JUSTICE, BENEVOLENCE, AND TRUTHFULNESS: A VIRTUE-BASED ACCOUNT OF RACIAL IDENTITY

This work addresses how we ought to evaluate racial identity claims ethically, particularly in contested cases where existing theories fail to provide adequate guidance. The central problem concerns what makes racial identity claims ethically justified when traditional markers diverge or prove insufficient. In this dissertation, I develop the Virtue-Based Account of Racial Identity (V-BARI), arguing that racial identity claims should be evaluated through three conditions: contextual positioning within relevant racial discourse, meaningful community membership, and justification guided by the virtues of justice, benevolence, and truthfulness. This framework requires coherent narrative explanation connecting identity claims to lived experience and moral accountability. Analysis of contested cases demonstrates V-BARI's philosophical advantages. Elizabeth Warren's Native American identification fails the truthfulness standard due to inconsistent self-representation. Rachel Dolezal's claim violates truthfulness through deception and justice through appropriation. Transracial adoptees can legitimately maintain cultural identities formed through upbringing despite genetic discoveries. I operationalize V-BARI for reparations through the Converging Test, assessing documented exposure to racialized extraction systems while remaining constitutionally defensible. Applied to algorithmic contexts, V-BARI shows that deceiving biased dating algorithms serves justice when systems create digital segregation. V-BARI provides comprehensive guidance by integrating insights from competing approaches while avoiding their limitations. Unlike rigid ancestry-based theories or permissive self-identification models, virtue-based evaluation maintains ethical coherence across paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic cases. The framework offers practical guidance for institutional contexts where racial identity carries moral significance, establishing that racial identity evaluation requires virtue-based assessment balancing individual autonomy with community accountability.