White Privilege and the Erroneous Conscience

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sweeny Block ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
The Face ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
The Many

This paper considers the problems that unconscious racial bias and social sin more broadly pose for moral theology’s concepts of the erroneous conscience and ignorance. It argues that systemic racism prompts us to reimagine the erroneous conscience and individual culpability for ignorance. I argue that the erroneous conscience is useful in protecting human dignity in the face of error and in acknowledging the many ways we err but also problematic because it equates error with concrete action and conscious decisions and does not account for responsibility for social sin. This paper asserts that people of privilege and white persons cannot be morally innocent, but the erroneous conscience as it has been understood in the theological tradition often implies that innocence is the goal of the moral life and only holds us accountable for conscious moral actions.

Two Theories of the Good

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. W. Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Skepticism ◽  
Basic Goods ◽  
The World ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fundamental Value ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right

Suppose that the ultimate point of ethics is to make the world a better place. If it is, we must face the question: better in what respect? If the good is prior to the right — that is, if the rationale for all requirements of the right is that they serve to further the good in one way or another — then what is this good? Is there a single fundamental value capable of underlying and unifying all of our moral categories? If so, how might it defeat the claims of rival candidates for this role? If not, is there instead a plurality of basic goods, each irreducible to any of the others? In that case, how do they fit together into a unified picture of the moral life?These are the questions I wish to address, in a necessarily limited way. To many the questions will seem hopelessly old-fashioned or misguided. Some deontologists will wish to reverse my ordering of the good and the right, holding that the right constrains acceptable conceptions of the good. For many contractarians, neither the good nor the right will seem normatively basic, since both are to be derived from a prior conception of rationality. Finally, some theorists will reject the classification of moral theories in terms of their basic normative categories, arguing that the whole foundationalist enterprise in ethics should be abandoned.In the face of these challenges to the priority of the good, and in light of the many current varieties of moral skepticism and relativism, I cannot provide a very convincing justification for raising the questions I intend to discuss.

Talking Loud and Saying Nothing

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas
Keyword(s):  
Campus Climate ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
White Administrators ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Predominantly White Institution ◽  
The Road ◽  
White Institution ◽  
White Allies

The road a predominantly white institution (PWI) takes to maximize diversity, inclusion, and equity can be fraught with challenges. One midsize institution learned through an assessment of its campus climate that its institutional practices and arrangements impeded diversity, inclusion, and equity despite white administrators' beliefs to the contrary. To help quell systemic racism habits, monthly campus-wide workshops focused on several key racial injustice habits and hurtful microaggressions generated from white privilege. A faux social justice allure to white allies who considered themselves advocates of nondominant people is one that should ultimately call into question the genuineness and true nature of their support. This semi-autoethnographic essay is a plaintive call to white colleagues in the academy to earnestly acknowledge white privilege and to use it to actively fight the destructive force of racial battle fatigue and institutional racism.

The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Toye
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Many ◽  
Century Development

This book provides a survey of different ways in which economic sociocultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Inevitably, over such a long time span, it has been necessary to concentrate on highlighting the most significant contributions, rather than attempting an exhaustive treatment. The aim has been to bring into focus an outline of the main long-term changes in the way that socioeconomic development has been envisaged. The argument presented is that the idea of socioeconomic development emerged with the creation of grand evolutionary sequences of social progress that were the products of Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinkers. By the middle of the twentieth century, when interest in the accelerating development gave the topic a new impetus, its scope narrowed to a set of economically based strategies. After 1960, however, faith in such strategies began to wane, in the face of indifferent results and general faltering of confidence in economists’ boasts of scientific expertise. In the twenty-first century, development research is being pursued using a research method that generates disconnected results. As a result, it seems unlikely that any grand narrative will be created in the future and that neo-liberalism will be the last of this particular kind of socioeconomic theory.

It’s Deeper Than That!: Restorative Justice and the Challenge of Racial Reflexivity in White-led Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 004208592199841
Author(s):  
Arthur Romano ◽  
Rochelle Arms Almengor
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
White Led ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Systemic Racism

This paper uses critical race theory to analyze several case studies focused on the experiences of two restorative justice coordinators (RJCs), both Black women and how they understood and responded to perceived racial injustices in urban schools with white leadership. These schools were attempting to address unequal disciplinary practices toward students of color through restorative justice and the RJCs adapted their approaches to addressing racialized dynamics while also developing school-wide networks to foster broader critical reflection on race. They navigated the risks of challenging white privilege and systemic racism both of which at times limited their attempts at influencing change.

scholarly journals William James and the Sustainable Transformation of Values, with a Case Study for Rethinking the American Dream

Human Arenas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Croce
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
American Dream ◽  
William James ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

AbstractThis article addresses the call of the Psychology of Global Crises conference for linkage of academic work with social issues in three parts: First, examples from conference participants with their mix of bold calls for social transformation and realization of limits, a combination that generated few clear paths to achieving them. Second, presentation of Jamesian practical idealism with psychological insights for moving past impediments blocking implementation of ideals. And third, a case study of impacts from the most recent prominent crisis, the global pandemic of 2020, which threatens to exacerbate the many crises that had already been plaguing recent history. The tentacles of COVID’s impact into so many problems, starting with economic impacts from virus spread, present an opportunity to rethink the hope for constant economic growth, often expressed as the American Dream, an outlook that has driven so many of the problems surging toward crises. Jamesian awareness of the construction of ideological differences and encouragement of listening to those in disagreement provide not political solutions, but psychological preludes toward improvements in the face of crises.

The silence of the ellipses: Why history can’t be about telling our children lies

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (5) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Sam Wineburg
Keyword(s):  
History Textbooks ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Boston Massacre

History textbooks are less likely to be complete renderings of the truth than a series of stories textbook authors (and the many stakeholders who influence them) consider beneficial. Sam Wineburg describes how the process of writing history textbooks often leads to sanitized and inaccurate versions of history. As an example, he describes how the story of Crispus Attucks and the Boston massacre has evolved over time. The goal of historical study, he explains, is not to cultivate love or hate of the country. Rather, it should provide us with the courage needed to look ourselves unflinching in the face, so that we may understand who we were and who we might aspire to become.

الحكم الرشيد وكفاءة التخطيط للموازنة الاتحادية والدور المرتقب لتحقيق التنمية المستدامة في العراق

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (71) ◽  
pp. 4-18
Author(s):  
م.د صادق طعمة خلف ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Good Governance ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Budget Planning ◽  
Comprehensive Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
Efficient Planning ◽  
Public Money ◽  
Poverty Indicators ◽  
The Many

The Iraqi reality misses the foundations of good governance in Iraq, as well as the comprehensive development programs that produce economic and financial reforms, especially in the federal budget, which is characterized as a fragile, weak and vocal budget. Therefore, it came as a modest attempt to shed light on the justifications for achieving good and good governance and efficient planning for the federal budget in its expenditures and revenues. The public, which contributes to building the state and achieving sustainable development that helps solve the main community problems, reduce poverty indicators, reduce unemployment, provide housing and basic services for all components of Iraqi society, and one of the doors to good and rational governance is the efficient management of the federal budget in Iraq, which is represented by efficient planning for managing public money. And protecting it from corruption is in addition to the many problems that fiscal policy suffers from, including weak non-oil financial revenues and dependence on oil revenues, and the growing deficit in budget planning and reliance in particular on foreign debt in the face of the deficit, and solutions are not impossible but need a national administration to achieve them.

scholarly journals Czwarty synod archidiecezji warszawskiej

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 23-49
Author(s):  
Janusz Gręźlikowski
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Holy See ◽  
John Paul Ii ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Many ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
The Church

The 4th Synod of the Warsaw Archdioceses was debating during the five-year period, between 19th March 1998 and 19th March 2003 when the Warsaw Church had been run by the primate of Poland, cardinal Joseph Glemp. He proposed, summoned and carried out the synod and promulgated its resolutions. The initiative of summoning the synod was connected with the need for overall renewal of the religious and moral life of the Warsaw archdiocese. The synod’s deliberations and its resolutions were to cause the betterment of the organization and functioning of administrative and pastoral apparatus in the archdiocese, to normalize the many issues concerning the church and religious life, as well as to improve the laity and clergy’s religious, social and moral level. To achieve, a wide representation of clergy, catholic laity and monks were engaged. The synodical resolutions with its jurisdictional and pastoral nature are signified by strong setting in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the Canon Law, the documents of the Holy See and John Paul II, as well as by the resolutions of the Second Polish Plenary Second and the instructions of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate. At the same time they refer to the tradition of the Warsaw archdiocese and remain fully opened for the “tomorrow” of the Church, evangelizing and pastoral objective. Furthermore they undertake, organize and regulate many difficult pastoral issues. Thus the synodical legislator contributed to the renewal, revival and activation of the church and administrative structures of the archdioceses, so they could serve to various pastoral, church and administrative assignments.

scholarly journals Racial Microaggressions: Critical Questions, State of the Science, and New Directions

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 880-885
Author(s):  
Monnica T. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Racial Microaggressions ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Psychology Education ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
New Directions ◽  
State Of The Science ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Racial microaggressions are an insidious form of racism with devastating mental-health outcomes, but the concept has not been embraced by all scholars. This article provides an overview of new scholarship on racial microaggressions from an array of diverse scholars in psychology, education, and philosophy, with a focus on new ways to define, conceptualize, and categorize racial microaggressions. Racism, along with its many forms and manifestations, is defined and clarified, drawing attention to the linkages between racial microaggressions and systemic racism. Importantly, the developmental entry points leading to the inception of racial bias in children are discussed. Theoretical issues are explored, including the measurement of intersectional microaggressions and the power dynamics underpinning arguments designed to discredit the nature of racial microaggressions. Also described are the very real harms caused by racial microaggressions, with new frameworks for measurement and intervention. These articles reorient the field to this pertinent and pervasive problem and pave the way for action-based responses and interventions. The next step in the research must be to develop interventions to remedy the harms caused by microaggressions on victims. Further, psychology must make a fervent effort to root out racism that prevents scholarship on these topics from advancing.

scholarly journals Relaxing lockdown measures in epidemic outbreaks using selective socio-economic containment with uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Albi ◽  
Lorenzo Pareschi ◽  
Mattia Zanella
Keyword(s):  
Uncertain Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Difficult Problem ◽  
Feedback Controls ◽  
Contact Patterns ◽  
Specific Contact ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact

After an initial phase characterized by the introduction of timely and drastic containment measures aimed at stopping the epidemic contagion from SARS-CoV2, many governments are preparing to relax such measures in the face of a severe economic crisis caused by lockdowns. Assessing the impact of such openings in relation to the risk of a resumption of the spread of the disease is an extremely difficult problem due to the many unknowns concerning the actual number of people infected, the actual reproduction number and infection fatality rate of the disease. In this work, starting from a compartmental model with a social structure, we derive models with multiple feedback controls depending on the social activities that allow to assess the impact of a selective relaxation of the containment measures in the presence of uncertain data. Specific contact patterns in the home, work, school and other locations for all countries considered have been used. Results from different scenarios in some of the major countries where the epidemic is ongoing, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, are presented and discussed.

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