Unveiling the Racial Contract: Charles Mills' Critique of Social Contract Theory and Injustices - Report Sample

Racial Contract by Charles Mills

The social contract fundamentally encompasses both moral and political obligations between individuals and the state. In this regard, the social contract provides the state with power and authority over individuals and maintains social order. At the same time, an individual is also given some rights and prevalence. However, in his book "Racial Contract," Charles Mills contends social contract from its inception was racially inherited. Charles Mills argues that philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant helped create the "Racial Contract" that provided ways in which the whites oppressed the non-whites and how they violated their morals when dealing with non-whites. Charles Mills believes that racism is the fundamental cause of social contract and that racial contract is a treaty among the European countries' members to promote, enhance, and maintain white supremacy against the other tribes in the world. Charles, in his own words, says "–what has usually been taken…. as the racist 'exception' has really been the rule; what has been taken as le'… [racial equality] ... has really been the exception" (Mill 80-95).

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The Racial Contract theory has three main components, i.e., the Racial Contract is political, moral, and epistemological. By claiming that racial agreement is political, Charles Mills primarily borrows from the historical happenings of the mid-1600s. The European colonies developed highly racialized institutions whose hierarchical system provided a differential treatment between European ancestry and African ancestry. Mills states that "The political element of Racial contract commences with the preliminary conceptual differentiation and corresponding portioning and transformation of the human population into non-whites and whites." By referring to the Racial Contract as moral, Mills borrows the element from how both the whites and the non-whites are treated respectively. He explains how the whites and valued while the non-whites are significantly devalued. The component of epistemology, according to Mill, is characterized by acts of misrepresentation, self-deception, and evasion.

Today in the history of Americans, the elements of Racial Contracts fully manifest themselves. The media has been at the forefront of enforcing the ideological function of the Racial Contract. The media perpetuates racial stereotypes by treating Black people differently from whites and viewing the white person as superhuman while the Black person as an inferior human being. The racial partitioning implemented by the European colonists continues to shape modern American society and is also practiced in different institutions in America. Mill's theory of Racial Contract has established a racial state, racial juridical system, and racial state in modern America. The whites' status and the non-whites are differentiated either by culture, custom, or the law. When looking at the political system in the current U.S and more with the just concluded elections, it is evident that people are racially and politically divided.

The Works of Racial Contract in Hobbes's Social Theory

Renowned social contract theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacque defined social contract theory as a technique in which the civilized society that includes the government arises from a historically preexisting anarchy state. According to Thomas, each person has the right to everything. There is no non-partisan authority to prevent violent individuals from taking what others may need to survive. Philosophers argue that social contract theory is an incomplete picture of individuals' moral and political lives. One of the greatest philosophers, Thomas Hobbes, lived in the most crucial periods in modern England's history. i.e., during the English Civil War. His political theory is significantly understood through the human theory of motivation and the social contract theory developed under the "hypothetical state of nature." The human nature theory gives rise to a specific view of morality and politics, some of the Racial Contract elements. Hobbes states that "even though men are naturally self-interested and rational, they will always submit to a given authority of a sovereign order to enable them to live in a civil community"( Moehler 3285). He argues that many men live in a state of nature that he refers to as unbearably brutal. In his writings, Racial Contracts are evident when he says that the purpose of any government in authority is to enforce the law and protect its people and from favoring the strong over the weak

How to Address the Racial Contract Injustices?

As mentioned, according to Hobbes, men lived during a period of states of nature, an unbearably brutal period. A condition in which every person has a fear of losing his/her life and a period in which people cannot have long-term satisfaction with their needs. In this regard, to address the issues of political and moral distress, Hobbes proposes that men are reasonable and can always find themselves out of the state of nature by using the laws of nature. This law can significantly be achieved by establishing a society that is ready to denounce the rights against each other. In other words, to avoid the Racial Contracts brought by the state of nature, people must be prepared to live together under common and typical law. People also must abide by the law of social contract because it has all the goodies that humans must depend upon to live well. Governments should also implement policies that will protect, and provide equality, and not a government of oppression.

Works Cited

Macpherson, Crawford Brough. "The political theory of possessive individualism: Hobbes to Locke." (2010).

Mills, Charles W. "The racial contract as methodology (not hypothesis)." Philosophia Africana 5.1 (2002): 75-99.

Mills, Charles W. The racial contract. Cornell University Press, 2014.

Moehler, Michael. "Diversity, stability, and social contract theory." Philosophical Studies 176.12 (2019): 3285-3301.