Does Mills' epistemology suggest a hermeneutic injustice of White Afroscepticism?

This article examines the concept of "White Afroscepticism," a doxastic (belief-related) attitude among a subset of White Americans characterized by skepticism toward the intellectual and moral equality of Black people, rooted in a White-dominant racial caste system in the United States. Drawing on Charles Mills' epistemology of ignorance and Miranda Fricker's theory of epistemic injustice, the paper argues that this subgroup experiences hermeneutical injustice—an epistemic disadvantage arising from structural and social-identity factors that limit their access to interpretive resources about race and citizenship. White Afroscepticism functions as a totalizing belief system that insulates its holders from evidence challenging racial hierarchies, thereby mitigating their moral blameworthiness while perpetuating racial inequality. The article concludes that educational interventions acknowledging this epistemic phenomenon are necessary to dismantle its reasoning architecture and promote democratic, equitable pedagogy in K–12 and higher education.