Cultural Constructionism

Abstract

Chike Jeffers argues in this chapter that social constructionism about race is a preferable position to non-biological essentialism about race (such as the kind defended by Quayshawn Spencer in Chapters 3 and 7) and anti-realism about race (such as the kind Joshua Glasgow defends in Chapters 4 and 8). He then argues that one should distinguish between two kinds of social constructionism: political constructionism (such as the kind defended by Sally Haslanger in Chapters 1 and 5) and cultural constructionism, which he defends. While he shows why it is understandable that political constructionism is sometimes taken to be the default position among social constructionists, he argues that political constructionism misses the significance of the cultural aspect of race in the present and fails to recognize the possibility of races existing past the end of racism.