Abstract
I connect Theory of Mind (ToM) to matters of race, ultimately to the matter of ideology of the US South. Specifically, I show how the deployment of ToM, that is, mind attribution or the lack thereof (a denial of mind) to certain groups and individuals serves to designate these subjects as inferior to the dominant/dominating class.
I am thus predominantly interested in ToM as a social competence and approach it from an ethical point of view. Recent studies on theory of mind have connected it to moral concerns.
Mind attribution does not serve only purposes of behaviour explanation or action prediction, but also moral evaluation. Of particular relevance is the finding that there are two dimensions of mind perception connected to morality: "The dimensions thus relate to Aristotle's classical distinction between moral agents (whose actions can be morally right or wrong) and moral patients (who can have moral right or wrong done to them).
Agency is linked to moral agency and hence to responsibility, whereas Experience is linked to moral patiency and hence to rights and privileges." Being concerned with the matter of race in the context of ToM, I turn my attention to William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses. Barbara Ladd insists that in Go Down, Moses the matter of race "comes down to white recognition - white recognition of black humanity and, in that, white self-recognition." Nowhere in the novel is the rift between black and white communities resulting from the denial of black humanity shown more conspicuously while being tethered to ToM, than in the section titled "Pantaloon in Black." The racial caste system as evidenced by "Pantaloon in Black" is premised on the African-Americans being denied a person status, humanity on the basis of denying them experience, that is, their moral rights and privileges.
In effect, African-Americans are denied mind enabling the white ideology to unleash its violence against them.