In this paper I draw from critical work on the historical, social, political, economic, and cultural functions of race, to trace how Axel Honneth’s recognition as a critical social theory of justice is activated through racial thinking. In my analyses, I outline the need to theorize recognition as a “racial recognition”; complicating current theories, which seem to continuously inscribe the bourgeois white male as the true provider of justice and the bearer of rights; the true subject. Critical questions for social work are raised. How might race/racial thinking underlie our visions of social justice, and who benefits from this? What happens when we re-view the social and political justice intentions of social work through the lens of global white supremacy, say, as we move towards international development work in the global south? This paper presents important theoretical positions on race and the “morality” of recognition as social justice, which contribute highly to critical, socio-political, anti-racist social work theory and practice.