustrate Shelby's take on racism. Belief in the inferiority of black Africans equipped Trans-Atlantic slave traders with a moral excuse for the slave trade. Belief that blacks are lazy and unmotivated has served to legitimize black-white economic disparities (or else to make us indifferent about them). The belief that the "intermingling of the races" was deleterious to society underwrote miscegenation laws and influenced the U.S. Federal government to effectively segregate blacks from whites throughout half of the 20th century, pushing blacks into ghettos and crippling black homeownership (see Rothstein, The Color of Law). And so on. What's key is that racist beliefs play a role in supporting racial oppression, even if they are not the initial motivation for the oppression. For example (and to simplify a bit), it is widely argued that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was motivated primarily by economic interests. It was lucrative (and convenient) to enslave people from Africa. But while economic incentives initially motivated exploitation, subordinating beliefs about black people worked in tandem with those economic interests to enable and legitimize the exploitation.

In sum, Shelby's view is that racism, properly defined, is about illusory beliefs that subordinate or oppress on the basis of race. Racial injustices and disparities may be the outcome of racism, but "racism" properly refers to the ideologies that legitimize these outcomes. One becomes a racist by harboring racist beliefs (whether knowingly or not), and one acts in a racist manner by acting on the basis of these racist beliefs (whether knowingly or not). Systems become racist when racist beliefs lead to racially disadvantaging, subordinating norms, policies, and outcomes in society (more on this below). 

One of the virtues of Shelby's view is that it can make sense of our intuitions about cases like this:

Benevolent Racist: Mary harbors no animosity, hatred, contempt, or dislike toward black people. In fact, she feels positively about them and wishes them well. She is benevolent in all her interactions with black people. However, Mary believes that blacks are an inferior race.

Intuitively, Mary is a racist. Since Mary harbors no negative emotions toward blacks, however, race-based animosity (e.g., hatred) cannot explain why she is a racist. Shelby's view, on the other hand, can account for cases like these (cases of benevolent racists) because Mary holds a belief about black people that could function (and probably does function) to subordinate them. In a slogan, racism is about what's in the head, not what's in your heart. Of course, Shelby grants that race-based animosity, hatred, dislike, contempt, and so on, often accompany those with racist beliefs. Still, he denies that emotional animus represents the essence of racism.

In general, Shelby's account can explain how well-intentioned, good-willed people can nevertheless behave in racist ways. He writes: 

"It is sufficient for the existence of racism that individuals with racist beliefs act on those beliefs in their private lives, the marketplace, or the public sphere. Such actions lead to and perpetuate oppression—an unnecessary, systemic, and undeserved burden that is imposed on one group as a result of the actions of another—and they have this result whether or not they are performed with a racist heart. Racist ideology enables and sustains the oppression of subordinate “racial” groups, and this gives racist beliefs great moral significance, regardless of whether these beliefs are accompanied by racially based vicious intentions" (Shelby, "Is Racism in the Heart").

A third virtue is that Shelby's analysis can explain how systemic racism emerges. Racialized ideologies "infect" the decisions of individuals and thereby infect the policies, outcomes and institutions over which these individuals have control. As racist ideology leads to (and legitimizes) unfair and inequitable outcomes, systemic racism emerges.

Finally, Shelby argues that his view can accommodate our conviction that racism is morally problematic and that attributions of "racism" are pejorative. He writes, "we can retain the pejorative force of 'racism' if we treat it as referring to an ideology, since ideologies, especially racist ones, are epistemically unsound, are irrationally held (given their dependence on self-deception), and serve as vehicles for domination and exploitation" ("Is Racism in the Heart?"). Interestingly, Shelby concedes that his analysis of racism implies that racism itself is not immoral. After all, beliefs can't be moral or immoral (or so he claims), though racist actions can. Beliefs can't be just or unjust, though racist outcomes can. Shelby doesn't think this is a serious mark against his view, however, since we can still say that racism, as an ideology, is tightly connected to things that are immoral and unjust. 

Shelby's analysis vs. others'. Consider how Shelby's analysis reflects on a few popular definitions of racism. First: "Racism = racial prejudice + power." While power may often make racism more pernicious and harmful, Shelby's analysis denies that power is essential for racism. Second: "Racism is any action that degrades others on the basis of their race." Shelby will ask, "Why did the agent act that way?" If the action is not rooted in a racialized ideology that has the power to oppress, then his analysis denies that the action is racist. Third: "Racism is a system that has racially inequitable and disadvantaging outcomes." Shelby's analysis requires that racialized ideologies be responsible (in some way) for the production or sustainment of these inequitable and disadvantaging outcomes. Then, and only then, are those systems racist. 

For further reading: 

Shelby, "Is Racism in the Heart?"

Shelby, Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform

Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding from Pexels