Shelby’s Focus on Institutions and Consciousness-Raising
While I find Shelby’s framework compelling, I’m a bit confused on the practicality of its implementation. My personal take on the idea of transferring resources to disadvantaged communities through institutions is that it assumes a level of political will and societal consensus that I find to be unrealistic currently. Additionally, without the interpersonal connections and shared experiences that integration can foster, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to generate the broad-based support necessary for such resource transfers. Generally speaking, I find that his framework's lean towards Marxist materialism would be self-defeating in this way. In the same way, I feel the reforms he calls for in our prisons as similarly difficult to put in place.
Going along with this idea, Shelby’s rejection of forced integration as a duty of justice feels almost like a paradox. On one hand, he insists that Black communities shouldn’t bear the sacrificial burden of integration, and that forced integration is not a duty of justice for Blacks as "no plausible interpretation of the duty of justice requires such self-sacrifice and heroism on the part of the oppressed" (74). But then he implicitly gestures toward consciousness-raising as a catalyst for voluntary integration, where whites, once committed to justice, might inspire reciprocal openness ("...once it [is] clear that whites [seek] to live in a just society even if this would mean losing some of their existing advantages, I suspect that a great number of blacks would, in the spirit of reciprocity, seek out opportunities for greater interracial interaction"). To me, this raises a TON of questions:
1. Consciousness-raising—how possible is it without significant (forced) integration? Can prison reform and transferring resources be achieved without it?
a. How can we reach a stage where voluntary integration is encouraged without a stage of forced integration?
b. If consciousness-raising isn’t considered to be a civic duty, could it be a duty of justice (DG 58)? If it is, how can conflicting duties of justice (rejection of forced integration and consciousness-raising) exist? 2. Engaging with concepts within standpoint epistemology, if we need consciousness-raising, how can we not expect the responsibility (or at least significant responsibility) to fall on Blacks to educate whites / the government? If it isn’t up to black people to teach us, how can we practically make consciousness-raising happen?
3. Would initiatives like forced educational integration face the same challenges that forced residential integration does?
Side Question: Drawing on the exchange between me and Aria, can rehabilitation programs be effective without consciousness-raising as a foundation?
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