Color Conscious

The Political Morality of Race

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by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Amy Gutmann

Princeton University Press

Due/Published April 1998, 232 pages, paper

ISBN 0691059098

Winner of the American Political Science Association's 1997 Ralph J. Bunche Award.

Here are two more important voices speaking out on the issue of race. Appiah and Gutmann seek to clear the ground for a discussion of the place of race in politics and in our moral lives. Their essays tackle different aspects of the question of racial justice; together they provide a compelling response to this country's most difficult problem. Appiah establishes the problematic nature of the idea of race, explores the history of its invention and the ways it has been used. He argues that while people of color may need to gather together, in the face of racism, under the banner of race, they need also to balance carefully the calls of race against the many other dimensions of individual identity; and he suggests, finally what this might mean for our political life. Gutmann examines alternative political responses to racial injustice and argues that American politics cannon be fair to all citizens by being color blind because American society is not color blind. Fairness, not color blindness, is the fundamental principle of justice. This is the boiled down version of what appear here as a refusal to give simple answers to complex questions. If you've read West and Gates on race, you should check this out also.

"Appiah and Gutmann articulate with precision and subtlety those intricate issues of race that confound us all."--Toni Morrison

"Without dogma or cant, two of our most challenging and clear-eyed public philosophers explore the real meanings of culture and identity. An invaluable resource for all who want to think responsibly about the racial dilemmas facing our nation."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"These formidable scholars each remind us that principles of justice and ideas about race are interdependent and must speak to the actual conditions in which we live."--Lani Guinier