Race or Ethnicity?

"What is race? What is ethnicity? Should we think of them as identities? Can they be effectively individuated? How are they related? How do the relations between them influence pressing issues concerned with social identity, gender, racism, assimilation, exploitation, justice, the law, and public policy? And how are the answers to these questions affected by the Black and Latino experience in the United States"—From the PrefaceThis collection of new essays explores the relation between race and ethnicity and its social and political implications. Although much work has been done on the philosophy of race in the past century in the United States, the concept of ethnicity has only recently awoken the interest of American philosophers, and the relations between race and ethnicity remain largely unexamined. The discussion is divided into two parts dealing, on the one hand, with the nature and the relation between race and ethnicity and, on the other, with the social consequences of the complex relations between them. Part I explores in particular the debated topic of racial and ethnic identities: Does it make sense to speak of racial and ethnic identities, and especially of black and Latino identities? And if it does make sense, how should these identities be conceptualized, and how are they related to gender? Part II examines how race and ethnicity have influenced the lot of some social groups in significant ways: How do racially defined institutions deal with racial assimilation? How do different conceptions of race and ethnicity influence public policy and various forms of racism? How can exploited racial and ethnic groups be effectively recognized? And what is the role of affect in social justice as dispensed by the courts?

"The great virtue of this book is its bringing together of the debates on black and Latino identity and its challenge to the terms in which they have been traditionally conceived. Race or Ethnicity? explores the complexities of the adjudication of identities, provides histories of ethnicized blackness and racialized Latinity that will come as a revelation to many readers, and shows how discussions of ethno-racial justice need to be sensitized to the divergence of experience of different groups represented as oppressed.", "This book is interesting, timely, and worthwhile because it addresses contemporary issues regarding highly contestable concepts that are usually taken for granted in ordinary as well as in professional conversations about race and ethnicity.", "This is a terrific volume packed with top-flight contributors. It pulls off the difficult feat of advancing our understanding of a set of long overdue topics (race and identity in both Black and Latino contexts) while also providing a snapshot of cutting-edge work on race and identity more generally. This book is a must-read for students and scholars interested in race, identity, and U.S. politics."

Jorge J. E. Gracia is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo. He is the author of many books, including Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics and Philosophy and Its History: Issues in Philosophical Historiography.