Should race matter? : unusual answers to the usual questions
Title:
Should race matter? : unusual answers to the usual questions
JLCTITLE245:
David Boonin.
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Physical Description:
x, 411 p. ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9780521760867
9780521149808
Abstract:
"In this book, philosopher David Boonin attempts to answer the moral questions raised by five important and widely contested racial practices: slave reparations, affirmative action, hate speech restrictions, hate crime laws, and racial profiling. Arguing from premises that virtually everyone on both sides of the debates over these issues already accepts, Boonin arrives at an unusual and unorthodox set of conclusions, one that is neither liberal nor conservative, color conscious nor color blind. Defended with the rigor that has characterized his previous work but written in a more widely accessible style, this provocative and important new book is sure to spark controversy and should be of interest to philosophers, legal theorists, and anyone interested in trying to resolve the debate over these important and divisive issues"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-406) and index.
Contents:
1. Thinking in black and white: an introduction to the moral questions that America's past raises about its present -- 2. Repairing the slave reparations debate: how I got into an argument with myself about David Horowitz ad lost -- 3. Advancing the slave reparations debate: bonus objections. bonus responses, and a modest proposal -- 4. One cheer for affirmative action: why there's nothing wrong with abandoning racial preferences -- 5. Two cheers for affirmative action: why there's nothing wrong with not abandoning racial preferences, either -- 6. Why I used to hate hate speech restrictions: appeals to traditional exceptions to freedom of expression and why they all fail -- 7. Why I still hate hate speech restrictions: new and improved exceptions to freedom of expression and why they fail, too -- 8. How to stop worrying and learn to love hate crime laws: why objections to hate speech restrictions don't work as objections to hate crimes -- 9. How to keep on loving hate crime laws: why other objections to hate crime laws don't work, either -- 10. Is racial profiling irrational?: the answer isn't black and white -- 11. Is racial profiling immoral?: a reluctant defense of America's least popular form of discrimination.