Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society

1 Post-Racialism or Targeted Universalism?

3 We hear it said nowadays that there is no “race problem,” but only a “class problem.” . . . From a practical angle there is a point in this reasoning. But from a theoretical angle it contains escapism in new form. . . . And it tends to conceal the whole system of special deprivations visited upon the Negro only because he is not white. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma Executive and legislative branches, which for generations now have considered these types of policies and procedures, should be permitted to employ them with candor and with confidence that a constitutional violation does not occur whenever a decisionmaker considers the impact a given approach might have on students of different races. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle TheUnitedStatesmadehistoryonNovember4,2008,byelectingBarack Obama as its first African American president, generating a sense of pride and a collective celebration that was shared worldwide. The installationofablackpresidentwhowassupportedbyasignificantminorityof white voters was an occasion imbued with great political, social, historical , and cultural meaning. That meaning has been interpreted and expressed in many different ways, and Americans will continue to attempt to determine its contours and synthesize its various strands far into the future. As we engage in this process, different segments of society will continue to identify and promote different meanings, any of which may have important ramifications. Perhaps no aspect of the election compares , however, with the milestone that it represents with respect to the Post-Racialism or Targeted Universalism? one Race and Racialization 4 history of race. Questions about how we are to understand racial conditions in society and what the proper role of public policy and law should be in addressing–or avoiding–racial issues will gain greater salience as we seek ways of building upon the understandings the election has fostered. These questions about where we are on the issue of race are not just factual or descriptive; they are deeply political as well, having implications for how and when we respond to social problems and how we define the scope of our collective obligations. Race, Racism, and Racialization In exploring these questions, I will add the term “racialization” to the more common terms “race” and “racism,” which are understood in a way that is too limited and specific to fully address these important issues. By racialization, I refer to the set of practices, cultural norms, and institutional arrangements that both reflect and help to create and maintain race-basedoutcomesinsociety.Becauseracializationisasetofhistorical and cultural processes,it does not have one particularmeaning.Instead, it describes conditions and norms that are constantly evolving and interacting with the sociopolitical environment, varying from location to location as well as throughout different periods in history.1 These processes are not uniformly present or static. They respond to what we collectively do and think and are therefore highly contested.2 As a society , however, we are not inclined to consider the nuances of race and racism. Rather, we tend to see them as a limited set of discrete practices that remain constant over time, in spite of social changes. Even as we use “racialization” to connote the fluid nature of the phenomena we are describing and the broader context in which racial outcomes are manifested and understood, the use of this term will not automatically break us of our reflexive thinking and mental habits around race and racism. In this country, the cultural understanding of racism is most closely associated with Jim Crow. In this context, it is imagined as conscious discriminatory activity, directed at a particular victim, by racist individuals.3 Issues of race and racism, therefore, have come to be understood as explicit acts by individuals or explicit laws or policies implemented by institutions such as school boards or municipal Post-Racialism or Targeted Universalism? 5 governments.4 This overly individualistic definition of race and racism fits well with our country’s individualistic approach to many life issues. Consequently, issues of race are likely to be seen primarily as deliberate psychosocialevents,instigatedbyindividualbadactorsorbyinstitutions managed or directed by them. This view was made law in the 1976 case Washington v. Davis, which sets out the Supreme Court’s discriminatory purpose doctrine, requiring that a plaintiff prove intent in racial discrimination claims.5 From the point of view of the Court in this case, theJimCrowsystem–ahighlyinstitutionalizedandextensiveregimeof racialoppressionthatwasonlypartlylegal–isreducedtothebehaviorof bigots,whosepoliciescanbepurgedorreversedinanelectioncycleorby excisingtheoffendingdejurerules.Inthisindividualisticframeofanalysis ,ifonedoesnotengageinconsciousactsofracism,or,betterstill,does not consciously see race, then there can be no racism or racialization. This requirement...