The Practical and Experiential Reality of Racism: Carter’s and Corlett’s Realism About Race and Racism

This paper examines the practical reality and experience of racism from the “internal point of view” of blacks who suffer racism and white racists. It uses this point of view to critically examine Carter’s and Corlett’s views regarding realism about race and racism. They suggest that theories must inquire about race and racism as categories for understanding the way-things-really-are. I argue that a plausible idea of racism, as a thick concept, must not be subservient to public policy. Rather, public policy must reflect experiential reality of racism. I argue that the views of Corlett and Carter, which tie racism to human agency, have heuristic value. However, they are too narrow; they have problematic implications, and do not sufficiently capture many putative cases and common usage of race and experience of racism.