Race and racism: Towards a global future

Abstract

Abstract There is a deepening and worldwide contradiction in the meaning and structure of race and racism. The age of empire is over; apartheid and Jim Crow have ended; a significant consensus exists that the concept of race lacks an objective basis; and yet the concept persists, as idea, as practice, as identity, and as social structure. This suggests that the global racial situation remains not only volatile but also seriously undertheorized. Five key racial problems of the twenty-first century are stressed: (1)Nonracialism vs. Race Consciousness; (2)Racial Genomics; (3)The Nation and its Peoples; (4)Race/Gender/Class “Intersectionality”; and (5) Empire, Race, and Neoconservatism. A radical pragmatist approach is proposed, stressing the ineluctable link between racialized experience and racialized social structure. This argument, that racial hegemony has not been secured, draws on the DuBoisian legacy as well as racial formation theory. Because racial rule is essential to rule itself, these contradictions are destined to deepen, not diminish. Keywords: Nonracialismcolourblindnessracial formationintersectionalityradical pragmatismracial genomics Notes 1. Race is concept which signifies and symbolizes sociopolitical conflicts and interests in reference to different types of human bodies. Although the concept of race appeals to biologically-based human characteristics (so-called phenotypes), selection of these particular human features for purposes of racial signification is always and necessarily a social and historical process. There is no biological basis for distinguishing human groups along the lines of ‘race’, and the sociohistorical categories employed to differentiate among these groups reveal themselves, upon serious examination, to be imprecise if not completely arbitrary. 2. Racism consists of one or more of the following: (1) Signifying practice that essentializes or naturalizes human identities based on racial categories or concepts; (2) Social action that produces unjust allocation of socially valued resources, based on such significations; (3) Social structure that reproduces such allocations. 3. For more on the global racial ‘break’ that took place during and after WWII, see Winant 2001. 4. For some examples of such inventories, see Gurr et al Citation1993; Gurr and Harff Citation1994; Chaliand and Rageau Citation1995. 5. As I have written elsewhere, the micro-macro distinction is merely analytical as it applies to racial formation: see Winant Citation2004, 200-202. 6. See the discussion of DuBoisian ‘double consciousness’ below. 7. This argument, which receives greater attention below, applies as well to other axes of oppression and resistance, quite obviously. Here I confine myself mainly to discussion about race. 8. Forgive this neologism: I refer to the resurgent imperial character of North-South (and to some extent West-East) international relationships and organizations such as the IMF and the WTO. 9. See Winant 1994, 24-29. 10. ‘We should never indulge in the condescending voices that allege that some people are not interested in freedom or aren't ready for freedom's responsibility. That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it's wrong in 2004 in Baghdad’ (Condoleeza Rice, Commencement Speech, Vanderbilt University, May 13, 2004). 11. See note 3, above, in respect to the micro-macro distinction in ‘levels’ of racial formation. 12. I am thinking here of Mead's (Citation1967 [1934]) concept of self, and of the performative dimensions of identity in CitationBlumer's (1969) work and its legacy, as well as in the ouevre of Erving Goffman. 13. Radical pragmatist approaches to racial theory are finally receiving the serious attention they deserve. Much of the credit for this advance belongs to Cornel West, whose early work on this theme (1989) remains indispensable. See also West and Mendieta 2004. Herbert CitationBlumer's later work on race is indispensable; see his classic article of 1958; see also Blumer and Duster Citation1980. Fraser's (Citation1998) work on Alain Locke should also be noted. 14. Reparations and redistribution projects have much to recommend them, but also must be approached with caution. Race/class intersectionality comes into play here; in other words, who pays for them counts as much as who benefits by them. Unless they can be structured as transfers not only from the racially privileged to the racially subaltern, but also as transfers from capital to labor, they will have the effect (indended or unintended) of heightening class divisions even as they reduce racial ones. As a general rule, reparations should be funded by wealth taxes rather than by transfers from general funds. See Winant Citation2004, 126. 15. The US civil rights movement did this quite consciously, shifting its political leverage from the state level, where segregationism and ‘state's rights’ arguments held greater sway, toward the US nation-state, where such matters as Cold War imperatives, northern voting and labor patterns, and liberal cultural norms were in play. Today, with the federal state under the control of reactionary and anti-democratic groups, we see movement activity emphasizing local and state-based political venues.