The racial contract: rereading modern theories through the lens of inverted epistemology

Abstract

This text proposes to present a critical reading of modern and neo-contractualism from the perspective of the “racial contract” formulated by Charles Mills in his work of the same name, The Racial Contract. Using the concept of “inverted epistemology”, Mills argues that the social contract, far from being a universal pact among rational and free subjects, is historically structured as a strategic agreement that legitimizes “white supremacy” as an absolute political system. The analysis seeks to highlight how the exclusion of non-white subjects from the concept of humanity and from the social pact occurs through the construction and reproduction of an “epistemology of ignorance”, which is functional to the political project of white group domination. In this sense, Mills proposes a critical dialogue with the work A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, understanding it as an analysis that revitalizes the modern social contract – even though with radically different aspects – while maintaining the same exclusionary structure by disregarding the historical and material effects of structural racism. This, in some way, could still serve white supremacy, even though it claims to be equitable and impartial. In this way, the text will present some central questions that traverse this debate.