Theory of Racelessness

This book presents a skeptical eliminativist philosophy of race and the theory of racelessness, a methodological andpedagogical framework for analyzing "race" and racism. It explores the history of skeptical eliminativism andconstructionist eliminativism within the history of African American philosophy and literary studies and its consistentconnection with movements for civil rights. Sheena M. Mason considers how current anti-racist efforts reflect naturalistconservationist and constructionist reconstructionist philosophies of race that prevent more people from fully confrontingthe problem of racism, not race, thereby enabling racism to persist. She then offers a three-part solution for howscholars and people aspiring toward anti-racism can avoid unintentionally upholding racism, using literary studies as acase study to show how "race" often translates into racism itself. The theory of racelessness helps more people undoracism by undoing the belief in "race."