Conscription and the Color Line

Rawls, Race and Vietnam

Bibliographic Data

ID12740281
AuthorsBrandon M Terry (Harvard University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume18
Issue4
Pages960-983
Publication date2021-03-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Intellectual History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1479244320000463
OpenAlexW3134180271
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited9

This article revisits one of John Rawls's rare forays into activist politics, his proposal presented to the Harvard faculty, calling for a denunciation of the “2-S” system of student deferments from conscription. In little-studied archival papers, Rawls argued that the draft both exposed “background” structural racial injustice and constituted a burdening of black Americans that violated the norms of fair cooperation. Rather than obscuring racial injustice and focusing exclusively on economic inequality, as Charles Mills has claimed, Rawls rejected the ascendant conservative views that naturalized black poverty or else attributed it to cultural pathologies in black families. Thus Rawls found nothing illicit in taking the position of a disadvantaged racial group as a relevant comparison when applying his ideal theory to nonideal circumstances. However, I contend in this article that Rawls's account of political philosophy as an attempt to find a consensus may be similarly ideological, leading him to displace the reality of conflict through begging descriptions, expressivist formulations, and historical romanticism

Economic Justice · Ideology · Injustice · Law and economics · Libertarianism · Original position · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Academic Freedom and Politics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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