Change the People or Change the Policy? On the Moral Education of Antiracists

Abstract

While those who take a “structuralist” approach to racial justice issues are right to call attention to the importance of social practices, laws, etc., they sometimes go too far by suggesting that antiracist efforts ought to focus on changing unjust social systems rather than changing individuals’ minds. We argue that while the “either/or” thinking implied by this framing is intuitive and pervasive, it is misleading and self-undermining. We instead advocate a “both/and” approach to antiracist moral education that explicitly teaches how social structures influence ideas about race and how ideas about race shape, sustain, and transform social structures. Ideally, antiracist moral education will help people see how social change and moral progress depend on the symbiotic relations between individuals and structures. We articulate a conception of “structure-facing virtue” that exemplifies this hybrid approach to illuminate the pivotal role moral education plays in the fight for racial justice.

The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray

“…For example, vaccine mandatesa putatively s-frame interventionmay be more effective when combined with i-frame, text-based nudges (Patel et al, 2022). We wholeheartedly support research on complementarity between light-touch nudges and systemic reforms (Brownstein, Kelly, & Madva, 2022;Kelly, Faucher, & Machery, 2010;Madva, Kelly, & Brownstein, 2023;Milkman et al, 2021;. Although C&L gesture toward valuable forms of complementarity (target article, sects.…”

“…C&L's oppositional, either/or treatment thus obscures how nudges, education, and persuasion campaigns can be effective tools for boosting citizens' willingness to become politically active and support structural change. Elsewhere we've called for cultivating "structure-facing virtue": the individual-level disposition to know about, care about, and take action to change systems (Madva, 2019;Madva et al, 2023).…”

It's always both: Changing individuals requires changing systems and changing systems requires changing individuals

“…C&L's oppositional, either/or treatment thus obscures how nudges, education, and persuasion campaigns can be effective tools for boosting citizens’ willingness to become politically active and support structural change. Elsewhere we've called for cultivating “structure-facing virtue”: the individual-level disposition to know about, care about, and take action to change systems (Madva, 2019; Madva et al, 2023).…”