The Racial Contract

by

Charles W. Mills

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Social Contract

The social contract is a philosophical explanation for the way societies form and why government authority over individuals is legitimate. Essentially, social contract theorists argue that people collectively agree to form or join a society… read analysis of Social Contract

Racial Contract

The titular and central concept in Mills’s book, the racial contract is a body of formal and informal agreements among white people that establish and maintain a white supremacist society (in which white people… read analysis of Racial Contract

State of Nature

In social contract theory, state of nature is a term for the way people lived before they formed organized societies. read analysis of State of Nature

White Supremacy

White supremacy is a political order in which white people rule society for their own benefit. In white supremacist societies, white people accumulate power, wealth, and privilege by exploiting or enslaving non-white people, or by… read analysis of White Supremacy

Expropriation Contract

The expropriation contract is one dimension of the historical racial contract. It’s a set of legal agreements that white people used to dispossess non-white people of their land and resources. For instance, in the… read analysis of Expropriation Contract
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Slavery Contract

The slavery contract is one part of the historical racial contract, in which white Europeans gave themselves the right to legally enslave non-white people (especially African and American Indian people) based on the idea… read analysis of Slavery Contract

Colonial Contract

The colonial contract is one element of the historical racial contact, in which Europeans granted themselves the legal right to rule territories outside Europe. This was based on the racist idea that non-white people… read analysis of Colonial Contract

Epistemology

Epistemology is a field of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge. The central concern of epistemology is the distinction between belief and opinion. In The Racial Contract, Mills argues that the titular racialread analysis of Epistemology