Postracial silences : the othering of race in Europe

This paper argues that mainstream sociological research into 'migration, ethnicity, and minorities' (MEM) elides, neglects, or denies the role of race in the construction of the boundaries of Europeanness. Relying on an analysis of the work of established scholars in the field, I argue that their dominance marginalises a race critical approach that is attentive to the persistence of coloniality in contemporary raciologies. Inherent in their work is a splitting off of race from racism that is based on a foundational postracialism according to which racism, a Eurocentric concept, could never encompass a reading of the centrality of race - as a technology for the management of human life first worked out in the colonies - to European politics and sociality. Racism, therefore, remains an external force that can only be treated as pathological and as antithetical to Europe's vision of itself as the pinnacle of liberalism and universalism.