Book
Seeing race again : countering colorblindness across the disciplines
Publication Information
Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019]
Physical Description
xviii, 410 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Summary
Every academic discipline has an origin story complicit with white supremacy. Racial hierarchy and colonialism structured the very foundations of most disciplines' research and teaching paradigms. In the early twentieth century, the academy faced rising opposition and correction, evident in the intervention of scholars including W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Carter G. Woodson, and others, and by the mid-twentieth century, education itself became a center in the struggle for social justice. Insurgency discredited some of the most odious intellectual defenses of white supremacy, but the disciplines and their keepers remained unwilling to interrogate many of the racist foundations of their fields in favor of racial colorblindness. This book challenges scholars and students to see race again. Examining the racial histories and colorblindness in fields as diverse as social psychology, the law, musicology, literary studies, sociology, and gender studies, this book documents the profoundly contradictory role of the academy in constructing, naturalizing, and reproducing racial hierarchy. It shows how colorblindness compromises the capacity of disciplines to effectively respond to the wide set of contemporary political, economic, and social crises marking public life. -- Provided by the publisher.
Contents
- The sounds of silence : how race neutrality serves White supremacy / Unmasking colorblindness in the law : lessons from the formation of critical race theory / Masking legitimized racism: indigeneity, colorblindness, and the sociology of race / On the transportability, malleability and longevity of colorblindness: reproducing white supremacy in Brazil and South Africa / How colorblindness flourished in the age of Obama / The possessive investment in classical music : confronting legacies of White supremacy in U.S. schools and departments of music / Powerblind intersectionality : feminist revanchism and inclusion as a one-way street / Colorblind intersectionality / Causality, context, and colorblindness : equal educational opportunity and the politics of racist disavowal / Affirmative action as equalizing opportunity : challenging the myth of "preferential treatment" / They (color) blinded me with science: counteracting coloniality of knowledge in hegemonic psychology / Towards a new research agenda? Foucault, Whiteness and indigenous sovereignty / Why Black lives matter in the humanities / Negotiating privileged students' affective resistances : why a pedagogy of emotional engagement is necessary / Shifting frames: pedagogical interventions in colorblind teaching practice