A New Approach to Race Theory and Its Value in Addressing Racial Disparities in HealthA New Approach to Race Theory and Its Value in Addressing Racial Disparities in Health

Quayshawn Spencer (University of Pennsylvania)

We are delighted to be welcoming Prof. Quayshawn Spencer from UPenn to be giving the 2024 Annual Sowerby Lecture. Prof. Spencer will talk on "A New Approach to Race Theory and Its Value in Addressing Racial Disparities in Health"

Abstract:

Since philosophical race theory made its big comeback in the early 1990s with work from pioneers like Anthony Appiah, Lucius Outlaw, and Naomi Zack; there’s been a deeply held metaphysical assumption that there’s a single correct way to talk about the essence and reality of race in the relevant linguistic context. Let’s call this racial monism. There have been three major types of racial monism in the literature. Biological realists believe that race is a real biological division of people, like the division of people into chromosomal males and females. Biological anti-realists believe that race is a biological division of people that’s not real, like the division of people into drapetomanic and non-drapetomanic. Finally, non-biological realists believe that race is a non-biological division of people that’s real, like a division of people into political party affiliations. However, in this talk, I show that racial monism is wrong in, at least, US race talk, but probably elsewhere. This result falls out of my solution to a 20-year-old puzzle in human population genetics, which I will summarize in the talk. If my solution is correct, it follows that the right way to think about race is that there’s multiple correct ways to talk about the essence or reality of race in the USA and probably elsewhere; a view I call racial pluralism. After establishing racial pluralism, I go on to argue that this new paradigm should be used to address problematic racial disparities in health across the globe. Specific examples of valuable applications will be discussed.

This event will be followed by a drinks reception in the Great Hall, 19:30 - 20:30.

The Sowerby Philosophy & Medicine project is a joint initiative of the Peter Sowerby Foundation and King’s College London. The project works to bring together healthcare professionals and philosophers working at the intersection of philosophy and medicine, exploring the ways that philosophical research can enrich medical research and practice and vice versa.

Contact [email protected] with any queries.