Summary Of Race Critical Theories By Cornel West

In 2002, a book, called Race Critical Theories, was published, which contained the ideas of a prominent American philosopher, Cornel West. West begins by stating “My genealogical approach subscribes to a conception of power that is neither simply based on individual subjects … nor on collective subjects” (West 92). With reference to racism, West is saying that modern racism has another form, structural racism, which doesn’t directly affect people. Society is built in such a way that makes racism a part of it and so it becomes routine. For example, banks use risk assessment and tend to approve less housing loans for black low-income families, which makes it harder for colored people to move to wealthier neighborhoods. West provides three sources which he thinks that are the source of all the racism.
West’s first source of racism are ideas from the Enlightenment era. During the Enlightenment era, people used empirical data to stratify objects and put them into different categories. West states that, “the scientific revolution is significant because it highlights two fundamental ideas: observation and evidence” (West 94). Observation became the best evidence to explain why phenomena occur in
West criticized Descartes by saying, “In his Discourse on Method, Descartes set forth as a rule that ‘observations’ become ‘the more necessary the further we advance in knowledge’” (West 96). Descartes had a mathematical foundation and he believed in rational thought, but rational thought was one of the characteristics from the Enlightenment, so he did not truly cast off previous biases prior to his meditation. His past beliefs were still a part of his meditative thoughts. In today’s society, West advises that we should recognize our biases and work while keeping them in mind. The opinions that we form will always have some part of our values and beliefs in them and we cannot prevent