Racism, the economy, and ethics: where does it all begin?

The chapter discusses the relation between racism and the economy in terms of the divide between open and closed-systems approaches, a divide that reflects different value judgments concerning the relation between the economy and society. It begins by discussing the variety of views within the closed-systems perspective, suggesting that they are insightful, especially for countries where discrimination was institutionalized, but that they implicitly consider racism an exogenous interference with the rules that underlie the economy. The discussion then considers the alternative, open-systems view, which suggests that socio-economic interaction in a capitalist market economy originates in an institutional set-up that includes racism as a constituent part, that is, both as a means and as a consequence of distributive conflict. The social and policy implications that the two views lead to raise important ethical issues about what ends policy is supposed to pursue, that is, whether priorities and actions should be strictly economic or involve society as a whole. In the latter case, the uncertainty associated with extensive institutional change raises further issues concerning what role economists should have in the pursuit of a possibly different society. Given that change also affects people’s identities, a final issue is whether one can envisage a shift from a society where racial self-identification is important in the struggle against racism to a society where racial self-identification reiterates the racial divide.