Rawls and racial justice

Abstract

This article discusses the adequacy of Rawls' theory of justice as a tool for racial justice. It is argued that critics like Charles W Mills fail to appreciate both the insights and limits of the Rawlsian framework. The article has two main parts spread out over several different sections. The first is concerned with whether the Rawlsian framework suffices to prevent racial injustice. It is argued that there are reasons to doubt whether it does. The second part is concerned with whether a Rawlsian framework has the resources to rectify past racial injustice. It is argued that it has more resources to do this than Mills allows. This second part of the article centers on two Rawlsian ideas: ideal theory and the fair equality of opportunity (FEO) principle. It is argued that ideal theory is essential for the kind of rectificatory work that Mills wants nonideal theory to do, and that where there is a socioeconomic legacy of past injustice, it is hard to see how FEO could be implemented if it did no rectificatory work, a result which means that there is less need to turn to nonideal theory at all.

The Law of Peoples and Rectificatory Justice

“…I agree with Mills on the importance of considerations of race when approaching global justice, but I believe those would still be compatible with Rawls's framework (see also Freeman, 2007). For an account of Rawlsian domestic racial reparations, see Matthew (2017). For the current purposes, racial considerations are set aside, as I keep the focus on peoples as conceptualised by Rawls, rather than groups sharing a racial identity.…”

Healthy Eating Policy: Racial Liberalism, Global Connections and Contested Science

“…Barnhill and Bonotti allude to this problem in noting "Rawls' own theory of justice was silent on structural injustice", yet they contend that "his conception of public reason allows conceptions of justice that speak to structural justice" (Barnhill and Bonotti 2021, 158). This, however, is a live debate among Rawlsian political philosophers (Matthew 2017;Shelby 2013;Reidy 2022). The late Charles Mills -the Caribbean-American political philosopher who died in 2021 -argued that racism is baked into liberal political philosophy (Mills 2017).…”

Einleitung: 100 Jahre John Rawls, 50 Jahre "Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit"

“…Und auch in den letzten Jahren wurden grundsätzliche Einwände gegen den Rawls' schen Theorierahmen formuliert, die ihrerseits zu lebhaften und überaus kon struktiven Debatten in der politischen Philosophie beigetragen oder solche initiiert haben. Dazu gehören Dekonstruktionen des Rawls'schen Theorierahmen aus feministischer (Nussbaum 2003, Abbey 2013, Card 2014, Critical Race (Mills 2017, Matthew 2017 und postkolonialer Perspektive (Mills 2015, Seth 2020, aber auch Beiträge, die die Potentiale und Grenzen des Gerechtigkeitsliberalismus ausloten für globale und drängende Gerechtigkeitsfragen der Gegenwart, wie etwa Menschenrechte, Weltarmut, Migration (Brock 2014, Pogge 2002, Beitz 2009, Miller 2014, Cassee 2016. In gewisser Weise ist das Gros der politischen Philosophie, sei es inhaltlich, begrifflich oder methodologisch, noch immer lost in Rawlsland (Mills 2014).…”