Eyes wide shut: John Rawls's silence on racial justice

Ai-Thu Dang ()
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Ai-Thu Dang: Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, https://sites.google.com/site/aithudang/

Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne from Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne

Abstract: John Rawls's remarks on race are sparse in his writings. However, three key moments in his conceptual apparatus wherein racial issues appear explicitly can be be highlighted: (1) the status of race as a feature of the veil of ignorance; (2) racial minorities, the least advantaged, and the difference principle; and (3) the role of arguments made by antebellum abolitionist dissidents and Martin Luther King, Jr., in favor of racial equality in his reformulation of his notion of public reason. I show that the introduction of race poses difficulties for Rawls in his theory of justice. I also propose an explanation of why Rawls does not address issues of racial justice more explicitly and in-depth. However, because Rawls himself explained his relative silence on racial justice, I discuss its relevance. I contend that Rawls's conception of justice as fairness as a form of political liberalism is indebted to a strong principle of equal citizenship for all individuals that is blind to race and ethnicity, so his theoretical apparatus addresses the issue of legal racial discrimination or institutional racism. Nevertheless, it fails to address the problem of systemic racial discrimination

Keywords: John Rawls; justice as fairness; racial (in)justice; public reason; ideal and nonideal theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 B41 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mse:cesdoc:15030

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