{"id":1115,"date":"2010-02-14T17:03:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-14T15:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filosofille.wordpress.com\/?p=273"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:13:13","slug":"qa-21-feb-10-what-a-shame-thinking-about-race-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/qa-21-feb-10-what-a-shame-thinking-about-race-again\/","title":{"rendered":"QA 21. (Feb 10) Crying shame (Thinking about race again)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Samantha Vice, a philosopher at Rhodes University, has been thinking about the moral condition of white South Africans. Is it possible to live a virtuous life here, given the continuing privilege that comes with whiteness? Believing that this will be \u201cvery difficult\u201d, she argues that shame<\/em> is \u201cthe morally appropriate emotion to feel\u201d. She concludes, \u201cIf the self is as morally damaged as this suggests\u2026 a plausible strategy is\u2026 the ancient practice of \u2018care of the self\u2019, in which one\u2019s moral attention is directed inward towards the self\u201d. She thinks this will require \u201cpublic silence and humility\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

This is my response. First, if shame is \u201cappropriate\u201d, it\u2019s only according to<\/em> a particular story (which is after all a story) of moral worth: that having <\/em>is generally the honourable result of earning<\/em>. We get what we deserve and deserve what we get. So what happens when we discover our wealth is derived from a long season of racist injustice, which continues to advantage us? We\u2019re not as worthy as we believed. To her credit, Vice admits this as shameful. No denial, no squirming to get off the hook. Neither does she cast shame on those who feel differently. Her work is courageous, careful and  \u2013 as evident from the response at the conference \u2013 provocative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s worrisome. If whites are implicated by our history of privilege (I wouldn\u2019t deny it), this is also beyond our own desires, acts or intention. If shame is appropriate, then so are grief, compassion and companionship. Without this leavening of kindness, shame leads to useless and perverse follies of self-hatred and self-punishment. There are so many ways Vice\u2019s strategy can go wrong. \u201cOwning\u201d our shame may be another act of white privilege. \u201cCare of the soul\u201d can become \u201cnursing a grudge\u201d. \u201cPublic silence\u201d might be making lemonade from the fact that nobody\u2019s listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems to me that there are two kinds of shame. One is inflicted on us through hatred and abusive power as humiliation and submission. Definitely bad stuff. But there is another kind \u2013 it used to be called \u201cfeeling shamefast\u201d \u2013 that interrupts our careless arrogance. It lowers our eyes when we are moved by splendour. It humbles us but lets us be, softens our hard-shelled ego and orients us to a higher good. And it obliges us to turn. I imagine this is what Vice is recommending: to modestly withdraw into silence and tend to the garden of our \u201cdamaged moral being\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would so much rather question that root story of \u201cmoral worth\u201d, in which human value depends on calculation, comparison and hierarchy. (It\u2019s also, clearly, the root story of white racism.) We can do better. And the fact that we want<\/em> to do better suggests that, despite our albatross of privilege, we\u2019re not just \u201cdamaged goods\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However surprisingly, the black majority has not asked us to go away. Should we? What would it mean for the public sphere if only the shameless whites were out and about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCE. Vice, S. 2010. \u201cHow do I live in this strange place?\u201d (abstract) Presented to the Annual Conference of the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa<\/em>, 20\u201322 January, Monash University, Roodepoort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samantha Vice, a philosopher at Rhodes University, has been thinking about the moral condition of white South Africans. Is it possible to live a virtuous life here, given the continuing privilege that comes with whiteness? Believing that this will be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[72,224,7,11,225],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-everyday-philosophy","tag-race","tag-samantha-vice","tag-shame","tag-south-africa","tag-white-privilege"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2365,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.further.co.za\/helen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}