ABSTRACT
Race Discrimination is the first named category of prohibited discrimination in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and domestic legislation such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the United States. An account of race discrimination may not need to commit itself to any particular theory of race. Contemporary philosophical debates around the concept of race tend to center on ontological questions about whether and in what ways, if any, race can be thought to be 'real'. Assuming a moralized definition of discrimination, to claim that an action constitutes race discrimination is to assert a moral objection against it. The moral objection of failing to treat persons as autonomous individuals is perhaps not distinctive of race discrimination, gender discrimination. But, in combination with the social meaning of racialized action, this objection helps answer a puzzle that is somewhat unique to race discrimination theory.
