Summer Series Webinar: Theorizing Racial Justice with Charles Mills

RSVP to Monique.Skinner@myunion.edu

In February of this year, critical philosopher of race Charles W. Mills delivered the 2020 Tanner Lecture on Human Values at the University of Michigan, which he entitled, “Theorizing Racial Justice.” In it he seeks to understand the historical neglect of racial justice within both Western and American traditions of political philosophy and to rectify this neglect by theorizing a conception of corrective racial justice. This workshop will be devoted to a collective effort to illuminate and critically examine Mills’s incisive critique of the liberal tradition of political theory and his proposal for a renewed liberalism that takes seriously the history of racial subordination. The lecture is divided into three sections: liberalism’s historical failure; a critique of John Rawls; and Mills’s own proposal. In preparation, workshop participants should view part one of Mills’s lecture (roughly, 10:00-40:00) and record their questions and comments. (The other sections will be discussed; since they are more easily summarized, viewing them is optional.)