Charles Mills, The Racial Contract

Caribbean-American philosopher Charles Mills (1961-2021) was a pioneer in the philosophy of race and one of the most important political philosophers of our time. His first book, The Racial Contract (1997), is his most widely read book. Its central thesis is that racism is not an accidental or non-intended byproduct of our societal structures but at the core of our political communities. He calls White Supremacy the “unnamed political system” that has shaped our world for the past few centuries. In order to substantiate his thesis, Mills challenges classic social contract theories and replaces them with his theory of a “Racial Contract”. While classic contract theories, developed by Early Modern thinkers such as Locke and Hobbes, assume that the normative principles of political communities can be analyzed as fundamental agreements, i.e., contracts, between all of their members, Mills shows that these ‘contracts’ are, in fact, restricted to the white members of those communities, and that they are designed to secure their domination over non-white people. Mills’ book does not only offer an important corrective to traditional social contract theories, but generally gives a comprehensive analysis of racist societal structures, the history of their development, and the far-reaching effects on their members. In this seminar, we will primarily read and discuss Mills’ book, but we will complement our reading with more recent essays by the same author.

Students are required to purchase a copy of the book before the first session.

Charles Mills, The Racial Contract. First edition 1997.