Philosophy of Race

Lesson: The Ethics of Racial Humor

by Luvell Anderson (Syracuse University)

The question—‘What makes humor racist, when it is?’—provides a rich platform for discussion about several philosophically interesting topics. The subject broaches issues in aesthetics, ethics, social and political philosophy, and even the philosophy of language. Challenges for constructing a theory of racist humor involve (1) distinguishing between humor and non-humor, (2) determining what racism is, (3) distinguishing the kinds of speech acts involved in humorous discourse and how they can give rise to racist utterances

Unit: The Ethics of Sexual Preference

by Robin Zheng (Yale-NUS College)

Sexual preferences represent a rich site for ethical exploration of topics such as oppression, responsibility, freedom. Because everyone has sexual preferences of some kind or another, everyone has some stake in the answers to these questions. Moreover, the deeply entrenched (indeed, possibly involuntary) nature of sexual preferences illustrates the extent to which oppression is socialized and internalized by individuals in even the most intimate spheres of life.

Exercise: Applying Philosophical Theories of Race

by Andrew P. Mills (Otterbein University)

This activity helps students apply various theories in the philosophy of race to popular race “memes” that students may have seen on social media. It helps students practice their understanding of those theories of race and allows them to see how popular memes embody (perhaps problematically) those theories.