ABSTRACT
This chapter’s thesis is a straightforward methodological maxim: if we want to analyze the ordinary concept and conception of race, we ought to consider as many and as reliable data as possible about how ordinary people actually deploy racial terms. If this is right, then the last chapter’s armchair analysis at least must be consistent with, and ideally would substantively dovetail with, such data. I’ll return to examining how my armchair analysis comports with ordinary folk intuitions about race in the next chapter. The current task, however, is to argue that armchair-generated data, while useful, are most compelling when fortified by systematically gathered empirical data on ordinary racial discourse. If you already find this kind of claim agreeable, you could jump to Chapter 4 without missing a beat. If you stick around, however, we’ll see here that many don’t already accept it and that there are some reasons for those detractors to reconsider.
