The Scope of the No-individual-is-to-blame Thesis
If the idea is that no individual is to blame for establishing E-like institutions or first giving them their racist form, it is quite implausible (Haslanger 2004: 104). It is certainly true that no single individual is to blame.
Establishing an institution or giving an institution a particular form is invariably a collective act, requiring as it does a number of agents acting together in concert. A group of agents who establish a racist institution or make an already established institution racist richly deserves blame. And to the extent that the individuals belonging to such a group consciously and deliberately seek to establish a racist institution or make an already established institution racist, they are individually to blame. It is doubtful, however, that the genesis of racist institutions is what Haslanger had in mind in advancing the no-individual-is-to-blame thesis. It seems far more likely that her central concern was the continuing operation of already established E-like institutions.When restricted to established E-like institutions’ continuing operation, the no- individual-is-to-blame idea gets traction. It is certainly true that no one individual agent is uniquely responsible for the institution’s continuing operation, since that too depends on multiple individuals acting together. Nor is it the case that the racist operation of E-like institutions can be explained by reference to the behavior of a few “bad apples” (a small number of individual office holders who behave in racist ways). By definition, E-like institutions promote racial inequality through their normal operation. They actualize their racist goals through the fact that their officers generally act in accord with their “standard operating procedures.” Racial oppression is not the result of the violation of their norms; it is the result of observing them.
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