Sincere Racist Thesis

Shelby argues that garcia offers an inadequate description of where racism comes from. Garcia states that belief. According to Shelby you do not need an attitude that intends racism, but the action that leads to the oppression of others. Shelby argues against Garcia with the argument that a vicious attitude does not have to hold racial bias to be racist; this argument is where the example of the “sincere racist”. In this paper I will explain why Shelby's view is more accurate than Garcia’s, and explain the role of the “sincere racist”. Garcia Denies the fact that racist beliefs are important to racism; in doing this he only makes room for the sincere racist to rationally attribute to society. To explain the sincere racist I will give the explain of a woman whose husband owns slaves, but she does nothing to speak out against, or stop slavery. She benefits from the institutions that allow the oppression of others. Her attitude towards slaves is not vicious, but that does not exclude her from being racist. The fact that she is …show more content…
The way to expose this idea, is if you take a very specific racist belief like white people are the superior race; now prove that the person is not necessarily racist if they act on other ideals of discrimination. Shelby notes the only problem with that is how can you determine that a person’s actions, intentions are racist without first finding the root of them in racist beliefs. Here is where we can discuss the Andre situation, that Shelby brings up in his essay. Stephen is a white man who hates Andre who is black. We can not determine if Stephen hates Andre based on race or if he merely hates him because of a social disagreement. However it is racist if the dislike for Andre, in the social disagreement is triggered by his race; Stephen’s beliefs about the black race allow his actions, conduct, and even they way he talks to or about