Charles Wade Mills

Charles Wade Mills was a Caribbean-American philosopher whose work focused on political philosophy, critical race theory, and the philosophy of race. Born in London, England, he grew up in Jamaica and later became a United States citizen. Mills received his BSc in physics from the University of the West Indies and his MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto. He held academic positions at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern University, and the CUNY Graduate Center. His most influential work, 'The Racial Contract' (1997), posits that the social contract, as theorized by Enlightenment thinkers, is undergirded by a racial hierarchy and a 'racial contract' that perpetuates white supremacy. Mills also contributed significantly to discussions on gender, class, and liberalism, advocating for a more critical engagement with these concepts in light of racial oppression. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017 and delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values in 2020. Mills died in 2021 after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer.