2. Justice and Race

This chapter begins by describing a philosophy class discussion of a recently enacted Texas Voter Identification law. The class (mostly Republicans, but for one black female who is president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)) is divided by disagreement rooted in cultural difference, the same differences that divide American cultural and political worlds. The same cultural difference finds a home in confrontations between police and black men and boys; these confrontations I describe in some detail. Amadou Diallo appears, as do also Michael Brown and Darren Wilson, along with other instances of police shootings/killings of black men and boys. Justice questions get precise focus in all these situations of conflict. Western traditions of thought about justice find their way into virtually all our conversations about these particular situations that evoke judgments of justice and injustice.