Question

We studied a reading titled - White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. In short, it discusses the both race and gender problem in America, and how many white men and women may "think" they understand racism, or those who discredit that there is an issue all together. It also discusses the many struggles people of color face every day that someone who is white cannot begin to understand. Lastly, it discusses how we can work towards ACTUAL equality and steps people can take to become informed and education on these topics.

How could I relate this subject to ethics and moral theory specifically? Obviously it is not moral or eithical to discriminate against race, but I'd like to get more specific and deeper than that in terms of an ethical connection.

Answer 1

People of color, especially the African Americans and the Native Americans suffered severe damage on the hands of the White majority. White people accumulated an invisible advantage over the other races in America but refuse to acknowledge or accept the fact that they are far more advantaged than their counter parts in other colored people. Only when they accept the fact that other people are disadvantaged when compared to them, they would ensure that affirmative actions need to be in place to raise people of color from their disadvantages. White people are in an ethical dilemma whether to support their majority community or accept the fact that the people of color are disadvantaged. This dilemma keeps them from accepting that there is an issue thus preventing them to act for the welfare of the people of color. According to Utilitarian Ethics, an act would be considered to be ethical only if it increases the benefit to maximum number of people and not for a set of people. Deontological Ethics suggests that one ought to do one’s duty without worrying about the consequences which means the white people should support the cause of the people of color without worrying about their majority status.

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