Dr. Wagner, I’m not sure whether to be impressed or afraid that you can mimic this style of writing. I know I can’t, I’ve tried.

The thing is, I am fairly certain that I know what the student was trying to say. Appiah makes a distinction between those who are simply ignorant racists and those who are sincere racists. The ignorant racists are capable of seeing reason. That is, they can be convinced that their racist beliefs are wrong. The sincere racist, on the otherhand, has a cognitive incapacity. So, it should be possible to convince an extrinsic racist, through reason, not to be a racist. Or, you can’t and they are basically crazy. Only, I have to be extremely generous to get that idea out of what was written, hence the “no.”