Historically, the concept of "race" as a biological hierarchy didn't always exist.

• Ancient world: philosophers like plato and aristotle used "noble lies" or ideas of "natural slavery" to justify social hierarchies based on individual talent or political status, but these weren't strictly racial systems.

• Canonical "invention": modern race ideas emerged in the 1700s. famous philosophers like david hume and immanuel kant were major architects of this, claiming that non-white people were naturally inferior in reason and taste . kant was actually the first to define "race" as a term for large groups with heritable differences.

"Race" has no independent scientific foundation.

• Taxonomies vs. genetics: early scientists like linnaeus and blumenbach tried to divide humans into 4 or 5 fixed categories.

• Genetic reality: modern biology has unraveled these ideas. research (like lewontin’s) shows that 85% of human genetic variation happens within groups, not between them . basically, there’s more genetic difference between two people of the same "race" than there is between the "average" of two different races.

• Populations over races: instead of races, scientists now talk about "populations"—groups that breed within themselves—but even these don't line up with our social categories of "black," "white," or "asian".

Since race isn't biological, philosophers focus on how it is "socially constructed"—a human-made system that feels natural because it’s embedded in our laws and habits.

• Social technology: race is maintained through "social technologies" like segregation, marriage customs, and wealth gaps that keep different groups in different status positions.

• Individual identity: race is also a process of internal dialogue. w.e.b. du bois called this "double consciousness"—the feeling that black americans have to see themselves through their own eyes and through the eyes of a racist society.

• Mixed-race identities: mixed-race people often challenge the monoracial system, highlighting that racial categories are often arbitrary and based more on appearance than ancestry.

There is a distinction between "race" (the categories) and "racism" (the attitudes and actions).

• Hearts-and-minds racism: individual prejudice and hate.

• Institutional racism: wide-scale social structures that harm people of color regardless of whether the individuals running them are "racist" (e.g., school funding tied to property taxes).

• Implicit racism: micro-aggressions and unconscious biases that people might not even realize they have.

• Epistemic oppression: when certain groups are excluded from producing knowledge or when their perspectives aren't taken seriously as "credible".

Current philosophers are split on what to do with the concept of race now that we know the biology is fake:

• Eliminativism: the idea that we should stop using the word "race" altogether because it’s based on bad science and causes harm.

• Constructivism: the idea that we must keep the concept because race is a very real social and political identity that people use to fight for justice.

Issues in philosophy of race, like identity itself, is deeply intersectional, in scope and approach.

• Intersectionality (a term from kimberlé crenshaw), explains that people experience multiple, overlapping oppressions.

• Black feminist philosophy: black women often face a "double oppression"—racism from white society and sexism from both white society and black men . this led to a distinct field of philosophy that centers the lived experiences of black women and girls.