Race Out of Joint: (Im)possibility of Post-raciality

Abstract

In this paper, I contend that post-raciality is a strategically- created ideological fantasy that blocks people from opening their eyes wide to behold the truth of the discursive network of such ideological state apparatuses as colonialism, gender, class, xenophobia, raciality, global capitalism, etc. The debates surrounding the possibility and accountability of post-Obama raciality, post-raciality, post-racial liberalism, or colorblindness have many discursive fronts. I examine a few of these fronts using several theorists’ contention over the meaning of post-raciality; and then, I discuss how problematic the post-racial discourses can be. Michel Foucault discusses how the state made use of racism to establish nationalism and national conflicts as an ironical strategy to keep national unity. Etienne Balibar argues for a ‘differential racism’ that applies traditional racial categorization and strategies of oppression to new immigrants or migrants. Omi and Winant maintain that the race has been formed by the racial state whose foundation itself is linked to the history of racism (racial dictatorship) and racial movement (racial democracy) that resist it. Paul Gilory points out the operation of the same bio-politics in the discourse of race, while he fully embraces the idea of post-raciality as the global racial reality. Yet, Gilroy’s audacious challenges against the significance of race in the postmodern culture sounds only partially legitimate. Reading through those theories, in this paper I argue that post-raciality is an ideological fantasy that hover over the dark racial reality where white supremacy and differential racism work.