Introduction to Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Luke Charles Harris, Daniel Martinez HoSang, and George Lipsitz
A few passages and prompts below:
“A long history of artistic expression and humanities scholarship has grounded aspirations for social justice in the elision of difference. The market subject of classical capitalist theory, the citizen subject of liberalism — and even the universal worker of Marxism and the universal woman of feminism — all rest upon an ideal of interchangeability wherein differences are said not to matter. These traditions teach that similarity should trump difference; that beneath the surface the appearance of “otherness” masks a common human condition.” (2)
- This ideal of interchangeability, the authors assert, go on to celebrate the “symbolic transcendence of difference without offering or even suggesting the need for access to equitable opportunities or conditions.” What do you think of the authors’ assertion? Can you think of experiences or observations you have made where the idea of “transcendence” overshadows conditions of inequity?
“People with problems thus become identified as problems; and the members of groups who object to social inequality then become castigated for calling attention to differences that matter in their lives.” (3)
- Wheelchair ramp / elevator accessibility seems like a useful example to consider here. The next time you are in a museum or gallery, look for accessibility entrances and accommodations. Where are they? Do they have to be requested or are they marked well?
- Are there other examples you can think of where someone with a need or concern becomes identified as a problem?
- In the accessibility example, or in any other you come up with, what do you identify as the barriers to accommodation?
“The failure of the disciplines to produce a collective accounting of the realities of race in contemporary society occludes the more fundamental indictment upon which countering colorblindness rests. Behind the colorblind facade of the existing disciplines is the historical role that knowledge production has played in creating and fortifying racial projects ranging from slavery and segregation to imperialism and genocide. Historically situated against this backdrop, colorblindness thus becomes a series of moves and investments that conceal the fingerprints of the university in constructing the very conditions that colorblind frameworks refuse to name.” (5)
- I’m taken by this phrasing, “a series of moves and investments” and wondering how and to what extent you might observe moves and investments in your concentration, or in other areas of your life that are organized by institution or some sort of structural hierarchy.
- I think of “moves” as things like developing diversity plans or appointing a diversity committee. Or maybe publishing a brochure featuring faces of people of color. Or even using the blanket term “diversity” instead of saying “non-white people” or “Black people,” etc.
- I think “investments” might be things like privileging “peer-reviewed publications” over publications meant for a broad general public or tenure requirements not including community-based work or work that includes scholarship by — to use Felice Blake’s term — “aggrieved people.”
- Can you think of “moves” or “investments” within your concentration or field of study? Can you think of any within other structural hierarchies?
