The Duty to Miscegenate

The Duty to Miscegenate

University of Michigan
152 pages
2013

Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy)

In ‘The duty to miscegenate’, I harness John Stuart Mill’s 19th century theory of social freedom to explain and to dismantle contemporary racialised and gendered injustice. In the first chapter—Social stigmatisation: ‘a social tyranny’—I argue that persons racialised-and-gendered-as-black-women were, in the past, unjustly stigmatised by legal penalties against ‘miscegenation‘ and are still, today, unjustly stigmatised by white male avoidance of cross-racial marriage and companionship. In the second chapter—Encounters that count: ‘a foundation for solid friendship’—I argue that we can dismantle this stigmatisation, by engaging in regular and frequent cross-racial commensality with persons racialised-and-gendered-as-black-women. In the third chapter—White right: ‘a right to avoid’—I argue that, although we have a right to avoid commensal encounters with others, we do not have a right to avoid persons we racialise as black. On the contrary, we have a duty to encounter them, on terms of equality and intimacy.

Table of Contents

  • DEDICATION
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • LIST OF TABLES
  • 1. Social stigmatisation: ‘a social tyranny’
    • The chief mischief of the legal penalties
    • They strengthen the social stigma
  • 2. Encounters that count: ‘a foundation for solid friendship’
    • The real remedy for breaking caste is inter-marriage
    • Another plan of action for the abolition of caste is to begin with inter-caste dinners
  • 3. White right: ‘a right to avoid’
    • We have a right to avoid it
    • A right to avoid blacks?
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY

Read the entire dissertation here.

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