ABSTRACT
The discussion of social mechanisms in chapter three established what Wittgenstein refers to as intermediate cases, pictures or examples that allow us to see more clearly how we use race as a concept (Wittgenstein 1967: Sec 122). Up to this point I have sought to make a case for moving away from a focus on the historical description of racism as a way to find its original cause or relation. As my reliance on the work of Stanley Cavell to define the idea of everyday ordinary social practices in chapter two makes plain, I think that Wittgenstein’s description of how we learn is central to a discussion of the politics of race today (Wittgenstein 1967: Sec 28). How we learn to race is the problem of racism, and a theoretical solution has to be found through a discussion of how we use it ordinarily.
