Imagine a speaker says something racist, e.g., “Black men are prone to criminal behaviour”, only to follow up on their statement with “But don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are black”. Footnote 3 To see how such figleaves might work, let’s look at an example for each one-starting with a racial figleaf. 161), while “ gender figleaf is an utterance which (for some portion of the audience) blocks the conclusion that (a) some other utterance, R, is sexist or (b) the person who uttered R is sexist” (Saul 2021, p. It is this tension that provides fertile ground for what Saul calls “racial figleaves” and “gender figleaves”.Īccording to Saul, “ racial figleaf is an utterance which (for some portion of the audience) blocks the conclusion that (a) some other utterance, R, is racist or (b) the person who uttered R is racist” (Saul 2021, p. Footnote 2 Put differently, when it comes to racism and sexism, there is a tension between (1) how people want to be or, at least, want to see themselves, want to be seen by others, and want to see others, and (2) how people actually are. Yet, says Saul, despite these norms and the roles they play in everyday life, many people harbour racist and sexist attitudes (cf. And they might not want to think of those they feel close to-be it family, friends, or politicians they vote for-as racist or sexist (cf. Moreover, it might be that they don’t want others to think that they are racist or sexist. Or they might just not want to think of themselves as racist or sexist. Footnote 1 That being said, most people want to conform to these norms in some form or another: They genuinely do not want to be racist or sexist. For instance, a statement that will strike some as quite definitely racist or sexist might be deemed benign by others. As these norms don’t specify what it means to be racist or sexist, they are bound to be interpreted very differently by different people, even by members of the same society or the same culture. Given that these norms will typically be implicit and given that they will likely vary substantially between different societies and cultures, Jennifer Saul takes it that they are best formulated in very general terms as “Don’t be racist” and “Don’t be sexist”, respectively (cf. Arguably, norms against racism and sexism are operative in many societies (cf.
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