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In
The Afterlife of Race, Lionel McPherson demystifies the Western concept of "race" and reframes race ideology in America as a caste device that sponsors absurd pretexts for inherited slavery, enforced segregation, and the wilful nonrepair of historical injustice. This reframing paves the way for an anti-caste vision of social equality that emphasizes the moral importance of Black American national specificity--not general antiracism, identity politics, or diversity "of color." The result is a non-racial, non-exclusionary account of Black political solidarity that would welcome everyone who supports reparative justice for Black American "blacks" as descendants of American slavery.
List of contents
- Part One: Racial Faiths, Absurd Purposes
- 1 A Socratic Device
- 2 Grappling with the Race Concept
- 3 Some "Race" Things
- 4 (Sub)continent-Wide Human Types
- 5 Framing a Racialist Placeholder
- 6 Racism vs. Racialism: A Marginal Difference
- 7 How Deep the Egypt Worry Goes
- 8 From Racial Theology to "Race" Optimism
- 9 Renewed Race Science
- 10 Racial Metaphysics of Distraction
- 11 Enter "Geoancestry"
- 12 Giving Up the "Race" Ghost
- Part Two: Decoding "Mixed Race" as American Caste
- 1 Color-Conscious Identity
- 2 Not Regular Blacks
- 3 Negro Blood
- 4 Caste Impurity
- 5 The Browning Thesis
- 6 To Be Legally Not-Black
- 7 Seeking Separate Social Status
- 8 A Colored Breed Apart
- 9 Mixed Family Reunion
- 10 Slavery Subcaste Drama
- Part Three: Non-Exclusionary Black (American) Solidarity
- 1 Social-Political Lineage Matters
- 2 Plessy on Being Colored
- 3 Du Bois's Normative Negro
- 4 Black Specificity in America
- 5 Elaborating Geoancestry
- 6 The Very Idea of Black Solidarity
- 7 Bound by Colored Politics?
- 8 Anti-Caste Black Solidarity for All
- 9 Parting Political Thoughts
- Forgiveness on Layaway: Reflections from South Africa
About the author
Lionel K. McPherson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. His research interests include "race," historical injustice, political violence, and moral theory. His articles have appeared in leading philosophy journals. This is his first book.
Summary
The ideology that underlies the concept of race has a long history. For centuries that ideology has spun supernaturalist and scientistic stories about ostensibly natural differences between different groups. The concept of “race” is in scientific decline, but the intertwined ideology and rhetoric behind it live on, and indeed prosper.
In this groundbreaking fusion of philosophy and color-conscious politics, philosopher Lionel K. McPherson enlists sweeping historical and empirical evidence to challenge fascination with the race concept. His lively, incisive analysis illuminates why social lineage matters far more than any “race” thing ever could, and why race ideology-rhetoric is more a distraction from gross injustice than a primary source. The Western label “black” was merely a figurative description for African peoples and African ancestry. The idea of continental races came later--with philosophers, theologians, and eventually scientists adding some important but elusive racial factor to visible continental ancestry.
McPherson argues that the race concept's main business was to sponsor absurd pretexts for Western slavery and colonialism, and their active legacies of nonrepair. Rejecting endless debate about the possible nature of race, he unpacks how color categories in America are a caste device that marked Europe-identified (white) freedom versus Africa-identified (black) enslavement. This caste reframing paves the way for a de-raced account of Black American national specificity and political solidarity, distinct from flat blackness. The Afterlife of Race concludes with a vision of tangible justice and social equality for descendants of American slavery: color aside, Americans of conscience would finally prioritize dismantling their country's foundational caste division, with its entrenched wealth and well-being chasm between White and Black America.
