Race

My aim in the chapter is thus to do three things: trace the trajectory of race as central to nation-state formations (Balibar 1991) and what Anibal Quijano has called the ‘coloniality of power’ (Quijano 2000); outline the intellectual legacies of race through scientific and cultural routes and show how a combination of these two, purportedly incompatible, modes of interpretation construct race as inherently political; and thirdly, discuss the contemporary political ramifications of race as it adapts to twenty-first century realities while considering the implications of this for both studying racism and challenging it. The contours of race and racism are infinitely wide and thus I will be unable to do justice to explaining them fully. Rather, by focusing on the implications of asking what race does both for a political understanding of race and racism and, crucially here, for an interrogation of the role of sociologists in providing the necessary tools for challenging race, I hope to contribute something useful to those who realize that we treat race as peripheral at our peril.