Ideology Beyond Belief: Social Practices and the Persistence of Injustice

Sally Haslanger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract:  Racism, sexism, and other forms of injustice are more than just bad attitudes; after all, such injustice also involves unfair distributions of goods and resources.  But attitudes play a role.  How central is that role?  Tommie Shelby argues that racism is an ideology that consists in false beliefs that arise out of and serve pernicious social conditions.  In this paper I agree that racism is an ideology, but on my view, ideology is deeply rooted in social practices.  Social practices are patterns of interaction that distribute things of value, guided by cultural meanings.  In the case of subordinated social groups, these habits of mind distort, obscure, and occlude important facts about those groups and result in a failure to recognize their interests. How do we disrupt such practices to achieve greater justice?  I argue that this is sometimes, but not always, best achieved by argument or challenging false beliefs, so social movements legitimately seek other means.