Race or Ethnicity?: On Black and Latino Identity

303 Pages·2007·28.697 MB·English

by  Jorge J. E. Gracia (editor)

Race or Ethnicity?

RACE
OR ETHNICITY?
On Black and Latino Identity
EDITED BY jORGE]. E. GRACIA
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright © 2007 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not
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address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 5 r 2 East State Street, Ithaca, New York r 48 50.
First published 2007 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2007
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Race or ethnicity? : on Black and Latino identity I edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia.
p. ern.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-o-8014-4544-6 (cloth: alk. paper)-ISBN 978-o-8014-7359-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
r. African Americans-Race identity. 2. Hispanic Americans-Ethnic identity. 3. Race-
Philosophy. 4· Ethnicity-Philosophy. I. Gracia, Jorge]. E.
Erss.6zs.R32 zoo7
305.868' 073-dc22
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Contents
Contributors vii
Preface
Xl
Race or Ethnicity? An Introduction
Jorge J E. Gracia
PART I Racial and Ethnic Identity
r. Does Truth Matter to Identity? 19
Kwame Anthony Appiah
2. Racial and Ethnic Identity? 45
J L.A. Garda
J. Individuation of Racial and Ethnic Groups
Jorge]. E. Gracia
4· Ethnicity, Race, and the Importance of Gender 101
Naomi Zack
5. Ethnic Race 123
Robert Bernasconi
6. What Is an Ethnic Group? 137
Susana Nuccetelli
PART II Racism,Justice, and Public Policy
7. Racial Assimilation and the Dilemma of Racially
Defined Institutions 155
Howard MrGary
8. Comparative Race, Comparative Racisms 170
Linda Martin Alcciff
v
v1 Contents
9. Recognizing the Exploited
Kenneth Slzockley
IO. Racial Justice, Latinos, and the Supreme Court 206
Eduardo Mendieta
I r. Race, Ethnicity, and Public Policy 225
J. Angelo Corlett
I 2. Race and Political Theory
Diego A. von Vczcano
Bibliography
Index
Contributors
LINDA MARTIN ALCOFF is professor of philosophy, women's studies, and political
science at Syracuse University. She is currently the director of Women's Stud
ies. Her books and anthologies include Feminist Epistemologies (with Elizabeth
Potter) (1993), Real Knowing: New Versions of the Coherence Theory (1996), Episte
mology: The Big Questions (1998), Thinking from the Underside of History (with Ed
uardo Mendieta) (2ooo), Singing in the Fire: Tales of vVomm in Philosophy (2003),
and Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self (2oo6).
KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of
Philosophy at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
Among his books are In 1Vly Father's House: Africa i11 the Philosophy ~f Culture
(1992), Color Conscious: The Political Morality ~{Race (withAmy Gutmann) (1996),
Thinking It Through (2003), and The Ethics of Identity (2005). His most recent book
is titled Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a VVorld of Strangers (2oo6); he is now finishing
Experiments in Ethics, which will be published by Harvard University Press.
RoBERT BERNASCONI is Moss Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mem
phis. He is the author of two books on Heidegger and has written numerous
articles. He is the editor of Race (2001), The Idea of Race (with Tommy Lott)
(zooo), and Race and Racism in Continental Philosophy (with Sybol Cook) (2003).
He has also edited three sets of reprints documenting the history of the scien
tific concept of race in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for Thoemmes
Press.
Vll
vm Contributors
J. ANGELO CoRLETT is professor of philosophy and ethics at San Diego State Uni
versity. He is the author of numerous articles and of the following books:Justice
and Rights (forthcoming); Interpreting Plato's Dialogues (zoos); Race, Racism, and Rep
arations (zoo 3); Terrorism: A Philosophical Analysis (zoo3); Responsibility and Punish
ment (3 rd ed., zoo6); and Analyzing Social Knowledge (I 996). He is editor-in-chief
of 17ze Journal of Ethics: An International Philosophical Review (I9<n-present). He
is also editor of and contributor to Equality and Liberty:Analyzing Rawls and No
zick (199I).
J. L.A. GARciA is professor of philosophy at Boston College. His published arti
cles include "Identity Confusions," Philosophy and Social Criticism 30, no. 7 (zoo6):
839-6z; "Revisiting African-American Perspectives and Medical Ethics," in
African American Biocthics: Culture, Race, a11d Identity, edited by Lawrence Prograis
and Edmund Pellegrino (forthcoming); "Three Sites of Racism: Social Struc
tures, Value Judgments, and Vice," in Racism in Mind, edited by Michael Levine
and Tamas Pataki (zoo4); "Three Scalarities: Racialization, Racism, and Race,"
Theory and Research in Education 1, no. 3 (zoo3); "The Racial Contract Hypoth
esis," Philosophia Africana 4, no. I (zoo I); "Racism and Racial Discourse," Philo
sophical Forum 32, no. z (zooi); and "Is Being Hispanic an Identity?" Philosophy
and Social Criticism z7, no. z (zoo I).
JoRGE]. E. GRACIA holds the Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy and is State
University of New York Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo.
Among his recent books are Surviving Race, Ethnirity, and Nationality:A Challenge
for the Twenty-First Century (zoos), Old Wine in New Skins: The Role of Traditiotz
in Communication, Knowledge, and Group Identity (67th Marquette Aquinas Lec
ture 2003), Hispanic/ Latitw Identity: A Philosophical Perspective (zooo), How Can
We Know W1zat God Means? The Interpretation of Revelation (2ooo), and he has re
cently edited Hispanics I Lati11os in the United States (2ooo).
HowARD McGARY is Professor II (Distinguished Professor) of Philosophy at
Rutgers University. He has published numerous articles and the following
books: Race and Social Justice (1999); Social Justice and Local Development Policy
(with others) (I993); Between Slavery and Freedom: Philosophy and American Slav
ery (with Bill E. Lawson) (1992).
EDUARDO MENDIETA is associate professor of philosophy at Stony Brook Uni
versity. He is the author of numerous articles and of Adventures <:{ Transcendental
Philosophy (2002) and Global Fragments: Latin Americanism, Globalizations, and
Critical Theory (forthcoming). He has edited a dozen books, the most recent be-
Contributors 1x
ing Take Care of Freedom and Truth Will Take Care of Itself: Interviews with Richard
Rorty (2oo6); a book of interviews with Angela Davis, Abolition Democracy: Beyond
Prisons, Torture, and Empire (2005); and TI1e Frankfurt School on Religion (2005).
SusANA NucCETELLI is associate professor of philosophy at the University of
Texas-Pan American. Some of her recent articles have appeared in Analysis, The
Southern Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Forum, Metaphilosophy, and The Jour
nal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. She is the editor of New Essays on Semantic Ex
ternalism and Self-Knowledge (2003) and coeditor of "l11emes from G. E. Moore: New
Essays in Epistemology and Ethics (forthcoming) and Latin American Philosophy
(2004). She is author of Latin American Thought: Philosophical Problems and A~gu­
ments (2002) and chaired the American Philosophical Association's Committee
on Hispanics.
KENNETH SHOCKLEY is assistant professor of philosophy at the University at Buf
falo. Among his publications are "Centering Value Pluralism," Southwestern Philo
sophical Review 21, no. I (2005);"The Conundrum of Collective Commitment,"
Social Theory and Practice 30, no. 4 (2004); "Thinking through Collectives," Social
Theory and Practice 30, no. r (2004); and "Quine's Ethical Dilemma," Dialectica 54,
n0.4 (1998).
DIEGO A. VON V ACANO is assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M
University. He is the author of The Art of Power: Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and the
Making ~fA esthetic Political TI1eory (2007) and "Football and Philosophy," in Phi
losophy Ioday (newsletter of the British Society for Applied Philosophy) r 7, no.
45 (2004). He is working on a book on the problem of racial identity in Latin
American political theory and is planning to coedit a collection of articles on
that topic with Jorge Gracia.
NAOMI ZACK is professor of philosophy at the University of Oregon. She is the
author of numerous articles and of the following books: Race and :Wixed Race
(1993), Bachelors of Science (1996), Philosophy of Science and Race (2002), Inclusive
Feminism (2005), and Thinking about Race (2nd ed., 2005). She is also the editor
of American Mixed Race (1995), Race /Sex (1 997), and Women ~f Color in Philoso
phy (2002).