Race critical theories and their contemporary applications

Race Critical Theories: Text And Context Response

Although black and white are often thought of as the opposing 'camps' that define discussions of race in America today, the essay "Defining Black Feminist Thought" by Patricia Hill Collins suggests that the 'problem' of black womanhood acts as a profound challenge to conventional binary thinking about race. Collins calls upon scholars to accept more fluidity and overlap between black feminist thought and theories of race. She begins her essay noting that black feminist writings are "widely used" as slogans, yet are rarely defined, even though black women's narratives of struggle offer a rich source for all individuals to seeking overcome dichotomous thinking about racial and gender-based issues and tensions in society (152).

Collins notes that black women may not feel as if they 'fit' into conventional discussions of either race or gender, yet their language and conceptual framework can offer powerful insight to the feminist and sociological rubrics of study that have often overlooked black women's contribution. One powerful example of Collins' is that a black lesbian woman who describes her experience at a heterosexual wedding as a kind of bondage. She uses the language to slavery to show how gay people feel they must conceal their true feelings, even amongst members of a family during a joyous celebration (158). Although Collins wishes to stress inclusion of various black women's perspectives, she is also careful to note that too easy an inclusion of all writers under the idea that 'everyone' can write from a Black feminist critical perspective is too easy (154). To speak of the singularity of such a perspective is itself marginalizing, and falls prey to the trap of seeing black women as offering the same voice and range of ideas, a concept that is anathema to Collins. Collins endorses the point-of-view that race and gender are social constructions, but because they have wielded such divisive and cultural power, one cannot assume that we are all 'the same' beneath the skin. Her essay strikes an empowering balance of showing the contribution that the diversity of black women voices has made to critical theory, even while she is writing about the sad fact that writers have attempted to appropriate or ignore black women's voices.

Everyday Racism: A New Approach to the Study of Racism" by Philomena Essed discusses the inherently contradictory notion of "individual racism." For Essed, racism is always an institutional issue. Power pertains to the ability of individual groups to act in consort. This is why African-American collective power is often so frightening and threatening to members of the white majority (182).Defining certain forms of racism as interpersonal and other forms as institutional is another example of the false nature of binary thinking about race in America, which Collins is also writing against in her essay about gender. Instead, Essed feels that while it is still problematic, the concept of systemic racism, or the day-to-day interaction of individuals and institutions is a more effective clarification of this term (179).

Essed seems primarily writing to other academics as she attempts, over the course of her essay to grapple with the challenge of theorizing about race in a way that does not reduce race to an individual problem, and acknowledges how all individuals are part of an inherently racist system, even individuals who may not be personally racist. Essed notes the profound perceived threat to power experienced by those in the majority feel when even small encroachments are made by other groups into the dominant fabric of society, and how tacit racism against minorities is often allowed even by those who might not consider themselves prejudiced on an interactional and personal level (184). In short, the institutional racism of society inevitably affects interpersonal relations, even amongst people who do not harbor what we might think of as hatred in their hearts. Racism for Essed is an ideological social construct, a powerful social and philosophical method of enforcement that affects how 'people' see the world, and also the mechanisms of the justice system (185). Racist images and practices become an invisible and accepted part of daily life, and are unquestioned, thus it is not enough to simply change one's individual mind (190). Her essay, though it seems overly focused on scholarly definitions at its onset, ultimately emerges as a powerful reply to people who respond 'well, I'm not a racist' as a reason for ignoring historical legacies of racism.

Etienne Ballibar's "The Nation Form: History and Ideology" asks the potent question "What makes a nation a community? " (220). Why have certain individuals been excluded or included in what we would call the American community? Communities and the concept of community is itself an ideology, much like the concepts of gender discussed by Collins, and race as discussed by Essed. The state is more than the sum of its borders; rather to conceptualize the state requires an internal as well as an external shift within the dominant consciousness. A nation is an idea, not just a physical place.