Is a Coherent Racial Identity Essential to Genuine Individuals and Communiities? Josiah Royce on Race

Josiah Royce was a "public philosopher" who addressed critically and sensitively issues that affected the lives of individuals and communities, and especially their ability to live together in diverse communities that promote the dignity of all persons.¹ One such momentous issue in our contemporary scene that demands attention is the problem of race. In 1903, W. E. B. Dubois proclaimed, "The problem of the 20^th Century is the problem of the color line" (1989, 13). In 1996, Amy Gutman wrote: "Racial injustice is the most morally and intellectually vexing problem in the public life of this country" (1996, 107). Royce addressed racial problems as early as 1856 in his history of California and particularly in the section entitled "The Struggle for Order" (1886, xv). He undertook a more detailed analysis of the concept of "race," in his 1906 "Race Questions and Prejudices" (1906).

In what follows, I will argue first that Royce advocates and provides the foundation for an anti-essentialist and nonracialist understanding of race. In his 1906 essay he provides scathing criticism of any essentialist understanding of race as a "natural kind," or as an established scientific concept. Second, Royce was well aware of the possible insidious dimensions of "race" as a social identifier. Royce would likely describe "race concepts" generally in terms of "social habits," namely, patterns of thinking and acting² ; he discusses in some detail how these habits have been manifested in actual human practice, especially in the history of California, but also in general. Third, Royce believes, as others in the contemporary scene, that "race" as a concept cannot be eliminated; it plays too crucial a role, both positive and negative, in self- and social identification. Fourth, Royce would be most concerned about building social and communal conditions that could turn "race" into a positive force for assisting each person to build a fulfilling life and for giving each person his or her due respect and dignity. His careful and insightful analysis of the nature of genuine communities and genuine individuals provides solid ground for dealing with community failure in providing individuals with the resources to achieve fulfilling lives; and he has much to offer to contemporary efforts to spell out a "politics of recognition" and an "ethics of identity."³

A Nonessentialist View of Race

In his 1906 essay, "Race Questions and Prejudices," Royce clearly affirms a nonessentialist view of race. He writes: "In estimating, in dealing with races, in defining what their supposedly unchangeable characteristics are, in planning what to do with them, we are all prone to confuse the accidental with the essential. We are likely to take for an essential race characteristic what is a transient incident or a product of special social conditions" (1969a, 1100). Not only does Royce see "race" mainly as a social/historical phenomenon, he also chastises those who would "marshal all the resources of their sciences to prove their own race-prejudices are infallible" (1092). With a wonderful note of sarcasm, Royce observes that he begins to wonder "whether a science which mainly devotes itself to proving that we ourselves are the salt of the earth, is after all so exact as it aims to be" (1091). He concludes that race problems are not problems caused by anything essential to the existence of the nature of the races themselves. Rather, he writes, "Our so-called race problems are merely caused by our antipathies" (1107). He even speaks of our notions of race as "illusions," and notes: "We all have illusions and we hug them. Let us not sanctify them in the name of science" (1110). Clearly, then, for Royce, "race" primarily designates a "social habit," a way of viewing ourselves and others. He also understands that these ways of thinking and acting often are "prejudicial" and derogatory.

In his "Race Questions," he narrates, with tongue in cheek, the story of a woman concerned about the "Christianization of the Japanese." He argues that our "western" view of these people as "imitative children" is much belied by their accomplishments and actions and that...