The Role of Utilitarianism in Systemic Racism Essay Example

Utilitarianism is defined “as a utility in terms of pleasure and pain (Hinman, 137).” according to* to Bentham in “The Ethics of Consequences: Utilitarianism.” Utilitarians want more pleasure as opposed to pain altogether. John Stuart Mill, a utilitarian, agrees with the same consequential theory except for the pleasure part. Instead, he defines utility as the overall ‘happiness and pain. The difference between the two terms is happiness correlates more to the mind while pleasure relates to the body. Overall, utilitarianism strongly focuses on keeping the happiness of the majority in a society, but this mentality is one of the causes of systemic racism. That is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that results in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.” Systemic racism, aka institutional racism, is the result of utilitarianism when a government wants to keep the happiness of the majority population. How do the two terms relate to each other one may ask? If we look at John Stuart Mill’s “Ethical Theory: A Concise Anthology”, he says,” It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion. It is because they only know their side of the question.” The other party to the comparison knows both sides. (Mill, 92).” In other words, people who want more happiness will seek that, but only if they are aware of that outcome. For example: in Mill’s book, he discusses human behavior and how they often come “from infirmity[a] of character, [when making] their election for the nearer good…” In their minds, happiness and pleasure are equal when it comes to the mind and body. As a consequence, those “with youthful enthusiasm for everything noble,” may turn to selfishness and indolence. (93) With this thought, eventually, people will lose their “high aspirations [and] intellectual tastes” due to being busy OR being the only ones able to access “inferior pleasures.” This would possibly humble them. 

Systemic racism works in a very similar way. There are some white people aware of their outcomes due to growing up “with youthful enthusiasm for everything noble.” (In other words, expressing their audacities or selfishness). This mentality creates a raging level of audacity within systemic racism due to white men believing that they deserve truly everything without a question. They mentally want more pleasure and happiness compared to the pain and fail to realize Black people were and still are mentally traumatized, degraded, and pushed to not think in such a way when they even want to be successful. For instance, let’s look at the educational and criminal justice system. Black people are already at a disadvantage starting from preschool. According to NPR.org, there’s a whole article that discusses how “Black Preschoolers [Are] Far More Likely To Be Suspended [compared to their counterparts.]” This isn’t because Black kids “don’t want to be successful” or “don’t want to receive an education.” This is because the systems in place, where the population contains mainly white people, have permitted this to carry on. Somehow imprisoning Black students is creating the “better good” in this utilitarian society. There are schools “[pushing] kids directly into the juvenile justice system.” NPR.org gives the example of one school fight that can lead to a Black kid being arrested for assault due to being “perceived as older than they are.” These institutionalized systems** set in place didn’t just show up in these studies, this has been going on for years. The fact that it’s still happening tells me this was institutionally set up to defer Black people from receiving an education or being successful while also “helping” the majority of the population by sending these kids to jail. I want to reiterate, earlier, Mill’s quote about the fool and the pig mentions that people who seek more happiness want more since they are “aware of that outcome.” Well, there are plenty of Black people and other minorities that aren’t aware of “that” outcome. The Sentencing Project.org reported that “African Americans [are] 5x more likely than whites to be held [in Juvenal detention centers.] How is it so that Black kids are more likely to go to prison at such a young age, but yet, the Black population in America is 13.4%, reported by the US Census Bureau? 

I cannot stress enough how utilitarianism has played a key role in systemic racism. Institutional racism was created solely from utilitarianism ideologies in hopes of “helping the greater good.” The problem with this ideology is that it promotes systemic racism. While helping the majority of the population to benefit them it ends up only supporting white people, and excludes anyone else different from them. Without a doubt, utilitarianism has highly encouraged systemic racism and will continue to encourage it. As long as, the majority of the population is content and pleasure, I don’t believe that we will see any changed soon. The sense of audacity, entitlement from “high aspirations” along with “intellectual tastes” are too unreasonable in this country that one cannot convince me otherwise of the role of utilitarianism and its encouragement in systemic racism. Since the minority would never have a part to play in utilitarianism, the majority would always “win.” Every time. If this country were to change its ways and create an equal and equitable environment for all, it would have to acknowledge its racist past and change its attitude towards minorities. This would also come with dismantling these racist systems hurting the Black community.