cal berkeley wimsatt sergentleventhal neg umkc round1

7/24/2019 Cal Berkeley Wimsatt SergentLeventhal Neg UMKC Round1

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1nc


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1NC Ableism

Right to die movements empirically justify larger use of ableist eugenics

Wright 2000- Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Clark University (Walter,

Historical Analogies, Slippery Slopes, and the Qestion of !thanasia" fo#al of $a%,&edicine '!thics, ) (***+ ./-)/, Wiley+The gathering threads of the eugenics and right!to! die" movements converged inthe inflential0* p1lica- tion 2ie 3reiga1e der 4ernichtng le1ensn%erten $e1ens 5 hr &ass nd 3or#

(#ermitting the $estruction of %ives not Worth %iving& 'ts ()tent and *orm+ by6arl +inding and

Alfred Hoche78. 9inding %as perhaps the #ost distingished legal scholar of his ti#e andHoche %as a physician and Professor at 3rei1rg7 :heir independent essays on the co#- #on

;estion appeared together7 &ost i#portantly, this little vol#e 1eca#e a crcial avene for

disse#inating the idea that so#e lives are not %orth living7 5 %ill 1riefly revie% 9indinge as not legally for1idden7" :hs, %hile he finds

sicide not legally for1idden," assist- ing in a sicide is actally the killing of a third party andthe consent of the victi# does not re#ove legal lia1ility fro# the assistant7 Ho%ever, not all livesare e-ual. +inding introduces the idea that terminally ill or fatally /ounded people" are in a ne/

category .Here there clearly appears the idea that sch a life no longer #erits strict legal

protection7" :hese are, he thinks, lives not %orth living7" He distingishes three cases7 5n thefirst grop are those irretrieva1ly lost as a reslt of illness or in?ry, %ho, flly nderstanding

their sitation, possess and have so#eho% e@pressed their rgent %ish for release7"& 3or

9inding, killing sch patients is a dty of legal #ercy7" A#ong other e@a#ples, he incldes thefatally in?red co#rade on a 1attlefield or a #ontain- eering e@pedition7 :he second grop

consists of incr- a1le idiots7= :hese people have the %ill neither to live nor to die7 5n this case

too 9inding finds no grondsB legally, socially, ethically, or religioslyBfor not per#itting thekilling of these people %ho are the fearso#e conter i#age of tre h#anity, and %ho arose

horror in nearly everyone %ho #eets the#7"* His restriction in this case is that the right of

application shold 1e li#ited to the fa#ily %ho have 1een caring for the handicapped patient, or

to the gardian7 :he third grop consists of #entally sond people %ho throgh so#e event likea very severe, do1t- less fatal %ond," have 1eco#e co#atose7 He docs not think that any

1lanket rle can cover this last grop of cases, 1t then goes on to conclde %ith a general

gideline DEFnly those persons arc candidates for having their deaths per#itted %ho areter#inally ill and %ho, in addition to 1eing 1eyond help, have either re;ested death or

consented to dying, or else %old have re- ;ested or consented, had they not fallen into ncon-

sciosness at the critical ti#e or if they had 1een a1le to achieve a%areness of the sitation7(!#phasis added7+ All of this, 9inding vie%s %ithin the constraint that !very nfor1idden

killing of a third person #st 1e e@perienced as a release, at least 1y the victi#G other%ise

allo%- ing it is self-evidently rled ot7" Having esta1lished his 1asic principle, 9inding then

goes on to propose a for#al procedre %ith carefl safegards as a %ay to i#ple#ent it %ithota1ses7 +indings arguments incorporate elements of the right to die" movement as /ell as the

eugenicists appeals to the preservation of social /ell!being7 5f one a1stracts fro# this %ork=s


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historical reslts, ignores the occasionally crde calclations of social tility, and considers the

rather carefl protections that he incldes against possi1le a1ses, one could perhaps tae these

arguments as sensible, compas! sionate and progressive. They are surprisingly modern in tone,sggesting 1oth Singer=s carefl defense of per#itting a li#ited practice of ethanasia, and

recent gidelines in the Ietherlands7 9t can one abstract from the /ors historical effects :his

is the core of the slippery slope arg#ent7 9inding=s and Hoche=s vie%s %ere e@tensivelydiscssed 1y their conte#poraries and, althogh never officially accepted in the JKfei#ar

period, 1eca#e %idely inflential a#ong physicians7 Participants in the : progra# sed the#

e@plicitly to ?stify their actions7 :his connection is an instance of 1oth a precedent 1ased"and a casal" slippery slope7 3irst, 1y providing support for a limited practicc of medical illing ,

+indingand Hoche made such things discussible7 5n doing so, they provided intellectual cover for

people /ho /ished later to abuse the opportunity7 Second, their /or brought about a climateamong 3erman medical profes! sionals that permitted doctors to accept the idea of illing their

patients . This climate could be claimed to have been a contributing cause for the vigorous advocacy

by some 3erman physicians of a policy of illing mentally retarded, physically handicapped,

elderly people the seless eat- ers7" 5n that respect, Singer=s opponents #ight say, the 3ermane)perience confirms the claim that even discuss! ing the idea that some lives might not be /orth

living helps to create the unmitigated disaster7" :heir arg#ent also connects to the peg"protecting or %agon fro# rolling do%n the hill7 Their influence in 3ermany effectively pulledthe peg" in the slope(provided 1y the Hippocratic ethic+, so that, /hen e)ternal social forces

pushed the medi! cal cart, physicians /ere no longer able to arrest its slide 7/

Ableism must be rejected, it maes ongoing eugenics and e)termination inevitable

+ro/n 11, Artist 5nitiative Lrantee at &innesota State Arts 9oard Senior Acade#ic Adviser for the College of !dcation and H#an 2evelop#ent at University of &innesota Steering Co##ittee at !dcation A1roadIet%ork at University of &innesota 4olnteer Coordinator for Social 5nclsion and 9llying Prevention at &arcy Epen School see less Past *-*8 9ck#an 3ello% at 9ck#an 3ello%ship :ravel and Stdy Lrantee at Fero#e

3ondation $oft &entor Series A%ard Winner for Poetry at :he $oft $iterary Center 5nstitte on Co##nity 5ntegration Post-gradate Certificate Lradate Stdent at University of &innesota University of &innesota College of!dcation and H#an 2evelop#entMUniversity Honors Progra# $iaison at University of &innesota University Honors Progra# Acade#ic Advisor at University of &innesota University of &innesota $earning A1road

CenterMUniversity Honors Progra# $iaison at University of &innesota 3oreign $ectrer--!nglish Stdies, Cltral A%areness, H#anities at Hokkaido University of !dcation !dcational :echnologies post-grad certificate progra#at University of 9ritish Col#1ia, 4ancover Ad?nct $ectrer--Fapanese $angage at Wayne Conty Co##nity College Ad?nct $ectrer--!nglish Co#position at Wayne State University 3oriegn $ectrer--!nglish Stdies,Creative Writing, !nglish $iteratre at Sophia University--:okyo, Fapan NScre% nor#al= Oesisting the #yth of nor#al 1y ;estioning #edia=s depiction of people %ith atis# and their fa#ilies,httpMM1log7li17#n7edMgara**8*MiggdsMScre%*Ior#al35IA$2osch*9ro%n7pdf

The one societal need in our society that is often unacno/ledged, silenced, and left une)amined is

that humans have, as &ichalko ;oted Cornel West, the R deep, visceral need to belong

(&ichalko, **, p7 )+ B all of s strggle %ith fll acceptance of orselves and or desire to

1e seen as accepta1le or %elco#e in a society that loves to la1el people7 The media creates /alls

bet/een its ideals and the people it vie/s as 4thers , sch as /hen the media vie/s people /ith

autism as 5abnormal mysteries. We are being taught that differences occurring from autism are

/rong , andsadly too many families depicted in the media perpetuate this negative vie/ of their

o/n children. When thinking of nor#alN henceforth, letNs consider %hat 6ichalo%rote a1otsociety and his 1lindness7 He e@plained that, althogh society #ight have fond %ays

technologically for hi# to participate (he is a professor+, he is still seen as strangeN 1ecase he

is 1lind7 He said the difference in his blindness must be grappled /ith inside his being in 7a space

bet/een nature and culture and 7normal and abnormal (**, p7 )8+, and it is /ithin thisconfusing, unmared space /here he has had to build his o/n identity . +y moving through the

/orld /ith his 7body of blindness, 6ichalo has projected himself into the 7social space , ?st as

#y son #st pro?ect his o%n self, 1y #oving throgh the social space %ith his #ind ofdifferenceNG ths, society reacts to people /ho have disabilities /ho cannot live up to the mythical

norms /ith 7help, 7pity, 7ridicule, 7unease , and 7curiosity (**, p7 ))+, and it results in an

une-ual po/er structure that creates treacherous terrain for all of us /ho have been 4thered.

&ichalko (**+ noted that mainstream Western society vie/s all disabilities as abnormal, and it


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thus approaches people /ith disability as tragic people /ho live lives 7not /orth living G they are

seen as the Ether, as o1?ects of pity, 1oth Rvlnera1le and fragile (p7/)+7 :he comple)ity,

diversity, and range of differences of all human beings in this /orld are erased, denied, and

ignored under a banner of 8sameness5 or 8normalcy 59and those /ho cannot or /ill not conform

are silenced and lumped into the category of 4ther , and dealt /ith suspicion for not conforming to

social construction of /hat is acceptable in appearance, behavior, and e)perience. (ugenics, the

acade#ic Phil S#ith (**)+ has conclded, is still very much present in societal attitudes to/ard

disability. (ugenics formali:ed 7the Normal, a cultural landscape outlined in order to support

the hegemony of its inhabitants, a liberalist bourgeois class of /hite, able!bodied men(P7 S#ith,

p7 0+7 +y silencing those /ith perceived disabilities ;or those /ith a particular perceived race,

ethnicity, gender, or se)ual orientation , etc.< and deeming them as lesser than 5normal5 humans 9

society is able to continue to deny that 5being normal5 is actually a socially constructed myth

(&ichalko, **, p7 /0+7 Phil S#ith frther pointed ot that not so long ago those /ho

committed the /ar crimes by illing or sterili:ing people they had deemed of inferior intelligence

in the Na:is T!= project /ere consistently given less severe convictions and higher ac-uittal rates

(P7 S#ith, **), p7 +Brevealing, indeed, that as a society /e devalue the lost lives of those

considered too different from the mythical norm, /hich /e /ill demonstrate later is a devaluation

of human life very much alive in media depiction of autism. >ociety rarely has ears for the voices

or rooms reserved for those /ith differences /ho thin other/ise, and it rarely reali>es that indeedpeople %ith differences also have vale and critical roles to play in society7The media maintains

this gaping silence as /ell. >ociety , &ichalko has arged, either e)pects those deemed

7abnormal /ill 7 get through their differences by adapting to the dominant rules , so as to be

less noticed, or it e)pects them to 7get out by removing themselves from vie/, by being silent

and isolated (&ichalko, **, p7 .T+G and so#e e@perts, doctors, edcators, and therapists #akea si>a1le inco#e fro# atte#pting to enforce these societal e@pectations on fa#ilies7


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$ecrim C#

Te)t& The ?nited >tates should decriminali:e physician assisted suicide in the ?nited

>tates.

$ecriminali:ation is merely the government rescinding its authority over death

/hile legali:ation of physician assisted suicide is an escalation of governmental

po/er through responsibili:ing the subject @ this reentrenches neoliberalism and

turns the aff

Ryan et al. 2011 school of psychology, &assey University (Anne, &andy &organ, andAntonia $yons, :he Pro1le# %ith 2eath :o%ards a Lenealogy of !thanasia" Oefereed

Proceedings of 2oing Psychology &ana%at 2octoral Oesearch Sy#posi# * 8),

httpMM#ro7#assey7ac7n>M1itstrea#MhandleM*.0M88).M)*Oyanc*&organ*1*$yons7pdfVse;ence'isAllo%edy+

(uthanasia is ostensibly a humane response to the incalcla1le painand sffering associated %ithchronic and ter#inal illness and the loss of ;ality of life7 5t can 1e vie%ed as a no1le aspiration,laying clai# as it does to individal rights, freedo# of choice and personal atono#y7 o/ever,

this genealogy is able to open up that discursive space surrounding euthanasia toat least a

#odic# of suspicion . 'n tracing the historical development of moral arguments, /e are able togainso#e insight into3ocalt=s sggestions a1ot the formation of the self through

selfsubjection /ithin theseancient ethical frame/ors7 :he ethic of self!illing /as firstlyidentified in order for it to become moulded by moral actions. This re-uired the subjection of the

self to a recognised moral order7 3or e@a#ple, the ancient Lreeks and Oo#ans s1?ected

the#selves to the gods or the state and the early Chri stians to their Creator7 As a reslt this moral

obligation became objectified into ethical discourses and rules of behaviour7 :rner (00.+ arges

thatthese 5discourses of subjectivity have the effect of producing identities ,

for e@a#ple thechronic sfferer and the ter#inally ill7 As this genealogy frther nfolded it 1eca#e apparent that

in :rner=s %ords, it is these identities /hich then become the object and focus of medicalisationand normali:ation" (p7 @ii+7 *oucault arguedthat #edicine /as at the center of the -uest fornormali:ation and by its infiltration of the la/ had created a 5juridico !medical /eb that

represented a major structure of po/er(3ocalt, 00/+7 :he increasing demands for the

legali:ation of the right!to!die are unliely to deliver the promised 5freedom of choice or control

of our o/n dying. Rather it /ill result in an escalation of governmental po/er.(uthanasia can be

vie/ed as emblematic of neo!liberalism that is intrinsically lined to an art of government that

develops the /ays and means in /hich to shape and guide the conduct of each and every one of its

citi:ens7 't re-uires the population to be acted upon to ensure its o/n /elfare and for its o/n

economic good through techni-ues that need to appear reasonable and acceptable to both thepractitioners and the people(3ocalt, 00+7 Hege#onic discourses of medicalisation and

personal autonomy that prevailin or society today and are accepted as 5common sense see torepresent euthanasia as the obvious response of a humane society to terminal illness. They endorse

a practice that is /idely vie/ed as the logical e)tension of a fundamental human right7 Ho%ever, it

shold 1e recognised that these discourses also allo/ for the e)ercising of po/er /hile

simultaneously masing that po/er 7
http://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/3387/8%20Ryan%2C%20Morgan%20%2B%20Lyons.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yhttp://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/3387/8%20Ryan%2C%20Morgan%20%2B%20Lyons.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yhttp://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/3387/8%20Ryan%2C%20Morgan%20%2B%20Lyons.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yhttp://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/3387/8%20Ryan%2C%20Morgan%20%2B%20Lyons.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y


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Wilderson

The 1ACs demand for legal relief is the perfection of the slave as a slave9/hen the

slave bo/s do/n to its master ie /hen the affirmative calls for federal e-uality it ties

its freedom to hopeless legal relief9after emancipation and legal e-uality, the slaveis truly perfect, shacled by the chains of its dependence for the master to be its

liberator.

*arley BD9oston College (Anthony, Perfecting Slavery",httpMMla%digitalco##ons71c7edMcgiMvie%content7cgiVarticle*)'conte@tlsfp+X

>lavery is /ith us still . We are haunted by slavery. We are animated by slavery. White!over!blac

is slaveryand segregation and neosegregation and every situation in /hich the distribution of

material or spiritual goods follo/s the colorline.:he #ove#ent fro# slavery to segregation to

neosegregation to %hatever for# of %hite-over-1lack it is that #ay co#e %ith post-#odernity orafter is not to%ard freedo#7 The movement from slavery to segregation to neosegregation is the

movement of slavery perfecting itself . White!over!blac is neosegregation. White!over!blac is

segregation. White!over!blac is slavery.All of it is /hite!over!blac , only /hite!over!blac, and

that continually7 :he story of progress p fro# slavery is a lie, the longest lie7 The story of

progress up from slavery is told juridically in the form of the rule of la/ . >lavery is the rule of la/7

And slavery is death. The slave perfects itself as a slave /hen it bo/s do/n before its master of its

o/n free /ill7 That is the moment in /hich the slave accomplishes the impossible reconciliation of

its freedom /ith its unfreedom by /illing itself unfree 78 When e@actly does this perfection of

slavery take placeV The slave bo/s do/n before its master /hen it prays for legal relief , /hen it

prays for e-ual rights, and /hile it cultivates the field of la/ hoping for an ans/er . The slaves free

choice, the slave=s leap of faith, can only be taen under conditions of legal e-uality. 4nly afteremancipation and legal e-uality , only after rights, can the slave perfect itself as a slave . +ourgeois

legality is the condition /herein e-uals are said to enter the commons of reason=or the kingdo# of

endsT or the Ie% !ngland to%n #eeting of the sol to discuss universali:able principles, to

discuss e-uality and freedom.&ch is #ade of these #eetings, these strggles for la%, thesefestivals of the niversal7 Co##ons, kingdo#, to%n #eeting, there are #any #ansions in the

hose of la%, 1t the la/ does not forget its father, as &aria Lrahn-3arley o1serves The la/ ofslavery has not been forgotten by the la/ of segregation the la/ of segregation has not been

forgotten by the la/ of neosegregation. The la/ guarding the gates of slavery, segregation, and

neosegregation has not forgotten its originG it re#e#1ers its father and its grandfather 1efore that7

't no/s /hat master it serves it no/s /hat color to count.D To /ae from slavery is to see that

everything must go, every la/ room,E every great house, every plantation, all of it, everything .

Re-uests for e-uality and freedom /ill al/ays fail . WhyV 9ecase the fact of need itself means

that the re-uest /ill fail . The re-uest for e-uality and freedom, for rights, /ill fail /hether the

re-uest is granted or denied7 The re-uest is produced through an injury 7) The initial injury is the

maring of bodies for less9less respect, less land, less freedom, less education, less7 :he #ark #st

1e #ade on the flesh 1ecase that is %here %e start fro#7 Childhood is %here %e 1egin and,

nder conditions of hierarchy, that childhood is already #arked7 :he #ark organi>es, orients, and
http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=lsfphttp://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=lsfp


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differentiates or other%ise co##on flesh7 :he #ark is race, the #ark is gender, the #ark is

class, the #ark is7 :he #ark is all there is to the reality of those essencesBrace, gender, class,

and so onBthat are said to precede e@istence7 :he #ark is a syste#70 Property and la% follo%the #ark7 And so it goes7 :here is a pleasre in hierarchy7 We 1egin %ith an edcation in or

hierarchies7 We 1egin %ith childhood and childhood 1egins %ith edcation7 :o 1e e@act,

edcation 1egins or childhood7 We are called 1y race, 1y gender, 1y class, and so on7 4ureducation cultivates our desire in the direction of our hierarchies7 5f %e are sccessfl, /e ac-uirean orientation that enables us to locate ourselves and our bodies vis!F!vis all the other bodies that

inhabit our institutional spaces. Wefollo% the call and #ove in the generally e@pected %ay7White!overblac is an orientation, a pleasure, a desire that enables us to find our place, and

therefore our /ay, in our institutional spaces7 :his is %hy no one ever need ask for e;ality and

freedo#7 :his is %hy the fact of need #eans that the re;est %ill fail7 :he re;est for rightsBfor

e;alityB%ill al%ays fail 1ecase there are al%ays a#1igities7 :o 1e #arked for less, to 1e#arked as less han >ero, to 1e #arked as a negative attractor, is to 1e in the sitation of the slave7

:he slave is not called7 :he slave is not free7 :he slave is called to follo% the calling that is not a

calling7 :he slave is trained to 1e an o1?ectG the slave is trained, in other %ords, to not 1e7 :heslave is death7 2eath is the end of a#1igity7 :o 1e in the sitation of the slave is to have all the

a#1igities organi>ed against yo7 9t there are al%ays a#1igities, one is al%ays free7 Ho%,

then, are the a#1igities organi>edV Ho% is freedo# endedV The slave must choose the end ofambiguity, the end of freedom, objecthood7 :he slave #st freely choose death7 This the slave can

only do under conditions of freedom that present it /ith a choice7 :he perfect slave gives p the

ghost and co##ends its everlasting spirit to its #aster7 The slaves final and perfect prayer is alegal prayer for e-ual rights. :he te@ts of la%, like the #anifest content of a drea#, perhaps of%olves, #ay tell a certain story or an ncertain story7 :he certainty or ncertainty of the story is

of a1soltely no conse;ence7 :he story, the la%, the %olves= ta1le #anners, do not #atter7 :he

story, the la%, the story of la%, the drea# of %olves,* ho%ever, represents a disgised or latent%ish that does #atter7 The /ish is a matter of life or death7 We are strangers to orselves7 The

dream of e-uality , of rights, is the disguised /ish for hierarchy . The prayer for e-ual rights is the

disguised desire for slavery . >lavery is death. The prayer for e-ual rights , then, is the disguise of the

death/ish . The prayer for e-ual rights is the slaves perfect moment .:he slave=s perfect prayer,

the prayer of the perfect slave, is al%ays ans%ered7 The slave, ho%ever, no/s not /hat it does

/hen it prays for rights, for the slave is estranged from itself.Ef its o%n inner strivings it kno%s

not7 :he slave strives to 1e property, 1t since property cannot o%n property the slave cannoto%n its inner strivings7 :he slave strives to prodce the final co##odityB la%7 5n other %ords,

the slave prodces itself as a slave throgh la%7 The slave produces itself as a slave ;as a

commodity< through its o/n prayer for e-ual rights7 And that prayer is all there is to la/. The

slave bo/s do/n before the la/ and prays for e-ual rights.:he slave 1o%s do%n 1efore the la%

and then there is la%7 There is no la/ before the slave bo/s do/n. The slaves fidelity becomes the

la/, and the la/ is perfected through the slaves struggle for the universal, through the slaves

struggle for e-uality of right 7 :he slave prays for e;ality of right7 Rights cannot be e-ual7 5ts

perfect prayer is ans%eredG the la%=s a#1igities open, like the gates of heaven, ?st a1ove its

head7 And all of the %hite-over-1lack acc#lated %ithin the endless a#1igities of la% rains

do%n7 White over-1lack is slavery and slavery is death7 2eath is the end of forever7 :he end offorever is perfection and perfection, for s, see#s divine, 1eyond the veil, 1eyond deathG hence,

the end of forever7


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Oefor#is# fails and yor edcational #odel ?stifies the contined per#eance of the

state

2ylan Rodrigue:, *10(Professor at UCO of $atin A#erican Stdies, :he :er#s of !ngage#ent Warfare, White $ocality, and A1olition",httpMMcrs7sagep17co#McgiMcontentMa1stractM8/MMT +

Thus, behind the din of progressive and liberal reformist struggles over public policy, civil liberties,and la/, and 1eneath the infre;ent #o1ili>ations of activity to defend against the ne)t onslaughtof racist, classist, ageist, and misogynist criminali:ation, there is an unspoen politics of assumptionthat taes for granted the mystified permanence of domestic /arfareas a constant production oftargeted and massive suffering, guided by the logic of normali:ed and mundane blac, bro/n, andindigenous subjection to the e)pediencies and essential violence of the American(global+ nation!

building project7 :o pt it differently despite the unprecedented forms of imprisonment, social and

political repression, and violent policing that compose the mosaic of our historical time, theestablishment left(%ithin and perhaps 1eyond the USA+ really does not care to envision , much lesspolitically prioriti:e, the abolition of ?> domestic /arfare and its structuring /hite supremacist

social logic as its most urgent tasof the present and ftre7 The non!profit and N34 left, in

particular, seems content to engage in desperate(and sally %ell-intentioned+ attempts to managethe casualties of domestic /arfare, foregoing the urgency of an abolitionist pra)is that openly,

critically, and radically addresses the moral, cultural, and political premises of these /ars7 5n so#any %ays, the ?> progressiveGleft establishment is filling the void createdby%hat Oth Wilson

Lil#ore has called the violent HabandonmentsH of the state, /hich forfeits and implodes its o/n

social /elfare capacities(%hich %ere already insfficient at 1est+ %hile transfor#ing and

(prodctively+ e@ploding its do#estic %ar#aking fnctionalities B%hich Lil#ore (**.1 B

T+ says are gided 1y a tate doeshave and re-uest consent , but it also HeducatesH this consent , by means of the political and syndical

associations these, ho/ever, are private organisms, left to the private initiative of the ruling class7

(Lra#sci 00T T0+7

The 1ac is part and parcel to White humanism and continues a trajectory of failed

reforms that reifies violence against the blac body

Wilderson!2010- Frank B Wilderson III- Professor at UC irvine- Red, White and Black-

p.8-10

5 have little interest in assailing political conservatives7 Ior is #y ar- g#ent %edded to the


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disciplinary needs of political science, or even sociology, %here in?ry #st 1e esta1lished, first,

as White spre#acist event, fro# %hich one then e#1arks on a de#onstration of intent, or

racis#G and, if one is lcky, or foolish, enogh, a soltion is proposed7' f the position of the +lacis, as 5 arge, a paradigmatic impossibility in the Western He#isphere, indeed, in the /orld, in

other %ords, if a +lac is the very antithesis of a uman subject, as i#agined 1y &ar@is# and

psy- choanalysis, then his or her paradigmatic e)ile is not simply a function of repressive practiceson the part of institutions (as political science and sociology %old have it+7Thisbanishmentfrom the uman fold is to be found most profoundly in the emancipatory meditations of +lac

peopleHs staunchest Iallies,I and in so#e of the #ost radical fil#s7 ere9not in restrictivepolicy, unjust legislation, police brutality, or conservative scholarship9is /here the

>ettlerG6asterHs sine/s are most resilient7 :he pole#ic ani#ating this research ste#s fro# (+ #y

reading of Iative and 9lack A#erican #eta-co##entaries on 5ndian and 9lack s1?ect positions

%ritten over the past t%enty-three years and ( + a sense of ho% #ch that %ork appears ot of?oint %ith intellectal protocols and political ethics %hich nder%rite political pra@is and socially

engaged poplar cine#a in this epoch of #lticltralis# and glo1ali>ation7 :he sense of

a1andon#ent 5 e@perience %hen 5 read the #eta-co##entaries on Oed positionality (1y theoristssch as $eslie Silko, Ward Chrchill, :aiaiake Alfred, 4ine 2eloria Fr7, and Hanani-6ay :rask+

and the #eta-co##entaries on 9lack positionality (1y theorists sch as 2avid &arriott, Saidiya

Hart#an, Oonald Fdy, Hortense Spillers, Erlando Patterson, and Achille &1e#1e+ against thedeluge of multicultural positivityis over%hel#ing7 Ene sddenly reali>es that, thogh the

se#antic field on %hich s1?ectivity is i#agined has e@panded pheno#enally throgh the

protocols of #lticltralis# and glo1ali>ation theory, 9lackness and an nflinching articlation

of Oedness are #ore ni#agina1le and illegi1le %ithin this e@panded se#antic field than they%ere dring the height of the 3 9 5 < S repressive Conterintelligence Progra# ( C E 5 I : ! $ P

O E + 7 En the se#antic field on %hich the ne% protocols are possi1le, 5ndigenis# can indeed

lE 1eco#e partially legi1le throgh a progra##atics of strctral ad?st- #ent (as fits orglo1ali>ed era+7 5n other %ords, for the 5ndians< s1?ect position to 1e legi1le, their positive

registers of lost or threatened cltral identity #st 1e foregronded, %hen in point of fact the

antagonistic register of dispossession that 5ndians possess is a position in relation to a socisstrctred 1y genocide7 As Chrchill points ot, everyone fro# Ar#enians to Fe%s have 1een

s1?ected to genocide, 1t the 5ndigenos position is one for %hich genocide is a constittive

ele#ent, not #erely an historical event, %ithot %hich 5ndians %old not, parado@ically, e@ist7

0 Oegarding the 9lack position, some might as /hy, after claims suc! cessfully made on the state

by the Civil Rights 6ovement, do ' insist on positing an operational analytic forcine#a, fil#

stdies, and political theory that appears to be a dichotomous and essentialist pairing of 6asters

and >laves5n other %ords, %hy shold %e think of today


11/37

alienation, the assumptive logic /hereby subjective dispossession is arrived atin the calclations

1et%een those %ho sell la1or po%er and those %ho ac;ire it7 :he 9lack ;a the %orker7 Erlando

Patterson has already dispelled this falty ontological gra##ar in Slavery and Social 2eath,%here he de#onstrates ho% and %hy %ork, or forced la1or, is not a constitent ele#ent of

slavery7 4nce the IsolidI plan of I/orI is removed from slavery, then the conceptually coherent

notion of Iclaims against the stateI9the proposition that the state and civil society are elasticenough to even contemplate the possibility of an emancipatory project for the +lac position9

disintegrates into thin air.:he i#aginary of the state and civil society is parasitic on the &iddle

Passage7 Pt another %ay, Io slave, no %orld7 And, in addition, as Patterson arges, no slave isin the %orld7 5f, as an ontological position, that is, as a gra##ar of sffering, the Slave is not a

la1orer 1t an anti-H#an, a position against %hich H- #anity esta1lishes, #aintains, and

rene%s its coherence, its corporeal in- tegrityG if the Slave is, to 1orro% fro# Patterson, generally

dishonored, perpetally open to gratitos violence, and void of kinship strctre, that is, havingno relations that need 1e recogni>ed, a 1eing otside of re- lationality, then our analysis cannot beapproached through the rubric of gains or reversals in struggles /ith the state and civil society, not

unless and until the interlocutor first e)plains ho/ the >lave is of the /orld. The onus is not on one

/ho posits the 6asterG>lave dichotomy but on the one /ho argues there is a distinction bet/een

>laveness and +lacness7 Ho%, %hen, and %here did sch a split occrV :he %o#an at the gatesof Col#1ia University a%aits an ans%er7

:he only ethical de#and is one that calls for the end of the %orld itselfBthe affir#ative

represents a conflict %ithin the paradig# of A#erica 1t refses to challenge the

fondational antagonis# that prodces the violence that ndergirds the that sa#e

paradig#

Wilderson, 10D**, 3rank 97 Wilderson is an Associate Professor of African-A#ericanStdies at UC 5rvine and has a Ph727 fro# UC 9erkeley, Oed, White ' 9lack Cine#a and theStrctre of U7S7 Antagonis#s,"X

$eaving aside for the #o#ent their state of #ind, it %old see# that the structure, that is to saythe re1ar, or 1etter still the gra##ar of their demandsBand, 1y e@tension, the gra##ar of their

sfferingB/asindeed an ethicalgra##ar7 Perhaps their grammars are the only ethical

grammars available to modern politics and modernity /rit large, for they dra/ our attention not

to the /ay in /hich space and time are used and abused by enfranchised and violently po/erful

interests, but to the violence that under/rites the modern /orld s capacity to thin, act, and e)ist

spatially and temporally .:he violence that ro11ed her of her 1ody and hi# of his land provided

the stage pon %hich other violent and consensal dra#as cold 1e enacted7 :hs, they /ould

have to be cra:y, cra>y enogh to call not merely the actions of the /orld to account but to call

the /orld itself to account , and to accont for the# no lessZ The /omanat Col#1ia /as notdemanding to be a participant in an unethical net/or of distribution& she /as not demanding a

place /ithin capital, a piece of the pie(the de#and for her sofa not%ithstanding+7 Oather, she %asarticlating a trianglation 1et%een, on the one hand, the loss of her 1ody, the very dereliction of

her corporeal integrity, %hat Hortense Spillers charts as the transition fro# 1eing a 1eing to

1eco#ing a 1eing for the captor" (*/+, the dra#a of vale (the stage pon %hich srpls valeis e@tracted fro# la1or po%er throgh co##odity prodction and sale+G and on the other, the

corporeal integrity that, once ripped fro# her 1ody, fortified and e@tended the corporeal integrity


12/37

of everyone else on the street7 She gave 1irth to the co##odity and to the H#an, yet she had

neither subjectivity nor a sofa to sho/ for it.5n her eyes, the /orld 9 and not its myriad

discriminatory practices, but the /orld itself 9 /as unethical7 And yet, the /orld passes by her

/ithout the slightest inclination to stop and disabuse her of her claim7 5nstead, it calls her cra>y7"And to %hat does the %orld attri1te the Iative A#erican #an=s insanityV He=s cra>y if he

thinks he=s getting any #oney ot of s"V Srely, that doesn=t #ake hi# cra>y7 Oather it is simplyan indication that he does not have a big enough gun . What are /e to mae of a /orld that

responds to the most lucid enunciation of ethics /ith violence What are the fondational

;estions of the ethico-politicalV Why are these ;estions so scandalos that they are rarely

posed politically, intellectally, and cine#aticallyBnless they are posed o1li;ely and

nconsciosly, as if 1y accidentV Oetrn :rtle 5sland to the Savage7" Repair the demolished

subjectivity of the >lave7 T/o simple sentences, thirteen simple /ords, and the structure of ?.>.

;and perhaps globalhould the ?.>. be overthro/n " or even Would it be overthro/n " but rather /hen

and ho/Band, for so#e, %hatB/ould come in its /ae. Those steadfast in their conviction that

there remained a discernable -uantum of ethics in the ?.>. /rit large(and here 5 a# speaking of

everyone fro# &artin $ther 6ing, Fr7, prior to his 0/) shift, to the :o# Hayden %ing of S2S,to the Flian 9ond and &arion 9arry faction of SICC, to 9o11ie 6ennedy 2e#ocrats+ /ere

accountable,in their rhetorical #achinations, to the paradigmatic :eitgeist of the +lac #anthers,the American 'ndian 6ovement, and the Weather ?nderground. Radicals and progressives could

deride , reject, or chastise armed struggle mercilessly and cavalierly /ith respect to tactics and the

possibility of success," but they could not dismiss revolution!as!ethic because they could not

mae a convincing caseB1y %ay of a paradig#atic analysisBthat the ?.>. /as an ethical

formation and still hope to maintain credibility as radicals and progressives7 (ven +obby Kennedy

(a U7S7 attorney general and presidential candidate+ mused that the la/ and its enforcers had noethical standing in the presence of +lacs7iEne cold (and #any did+ ackno%ledge A#erica=s

strength and po%er7 This seldom,ho%ever, rose to the level of an ethical assessment, but rather

remained an assessment of the so!called balance of forces.":he political discorse of 9lacks, andto a lesser e@tent 5ndians, circlated too %idely to credi1ly %ed the U7S7 and ethics7 :he ra%

force of CE5I:!$POE pt an end to this tra?ectory to%ard a possi1le hege#ony of ethical


13/37

acconta1ility7 Conse;ently, the po/er of +lacness and Redness to pose the -uestion 9 and the

po/er to pose the -uestion is the greatest po/er of all 9retreated as did White radicals and

progressives /ho retired " from struggle. The -uestion s echo lies buried in the graves of young

+lac #anthers, A'6 Warriors, and +lac %iberation Army soldiers , or in prison cells /here so

many of them have been rotting(so#e in solitary confine#ent+ for ten, t/enty, thirty years, and at

the gates of the academy /here the cra:ies " shout at passers!by . 3one are not only the young and

vibrant voices that affected a seismic shift on the political landscape , but also the intellectual

protocols of in-uiry, and /ith thema spate of featre fil#s that 1eca#e athori>ed, if not 1y an

na1ashed revoltionary pole#ic, then certainly 1y a revolutionary :eitgeist 7 's it still possible for

a dream of unfettered ethics, a dream of the >ettlement and the >lave estate sii destruction , to

manifest itselfat the ethical core of cine#atic discorse, /hen this dream is no longer a

constituent element of political discoursein the streets nor of intellectal discorse in the

acade#yV :he ans%er is no" in the sense that, as history has sho%n, %hat cannot 1e articlatedas political discorse in the streets is do1ly foreclosed pon in screenplays and in scholarly

proseG 1t yes" in the sense that in even the most taciturn historical moments such as ours, the

grammar of +lac and Red suffering breas in on this foreclosure, al1eit like the so#aticco#pliance of hysterical sy#pto#sBit registers in 1oth cine#a and scholarship as sy#pto#s of

a%areness of the strctral antagonis#s7 9et%een 0/. and 0)*, %e cold think cine#atically

and intellectally of 9lackness and Oedness as having the coherence of fll-1lo%n discorses79t fro# 0)* to the present, +lacness and Redness manifests only in the rebar ofcine#atic andintellectual ;political< discourse, that is, as unspoen grammars7 This grammar can be discerned in

the cinematicstrategies (lighting, ca#era angles, i#age co#position, and acostic

strategiesMdesign+, even /hen the script labors for the spectator to imagine social turmoil through

the rubric of conflic t (that is, a rubric of problems that can be posed and conceptually solved


14/37

speak+7 :hogh this is perhaps the #ost controversial and ot-of-step clai# of this 1ook, it is,

nonetheless, the fondation of the close reading of featre fil#s and political theory that follo%s7

As debaters, /e arent policymaers or political activists but simply pedagogues in

intellectual discussion9the act of an unflinching paradigmatic analysis allo/s us to

deny intellectual legitimacy to the compromises that radical elements have madebecause of an un/illingness to hold moderates feet to the fire predicated on an

unflinching paradigmatic analysis

Wilderson, 10D**, 3rank 97 Wilderson is an Associate Professor of African-A#ericanStdies at UC 5rvine and has a Ph727 fro# UC 9erkeley, Oed, White ' 9lack Cine#a and the

Strctre of U7S7 Antagonis#s,"X

STRANGE AS it might seem, this book project began in South Africa. During

thelast years of apartheid I worked for revolutionary changein both an

underground and above-ground capacity, for the Charterist Movement in

general and the ANC in particular. uring this period, ' began to see ho/ essential

an unflinching paradigmatic analysis is to a movement dedicated to the complete overthro/ of an

e)isting order . The neoliberal compromiethat the radical elementof the

Chartist Movement made with the moderate element were due, in large

part, to our inability or unwillingne to hold the moderate! feet to the fireof a political agenda predicated on an unflinching paradigmatic analyi.!nstead, we allowed our energie and point of attention to be diplaced by

and onto pragmatic conideration. Simply put, /e abdicated the po/er to pose the

-uestion "and the po#er to pose the $uestion is the greatest po/er of all .

%lse#here, ! have #ritten about this unfortunate turn of events(Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid), so !&ll not rehearse the

details here. Suffice it to say, this book germinated in the many political andacademic discussions and debates that ! #as fortunate enough to be a part

of at a historic moment and in a place #here the #ord revolution #as spokenin earnest, free of $ualifiers and irony. 'or their past and ongoing ideas and

interventions, ! e(tend solidarity and appreciation to comrades Amanda

Ale(ander, 'ranco )archiesi, *eresa )arnes, +atrick )ond, Ash#in esai,Nigel ibson, Steven reenberg, Allan oro#it, )ushy /elebonye

0deceased1, *efu /elebonye, 2lrike /istner, /amogelo 3ekubu, AndileMng(itama, +rishani Naidoo, 4ohn Shai, and S&bu 5ulu.

'solation of racially oppressed groups culminates in e)tinction6arable2irector of the 5nstitte for Oesearch in African A#erican Stdies 1LM=&anning-Professor of History [ Col#1ia UniversityG Speaking :rth to Po%er !ssays on Oace,

Oesistance and Oadicalis#G p7 0)-00

9lack A#ericans also co#prehend that peace is not the absence of conflict . As long as institutional

racism ,apartheid, and social class ine;ality e)ist, social tensions /ill erupt into confrontations.

&ost 1lacks recogni>e that peace is the reali:ation of social justice and human dignity for all


15/37

nations and historically oppressed peoples7 Peace #ore than anything else is the recognition of

the oneness of h#anity7 As Pal Oo1eson, the great 1lack artist and activist, o1served in his

ato1iographical %ork Here 5 Stand, 5 learned that the essential character of a nation isdeter#ined not 1y the tipper classes, 1t 1y the co##on people, and that the Co##on people of

all nations are trly 1rothers in the great fa#ily of #ankind7" Any people %ho e@perience

generations of oppression gain an a%areness of the innate co##onalty of all h#an 1eings,despite their religions, ethnic, and political differences7 5n order to reverse the logic of the Cold

War, %hite A#ericans #st 1egin to vie% the#selves as a distinct #inority in a %orld do#inated

1y people of color7 #eace bet/een the superpo/ers is directly lined to the evolution of

democratic rights, economic development, and social justice in the third /orld periphery7 9lackintellectals, front W7!797 29ois to the present, have also co#prehended their ni;e role in

the strggle for peace arid social ?stice7 Cltral and intellectal activity for it is insepara1le

fro# politics7 All art and aesthetics, scientific in;iry, and social stdies are directly or indirectlylinked to the #aterial conditions of h#an 1eings, and the e@isting set of po%er relationships

%hich dictates the policies of the #odern state7 When intellectual artists fail to combat racial or

gender ine-uality ,or the virs of anti-Se#itis#, their creative energies may indirectly contribute

to the ideological justification for prejudice and social oppression. :his is e;ally the case for thepro1le# of %ar and peace7 :hrogh the 1ifrcation of or #oral and social consciences against

the cold a1stractions of research and vale-free" social science, %e #ay console orselves 1ysggesting that %e play * role in the escalation of the Cold War political cltre7 +y hesitatingto dedicate ourselves and our /or to the pursuit of peace and social justice, /e inevitably

contribute to the dynamics of national chauvinism, 6ilitarism, and perhaps set the ideological basis

necessary for World War '''. Pal Oo1eson, dring the Spanish Civil War, e@pressed theperspective of the 1lack Peace tradition as a passionate 1elie in h#anity !very artist, every

scientist #st decide, no%, %here he stands, life has no alternative7 There are no impartial

observers7 :he co##it#ent to contest p1lic dog#as, the recognition that %e share %ith theSoviet people a Co##nity of social, econo#ic, and cltral interests, force the intellectal into

the terrain of ideological de1ate7 5f %e fail to do so, and if the peace consensus of blac Americaremains isolated from the electoral mainstream, the results may be the termination of humanity

itself7


16/37

2nc

Colonialism underpins all e)pressions of state violence @ addressing it is ey to

avoiding endless /ar>'N3Prof of Sociology [ York University in :oronto ,0EHira- Associate Professor in the 2epart#ent of Sociology at York University, :oronto, Canada7

He has a Ph727 fro# the 2elhi School of !cono#ics, University of 2elhi, and another Ph727fro# the University of :orontoG Confronting Colonialis# and Oacis# 3anon and LhandiG

HU&AI AOCH5:!C:UO! Fornal of the Sociology of H#an 6no%ledge, Special 2o1le

5sse, S##er **., p7 8-8G httpMM%%%7okcir7co#MArticles*4

*SpecialMHiraSingh7pdf

:oday, %e are living in a syste# that is 1ased on conting, and acconting for, every single pin in

a factory7 Thesa#e system, ho%ever, boasts of illing human beings /ho it, as a rle, doesnt

count7 5t conts the pins, 1ecase each pin, as a co##odity, has #arket vale7 5t is integral partof a syste# of prodction for vale, %hereas, the people it ills in /ars precisely in order to

perpetuate and e)pand the same maretbased system of social production, have no value,

al1eit #arket vale7 So they don=t cont7 Who are these people, even less vala1le than a pinVThese are the colonial otherBde-h#ani>ed and de-valedV They are being otheri:ed in the

process of being coloni:ed7 And colonialism today, like the colonialis# of the past (not a very

distant pastBre#e#1er 3anon %as %riting in the 0T*s+, is integral part of the system ofcommodity production. 't has /rapped itself in the lofty ideal of spreading freedom,

democracy, and civil society7 :he old for# of colonialis# %as %rapped in the ideal of the

civili>ing #ission, and the civili>ing #ission %as 1ar1aric to the core7 :he ne% one,

not%ithstanding its ne% %rapping, is no different7 As Willia# 3alkner said, past is not past pastis present %ith s7 The colonial past is unfolding itself in the present7 And that is %hat #akes

3anon and Landhi so relevant today7

4ur lins alone are sufficient reason to vote negative @ scholarship failing to

recogni:e the /hite position actively produces a system /here no/ledge production

acts to maintain colonial structures because neutrality is inherently /hite

3rosfoguel, Professor !thnic Stdies at UC 9erkeley, 5E(Oa#on, :he !piste#ic 2ecolonial:rn" Cltral Stdies, 4ol 5sse -8, p -8, :'3 Enline+

!piste#ological Criti;e :he first point to discss is the contri1tion of racialMethnic and

fe#inist s1altern perspectives to episte#ological ;estions7 :he hege#onic (urocentric

paradigms that have informed /estern philosophy and sciences in the N#odernMcolonialcapitalistMpatriarchal %orld-syste#= for the last T** hndred years assume a universalistic ,

neutral, objective point of vie/ 7 Chicana and 1lack fe#inist scholars (&oraga ' An>alda 0)8,

Collins 00*+ as %ell as third%orld scholars inside and otside the United States (2ssel 0..,&ignolo ***+ re#inded s that /e al/ays spea from a particular locationin the po%er

strctres7 Nobody escapes the class, se)ual, gender, spiritual, linguistic, geographical, and

racial hierarchiesof the N#odernMcolonial capitalistMpatriarchal %orld-syste#=7 As fe#inistscholar 2onna Hara%ay (0))+ states, or kno%ledges are al%ays sitated7 9lack fe#inist
http://www.okcir.com/Articles%20V%20Special/HiraSingh.pdfhttp://www.okcir.com/Articles%20V%20Special/HiraSingh.pdfhttp://www.okcir.com/Articles%20V%20Special/HiraSingh.pdfhttp://www.okcir.com/Articles%20V%20Special/HiraSingh.pdf


17/37

scholars called this perspective Nafro-centric episte#ology= (Collins 00*+ (%hich is not

e;ivalent to the afrocentrist perspective+ %hile $atin A#erican Philosopher of $i1eration

!nri;e 2ssel called it Ngeopolitics of kno%ledge= (2ssel 0..+ and follo%ing 3anon (0/.+and An>ald\a (0).+ 5 %ill se the ter# N1ody-politics of kno%ledge=7 :his is not only a ;estion

a1ot social vales in kno%ledge prodction or the fact that or kno%ledge is al%ays partial7 :he

#ain point here is the locs of ennciation, that is, the geo-political and 1ody-political locationof the s1?ect that speaks7 'n Western philosophy and sciences the subject that speas is

al/ays hidden,concealed, erased fro# the analysis7 The 5 ego!politics of no/ledge of Western

philosophy has al/ays privilege the myth of a non!situated 5(go 7 !thnicMracialMgenderMse@al

episte#ic location and the s1?ect that speaks are al%ays decopled7 +y delining

ethnicMracialMgenderMse@al epistemic locationfro# the s1?ect that speaks, Western

philosophyand sciences are able to produce a myth about a Truthful universal no/ledge

that covers up , that is, conceals /ho is speaing as /ell as the geo!political and body!

political epistemic location in the structures of colonial po/erGno/ledge from /hich the

subject spea s7 5t is i#portant here to distingish the Nepiste#ic location= fro# the Nsocial

location=7 The fact that one is socially located in the oppressed side of po/er relations, doesnot automatically mean that heGshe is epistemically thining from a subaltern epistemic

location7 Precisely, the success of the #odernMcolonial%orld-system consist in maing

subjects that are socially located in the oppressed side of the colonial difference, to thin

epistemicaly lie the ones on the dominant positions . >ubaltern epistemic perspectives are

no/ledge coming from belo/ that produces a critical perspective of hegemonic no/ledge

in the po%er relations involved7 5 a# not clai#ing an episte#ic poplis# %here kno%ledge

prodced fro# 1elo% is ato#atically an episte#ic s1altern kno%ledge7 What 5 a# clai#ing is

that all no/ledges are epistemically located in the dominant or the subaltern side of the

po/er relationsand that this is related to the geo- and 1ody-politics of kno%ledge7 The

disembodiedand nlocated netrality and objectivity of the ego!politics of no/ledge is a

Western myth7 Oene 2escartes, the fonder of &odern Western Philosophy, inagrates a ne%#o#ent in the history of Western thoght7 He replaces Lod, as the fondation of kno%ledge in

the :heo-politics of kno%ledge of the !ropean &iddle Ages, %ith (Western+ &an as the

fondation of kno%ledge in !ropean &odern ti#es7 All the attri1tes of Lod are no%e@trapolated to (Western+ &an7 ?niversal Truth1eyond ti#e and space, privilege access to the

la%s of the Universe, and the capacity to prodce scientific kno%ledge and theory is no/ placed

in the mind of Western 6an 7 :he Cartesian Nego-cogito= (N5 think, therefore 5 a#=+ is the

fondation of #odern Western sciences7 9y prodcing a dalis# 1et%een #ind and 1ody and1et%een #ind and natre, 2escartes %as a1le to clai# non-sitated, niversal, Lod-eyed vie%

kno%ledge7 :his is %hat the Colo#1ian philosopher Santiago Castro-Lo#e> called the Npoint

>ero= perspective of !rocentric philosophies (Castro-Lo#e> **8+7 The 5point :ero is thepoint of vie/ that hides and conceals itself as being beyond a particular point of vie/,that

is, the point of vie/ that represents itself as being /ithout a point of vie/. 't is this 5god!eye

vie/ that al/ays hides its local and particular perspective under an abstract universalism7

Western philosophy privileges Nego politics of kno%ledge= over the Ngeopolitics of kno%ledge=

and the N1ody-politics of kno%ledge=7 Historically, this has allo/ed Western man (the gendered

ter# is intentionally sed here+ to represent his no/ledge as the only one capable of achieving a

universal consciousness , and to dismiss non!Western no/ledge as particularistic and, thus,


18/37

unable to achieve universality 7 This epistemic strategy has been crucial for Western global

designs7 +y hiding the location of the subject of enunciation, (uropeanG(uro!American

colonial e)pansion and domination /as able to construct a hierarchy of superior and

inferior no/ledge and, ths, of superior and inferior people arond the %orld7 We %ent fro#

the si@teenth centry characteri>ation of Npeople %ithot %riting= to the eighteenth and

nineteenth centry characteri>ation of Npeople %ithot history=, to the t%entieth centrycharacteri>ation of Npeople %ithot develop#ent= and #ore recently, to the early t%enty-firstcentry of Npeople %ithot de#ocracy=7 We %ent fro# the si@teenth centry Nrights of people=

(Seplveda verss de las Casas de1ate in the school of Sala#anca in the #id-si@teenth centry+,

to the eighteenth centry Nrights of #an= (!nlight#ent philosophers+, and to the late t%entieth

centry Nh#an rights=7 All of these are part of global designs articulated to the simultaneous

production and reproduction of an international division of labor of coreGperiphery that overlaps

/ith the global racialGethnic hierarchy of (uropeansGnon!(uropeans7 Ho%ever, as !nri;e

2ssel (00+ has re#inded s, the Cartesian Nego cogito= (N5 think, therefore 5 a#=+ %as

preceded 1y T* years (since the 1eginnings of the !ropean colonial e@pansion in 0+ of the

!ropean Nego con;ists= (N5 con;er, therefore 5 a#=+7 :he social, econo#ic, political andhistorical conditions of possi1ility for a s1?ect to ass#e the arrogance of 1eco#ing Lod-like

and pt hi#self as the fondation of all :rthfl kno%ledge %as the 5#perial 9eing, that is, thes1?ectivity of those %ho are at the center of the %orld 1ecase they have already con;ered it7

What are the decolonial i#plications of this episte#ological criti;e to or kno%ledge

prodction and to or concept of %orld-syste#V

Taling about race is necessary in /hite spaces @ if you thin diversity in debate is

important you have to vote neg

6ills 5LED00., Charles-G Associate Prof of Philosophy [ U 5llinois, Chicago :he OacialContractG p7 -8X

White >upremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern /orld

/hat it is today. ou /ill not find this term inintrodctory, or even advanced, te@ts inpolitical theory7 A standard ndergradate philosophycorse %ill start off %ith Plato and

Aristotle, perhaps say so#ething a1ot Agstine, A;inas, and &achiavelli, #ove on to

Ho11es, $ocke, &ill and &ar@, and then %ind p %ith Oa%ls and Io>ick7 5t /illintroduce you to notions of aristocracy, democracy, absolutism, liberalism,

representative government, socialism, /elfare capitalism, and libertarianism. +ut

though it covers more than t/o thousand years of Western political thought and runs

the ostensible gamut of political systems, there /ill be no mention of the basic

political system that has shaped the /orld for the past several hundred years. And

this omission is not accidental. Rather, it reflects the fact that standard te@t1ooks andcorses have for the #ost part 1een %ritten and designed 1y /hites%ho tae their racial

privilege so much for granted that they do not even see it as political , as a form of

domination. 'ronically, the most important political system of recent global history!

the system of domination by /hich /hite people have historically ruled over and, in

certain important /ays, continue to rule over non/hite people!is not seen as a

political system at all. 't is just taen for granted, it is the bacground against /hich

other systems, /hich /e are to see as political are highlighted7 :his 1ook is an atte#ptto redirect yor vision, to #ake yo see %hat, in a sense, has 1een there all along7

#hilosophy has remained remarably untouched by the debates over


19/37

multiculturalism, cannon reform, and ethnic diversity racing the academy1oth

de#ographically and conceptally, it is one of the /hitest" of the humanities7 9lacks,

for e@a#ple, constitte only a1ot percent of philosophers in Iorth A#ericanniversities-a hndred or so people ot of #ore than ten thosand-and there are even fe%er

$atino, Asian A#erican, and Iative A#erican philosophers7 Srely this

nderrepresentation itself stands in need of an e@planation, and in #y opinion it can 1etraced in part to a conceptal array and a standard repertoire of concerns %hose

a1stractness typically elides, rather than geninely incldes, the e@perience of racial

#inorities7 Since (%hite+ %o#en have the de#ographic advantage of n#1ers, there are ofcorse far #ore fe#ale philosophers in the profession than non%hite philosophers (thogh

still not proportionate to %o#en=s percentage of the poplation+, and they have #ade far

greater progress in developing alternative conceptali>ations7 Those African Americanphilosophers /ho do /or in moral and political theory tend either to produce

general /or indistinguishable from that of their /hite peers or to focus on local

issues ;affir#ative action, the 1lack nderclass"+ or historical figures(W7!79 2 9ois,

Alain $ocke+ in a /ay that does not aggressively engage the broader debate . What is

needed is a global theoretical frame/or for situating discussions of race and /hiteracism, and thereby challenging the assumptions of /hite political philosophy, /hich

%old correspond to fe#inist theorists= articlation of the centrality of gender, patriarchy,and se@is# to traditional #oral and political theory7 What is needed, in other %ords, is a

recognition that racism ;or, as 5 %ill arge, global /hite supremacy< is itself a political

system, a particular po/er structure of formal or informal rule, socioeconomic

privilege, and norms for the differential distribution of material /ealth and

opportunities , benefits and burdens , rights and duties. The notion of the Racial

Contract is, ' suggest, one possible /ay of maing this connection /ith mainstream

theory, since it uses the vocabulary and apparatus already developed for

contractarianism to map this unacno/ledged system. Contract tal is, after all, the

political lingua franca of our times.

a. >e-uencing @ Tacing on the subaltern perspective is insufficient @ they still

privilege Western thiners by ascribing Truth to their theories @ only a

position that begins /ith marginali:ed voices can result in effective

decolonialism

3rosfoguel, Professor !thnic Stdies at UC 9erkeley, 5E(Oa#on, :he !piste#ic 2ecolonial:rn" Cltral Stdies, 4ol 5sse -8, p -8, :'3 Enline+

5n Ecto1er 00), there %as a conferenceMdialoge at 2ke University 1et%een the Soth Asian

S1altern Stdies Lrop and the $atin A#erican S1altern Stdies Lrop7 :he dialoge initiatedin this conference eventally reslted in the p1lication of several isses of the ?ornal

I!PAI:$A7 Ho%ever, this conference %as the last ti#e the $atin A#erican S1altern StdiesLrop #et 1efore their split7 A#ong the #any reasons and de1ates that prodced this split, there

are t%o that 5 %old like to stress7 :he $atin A#erican S1altern Stdies Lrop co#posed

pri#arily 1y $atina#ericanist scholars in the USA7 2espite their atte#pt at prodcing a radical

and alternative kno%ledge, they reprodced the episte#ic sche#a of Area Stdies in the UnitedStates7 With a fe% e@ceptions, they produced studies about the subaltern rather than studies


20/37

/ith and from a subaltern perspective7 $ike the i#perial episte#ology of Area Stdies,

theory /as still located in the North /hile the subjects to be studied are located in the >outh 7 :his

colonial episte#ology %as crcial to #y dissatisfaction %ith the pro?ect7 As a Perto Oican in theUnited States, 5 %as dissatisfied %ith the episte#ic conse;ences of the kno%ledge prodced 1y

this $atina#ericanist grop7 They underestimated in their /or ethnicGracial perspectives

coming from the region, /hile giving privilege to Western thiners 7 :his is related to #ysecond point they gave episte#ic privilege to %hat they called the Nfor horses of theapocalypse=, that is, 3ocalt, 2errida, Lra#sci and Lha7 A#ong the for #ain thinkers they

privilege, three are !rocentric thinkers %hile t%o of the# (2errida and 3ocalt+ for# part of

the poststrctralistMpost#odern Western canon7 +y privileging Western thiners as theircentral theoretical apparatus , they betrayed their goal to produce subaltern studies7 :his isnot an essentialist, fnda#entalist, anti-!ropean criti;e7 5t a perspective that is critical of 1oth

!rocentric and :hird World fnda#entalis#s, colonialis# and nationalis#7 What all

fundamentalisms share(inclding the !rocentric one+ is the premise that there is only onesole epistemic tradition from /hich to achieve Truth and ?niversality7 Ho%ever, #y #ain

points here are three (+ that a decolonial epistemic perspective re-uires a broader canon of

thoughtthan si#ply the Western canon (inclding the $eft Western canon+G (+ that a trulyuniversal decolonial perspective cannot be based on an abstract universal(one particlar

that raises itself as niversal glo1al design+, but %old have to 1e the reslt of the critical

dialoge bet/een diverse critical epistemicGethicalGpolitical projects to/ards a pluriversal

as oppose to a universal /orldG (8+ that decoloni:ation of no/ledge /ould re-uire to taeseriously the epistemic perspectiveMcos#ologiesMinsights of critical thiners from the 3lobal

>ouththinking fro# and %ith s1alterni>ed racialMethnicMse@al spaces and 1odies7

#ostmodernismand postrctralis# as epistemological projects are caught /ithin theWestern canon reproducing /ithin its domains of thought and practice a coloniality of

po/erGno/ledge7

b. Cooption @ Racism mutates and changes its manifestations to adapt to /hite

interests @ even major achievements lie +ro/n vs. +oard are /arped and

shifted by /hite institutional control over the means of legal enforcement and

interpretation

$elgado LM(Oichard, Fean I7 $indsley Professor of $a% at the University of Colorado $a% School, 5s

A#erican $a% 5nherently Oacist", 2e1ate %M Prof7 3ar1er, 9erkeley $a% ScholarshipOepository, httpMMscholarship7la%71erkeley7edMcgiMvie%content7cgiV

article'conte@tfacp1s+

Ene7 Consider ho% racism taes different forms at different times, like one of thosecharacters in a science fiction novel or #ovie7 'n one era, it is blatant, open, and in yor face7

'n another, it is subtle, institutional, e#1edded in see#ingly netral rles like a University ofColorado at 9older re;ire#ent that all first-year stdents live in a ca#ps-residence hall that

is a netral rle7 Ho%ever, #any stdents of color fro# 2enver, thirty-five #iles a%ay, %old

prefer to live at ho#e and co##te saving the #oney, avoiding so#e of the Ani#al Hose"

featres of dor# life that go against $atino cltre, and looking after their yonger 1rothers orsisters %ho #ay 1e flirting %ith drgs or gangs7 'n anotherera, racism taes the form of


21/37

gentlemanly learned tracts /ith hundreds of footnotes debating /hether fols of color are

genetically inferior7 The players, the arguments, and the rationali:ations may vary overtime, but the gap in bro/nG/hite earnings, life e)pectancy, and social /ell being remains

about the sameas thogh o1eying so#e nseen la%7 :%o7 Notice ho/ /hen courts andother

official policy maers rela), or even decide to help #inorities, this happens more to advance

/hite self!interest than to help the supposed beneficiaries7 3or e@a#ple, +ro/n v. +oardof!dcation, the case that Professor 3ar1er held p as the cro%n ?e%el of A#erican ?risprdence,

decided in 0T, came do/n just as many ?.>. servicemen and /omen of color /ere

returning to civilianlife fro# #ilitary service, /here manyof the# for the first time hade)perienced a relatively racism free environment7 6anyof the# pro1a1ly /ould not have

returned meely to shining shoesand regi#es of Yes sir" and Io sir7" *or the first timein a

%hile, the possibility of real racial unrest loomed in the ?nited >tates7 At the sa#e ti#e, %e

%ere in the early stages of a cold %ar against the forces of godless, rthless co##nis#7 5tscarcely %old have served U7S7 prposes %ell had the front pages of %orld ne%spapers

contined to sho% pictres of !##ett :ill lynchings and sothern sheriffs %ith cattle prods7

+ro/n and other breathrough cases occur not so much out of generosity or moral8)8

imperative, but out of a need to advance /hite self!interest. %ater, /hen the celebrationsdied do/n, the great la/ reform case /as inevitably cut bac -uietly by lo/er courts or

impeded by administrative foot!dragging or delay7 Today, more blac school children attend

segregated schools than /hen +ro/n v. +oard of (ducation /as decided.

c. Corrupts the alts epistemological perspective @ Their universali:ing

scholarship is inseparable from their affirmative @ location /ithin the

academy maintains colonial hierarchies of po/er

6ignolo, Professor Oo#ance Stdies and Cltral Anthropology at 2ke, LL(Walter, 5 A#Where 5 :hink !piste#ology and the Colonial 2ifference" Fornal of $atin A#erican Cltral

Stdies, 4ol ) Io , p 8T-T+

9y definition, loci of ennciation are not #arginal7 Yet #aking the# visi1le also #akes itpossi1le to nderline that episte#ology is not ?st a happy niversal spaces %hich every1ody can

?oin7 As %ith any thing else, joining something that is hegemonic means to accept the rule of the

game 7 5f yo play the ga#e, 1t not e@actly according to the rles, chances are that yo %ill 1e

so#e%hat on the #argins7 Ho%ever, 5 a# not interested in either playing the role of the


22/37

scientific thinking fro# the sciences of natre to the h#an sciences, a step %hich is #ore

difficlt to take in the Ler#an philosophical legacy 1ecase, according to 9ordie, the

distinction


23/37

(9rotherston, 00+, %ere pro#pted 1y episte#ic, not nationalist, considerations7 Iational

histories are local histories, certainly, 1t they cannot 1e confsed %ith the#7 :hs, 9rotherston


24/37

reconceptali>ed as afundamental organizing logic of the United States in its local, translocal,

and glo1al enact#ents as sch, this is a 1ody of radical" pra@is in the ety#ological sense of the

ter#, as a political la1or that e#anates fro# and is directed to%ard transfor#ing or destroyingthe roots" of a particlar social for#ation, engaged in critical opposition to its constittive

logics of organi>ation and historical possi1ility7 :rly, this is a lineage that e@poses the sy#1iosis

of love and hate, revoltion and creative destrction, in the process of envisioning the end ofoppressive violence and progra##atic h#an do#ination7 :o appropriate 3rant> 3anon=s

#editation in a different ti#e and place, a war of social truths rages 1eneath the nor#ali>ed

violence of any sch condition of do#ination7 5t is the &anichaean relation 1et%een coloni>edand coloni>er, native" and settler," or here, free and nfree that conditions the s1altern trths

of 1oth i##inent and #anifest insrgencies7 Speaking to the anticolonialist nationalis# of the

Algerian Oevoltion, 3anon %rites :he pro1le# of trth oght also to 1e considered7 5n every

age, a#ong the people trth is the property of the national case7 Io a1solte verity, nodiscorse on the prity of the sol, can shake this position7 :he native replies to the living lie of

the colonial sitation 1y an e;al falsehood7 His dealings %ith his fello%-nationals are openG they

are strained and inco#prehensi1le %ith regard to the settlers7 :rth is that %hich hrries on the

1reak-p of the colonialist regi#eG it is that %hich pro#otes the e#ergence of the nationG it is allthat protects the natives, and rins the foreigners7 5n this colonialist conte@t there is no trthfl

1ehavior and the good is ;ite si#ply that %hich is evil for the#7") :rth, for 3anon, isprecisely that %hich generates and #ltiplies the historical possi1ility of disrptive, s1versive

#ove#ent against colonial oppression7 :he evident rhetoric of oppositionality, of the s1altern

good" that necessarily #ateriali>es evil" in the eyes of do#ination, offers a stnning departrefro# the langage of negotiation, dialoge, progress, #oderation, and peace that has 1eco#e

hege#onic in discorses of social change and social ?stice, in and otside the United States7 :he

native=s e;al falsehood" is, in fact, a necessary and ethical response to a regi#e that renders a

hege#onic trth throgh the reglated death and deterioration of the native=s 1ody and society7Perhaps #ost i#portant, the political langage of opposition is pre#ised on its open-endedness

and contingency, a particlar refsal to soothe the an@iety generated in the atte#pt to displace a

condition of violent peace for the sake of so#ething else, a %orld 1eyond agendas, platfor#s,and practical proposals7 :here are no garantees, or arrogant e@pectations, of an lti#ate state of

li1eration %aiting on the other side of the politically i##ediate strggle against the settler

colony7

Anti!anthropocentric discourse fosters a problematic race neutral mentality9

liberal /hite activists refuse to interrogate the cultural characteristics of our

relationship to the environment because doing so /ould force them to confront their

privilege

Q6+, 12 D*M0M, F&9 is his pen na#e, he is a Ph2 stdent in !nviron#ental Stdies in

Eregon, He=s citing n#eros peer revie%ed stdies in his article7 Color1lind Oacis# and!nviron#entalis#", httpMMecesisfactor71logspot7co#M*M*Mcolor1lind-racis#-and-

environ#entalis#7ht#lX

5n their analysis of food ?stice, :eresa &7 6ares and2evon C7 #ea(*+ point to apervasive

lac of deep cultural!ecological understanding,particlarly among /hite food activists 7 :hey

1egin %ith an anecdote involving a vegan >lo/ *ood activist%ho, despite professed co##it#ent

to local foods, no/ s nothing of the indigenous culture /here she lives.She is na1le to na#e
http://ecesisfactor.blogspot.com/2012/02/colorblind-racism-and-environmentalism.htmlhttp://ecesisfactor.blogspot.com/2012/02/colorblind-racism-and-environmentalism.htmlhttp://ecesisfactor.blogspot.com/2012/02/colorblind-racism-and-environmentalism.htmlhttp://ecesisfactor.blogspot.com/2012/02/colorblind-racism-and-environmentalism.html


25/37

%hose land she lives on, or even any of the foods they rely pon7 When asked a1ot these

#atters, the /oman responds, in >agit, you no/, there are a lot of multigenerational farmers

/ho are not Native American.:hey have 1een here a long ti#e and have as #ch stake in this%atershed as anyone else"7 This assertion displaces focus from the -uestion of Native food/ays

and attempts simultaneously to legitimate the land tenure of /hite farmers, an isse %hich she %as

not asked to defend7 :he %o#an goes on to descri1e conflict 1et%een 5ndians and far#ers, anisse %hich she concedes she kno%s little a1ot, thogh her earlier co##ent regarding the

Skagit far#ers sggests %here she #ight stand on the isse (*+7 't seems unlielythat this

activist /ould thin of herself as racist, even though her responses suggest une)amined privilege

and /hite racial allegiances 7 Additionally, this implied allegiance /ith farming families over the

concerns of indigenous fishing rights complicates not only this persons claims of colorblindness"

but also her professed relationship to food systems that support environmental and human health

(Iorgaard *+7 Flie Lth#an (*+ e@a#ines #ore overt color1lind discorse7 5n her

analysis of far#er=s #arkets, CSAs, and co##nity gardens, she notes the many discourses ofalternative food hail a /hite subject and thereby code the practices and spaces of alternative food as

/hite".3ocsing on t%o sets of data, Lth#an looks at pervasive rhetorical tendencies that

contri1te to the %hite raciali>ing of alternative foods7 4ne particularly important tendency is the

universali:ing /hite values . 5n doing this, /hite values become coded as the norm, and /hen those

values do not resonate, it is assumed that those for /hom they do not resonate must be educated

or 1e forever #arked as different" (*+7 This universali:ing problematically reenscribes

racialGcultural difference , /hilealso prohibiting discourses of race by proposing that such

discourses are not needed .3or e@a#ple, in her intervie%s of CSA #anagers, several respondents

/ereopenly hostile to -uestions that directly ased about race7 &anagers responded %ith

co##ents that reaffir#ed their 1elief in the niversal vale of their pro?ect, %riting D%Pe al/ays

hope for more people and do not focus on ethnic9/hat /e present attracts allS"(Lth#an *+7

:his #anager see#s o1livios to the %hiteness of the space he and his colleages have

developed and is affronted 1y the sggestion that it %old 1e right to seek ot #ore csto#ers ofcolor7 Ether respondents sggested that the research itself %as racist for asking ;estions a1ot

inclsion7 Ene %rote 2ifference is %rongG it is 1etter to try to 1eco#e color 1lind in ho% %e do

things^ yor ;estion has a slant of political correctness"7 :his #anager e@plicitly deploys therhetoric of color1lindness %hile si#ltaneosly dis#issing efforts at inclsion as political

correctness"7 Another CSA #anager also 1alked at the pressre to 1e perfectly politically

correct" (*+7 While Lth#an=s srveys indicate %hite internali>ation and deploy#ent ofcolor1lind racis#, %ork 1y vegan scholar 9ree>e Harper (*+ considers %ays in %hich animal

rights activism and vegan pra)is are coded as /hite , and ho/ vegans of color respond to such

coding . Harper=s %ork, like Lth#an=s asserts, practices, institutions, and spaces are coded as

/hite"9or at least not blac"9not only through the bodies that tend to inhabit and participate

in them but also the discourses that circulate through them " ;Lth#an *+7 Harper indicates

that veganis# and animal rights activism are generally associated /ith radically leftist and

progressive" /hites, incapable of participating in the overt racism one can normally find /ithin

radical rightorgani:ations" (Harper *+7 Although theirpolitical positioning may incline

/hite vegans to avoid traditional forms of racism, arper notes thatcollectively, good /hites "

tend to shy a/ay from antiracism and reflections on /hite and class privilege "(*+7 :hrogh a


26/37

;ick e@ploration of poplar vegan 1ooks and %e1sites, Harper illstrates this tendency to o#it

discssions of race, class, and se@ality7 :hen, dra%ing on co##ents taken fro# the poplar

1log 4egans of Color, arper illuminates the effects of colorblind discourses on activists of color"and ho/ some /hites respond to the e)periences of fello/ vegans(*+7 Centrally, arpersanalysis focuses on ho/ /ords lie e)otic" presume Ia /hite audience, marginali:ing the

subjectivities of vegans of color" (*+7 :he %hite 1logger responses to 4EC posts regarding thisisse highlight color1lind racis#7 Harper analy>es the response of a 1logger, 6ra#, %ho

conflates geographic food sorces %ith the concept of foreign" or e@otic"7 6ra# goes on to

%rite, if 5 %ere ever to 1e called ot on ter#s of %hite gilt" or colonialist" or other ter#s fortrying to go to events that are #ore inclsive of PEC Dpeople of colorX, or rnM1y or sponsored 1y

PEC, then 5 %ill not 1e inclined to participate in those events"7 Her tone denies responsi1ility for

any possi1le %rongdoing, and frther#ore places responsi1ility for her inclsion on people ofcolor"7 :his type of response see#s strongly indicative of color1lind racis#7 6ra# asserts her

%hite privilege, declaring her opinions on a 1log for vegans of color, %hile si#ltaneosly

nder#ining her fello% vegan=s e@periences7 Another series of e@periences recorded in the

4egans of Color 1log highlight ho% colorblind racism has a chilling effect" (Lth#an *+ on

people of color and shapes the responses of /hite vegans7 9loggers Nassim and >upernovadiva,relate the discomforts e)perienced by vegans of color in /hite spaces.Iassi# %rites of a

conference that leaves her feeling so frstrated %ith the poplation, the case and ^like 5 cold

not call #yself a vegan7 As if vegan" /as a /hite /ord" (Harper *+7 >upernovadiva

describes the tendency of /hite animal rights activists to single her out because of her race7 She

%rites, the color1lind thing co#es p and ho% that person don=t see color 9U: yo 1ee lined

straight to #e to tell #e yo=re color1lind, seriosly" (Harper *+7 These e)pressions of ho/colorblind racism effects vegans of color is met on the blog /ith further e)amples of the very same

discourse7 Althogh overt racis# tends to 1e scarce in environ#ental and ani#al rights

#ove#ents, color1lind racis# and other li1eral for#s of racist pra@is are pervasive7 $iscourses

that ignore or dispute any critical analysis of race are liely to reaffirm racism despite good

intentions ". 3rther#ore, conte#porary ses of %ords sch as e@otic" or foreign" effectively

reinforce %hite as the nor#, and in so#e cases affir# colonial legacies that e;ate dark skinned

people and raciali>ed others" %ith dirt, filth," and ncleanliness" placing the# otside of

civili>ed society" (Park and Pello *+7 These concepts, even %hen nvoiced, shape policy

decisions and the codification of environmental activism, and environmental benefits as /hite.

The animal rights movement is premised on an ignorance of the raciali:ed epistemology

that structures social relations in general and specifically, the history of anti!anthro

movements9their ignorance is not benign and is instead a move by elites to control the

anti!anthro agenda

arper 10,A#ie 9ree>e, Ph2 Candidate in Critical 3ood Leographies, stdying ho% race,class, gender, and region affect relationship to food, UC-2avis (Oace as a 3ee1le &atter" in

4eganis# 5nterrogating %hiteness, geopolitical privilege, and cons#ption philosophy ofcrelty-free" prodcts," Fornal for Critical Ani#al Stdies, 4ol#e 4555, 5sse 8,

httpMM%%%7criticalani#alstdies7orgM?ornal-for-critical-ani#al-stdiesMarchivesM+ Iote AO

stands for ani#al rights"Practitioners of veganis# a1stain fro# ani#al cons#ption (dietary and non-dietary+7 Ho%ever,

the cltre of veganis# itself is not a #onolith and is co#posed of #any different s1cltres


27/37

and philosophies throghot the %orld, ranging fro# pnk strict vegans for ani#al rights, to

people %ho are dietary vegans for personal health reasons, to people %ho practice veganis# for

religios and spirital reasons (Cherry, **/G 5aco11o, **/+7 4eganis# is not ?st a1ot thea1stinence of ani#al cons#ptionG it is a1ot the ongoing strggle to prodce socio-spatial

episte#ologies of cons#ption that lead to cltral and spatial changeG it is a1ot contesting the

do#inance of ani#al-prodct cons#ption narrative that is central to, and do#inant in, thesocio-historical as %ell as present nation-1ilding rhetoric of the United States7 Within the

conte@t of #y interests in fe#inist geography, racial politics, and cons#ption stdies, 5 have

o1served that #ainstrea# vegan otreach #odels and top selling vegan-oriented 1ooks rarely, ifever, ackno%ledge sch differing socio-historically raciali>ed episte#ologies a#ongst the %hite

#iddle class stats ;o and the collectivity of other racial grops, sch as African A#ericans,

Chinese-A#ericans, or Iative A#ericans7 :here is an nderlying ass#ption a#ongst

#ainstrea# vegan #edia that raciali>ation and the prodction of vegan spaces are disconnected7Ho%ever, space, vegan or not,is raced(2%yer and Fones, ***G &c6ittrick, **/G &c6ittrick

and Woods, **.G Price, **0+ and si#ltaneosly se@ali>ed and gendered (&assey, 00G

&oss, **)+ directly affecting individals and place identities7 o/ human beings develop theirno/ledge base is directly connected to the embodied e)periences of the places and spaces /e

navigate through7 Scholars engaged in critical geographies of race clai# that the %orld is

entirely raciali>ed7 2avid 2elaney, a geographer e#ploying critical race theory asks, What doesit #ean for geographers to take this clai# of a %holly raciali>ed %orld serioslyV (Price, **0+7

As a 1lack fe#inist geographer and critical race theorist, 5 take seriosly that raciali>ed places

and spaces are at the fondation of ho% %e develop or socio-spatial episte#ologiesG hence,these epistemologies are raciali:ed7 :he collective %hite #iddle class USA#erican %ay of

kno%ing and relating to space, and all the o1?ects and life-for#s that occpy it, are connected to

this de#ographics< physical and social place#ent %ithin a raciali>ed hierarchy in %hich they arenatrali>ed as nor#al, n-raced, niversal, and the stats ;oG /hiteness as the norm is at center

stage of ?>AHs production of no/ledge, space, and po/er7 3rther#ore, to people of color, %ho

are the victi#s of racis#M%hite spre#acy, race is a filter throgh %hich they see the %orld7

Whites do not look at the %orld throgh this filter of racial a%areness, even thogh they alsoco#prise a race7 :his privilege to ignore their race gives %hites a societal advantage distinct

fro# any received fro# the e@istence of discri#inatory racis#7 DLrillo and Wild#anX se the

ter# racis#M%hite spre#acy to e#phasi>e the link 1et%een the privilege held 1y %hites toignore their o%n race and discri#inatory racis#7 (Lrillo and Wild#an 00T, T/T+ 5n this essay, 5

prefer to se the ter#s %hiteness and %hite privilege as synony#s for Lrillo and Wild#anAmericans are collectively

una/are of ho/ this center stage does not reflect the reality of those /ho do not e)ist in such /hite

privileged spaces of inclusion. Raciali:ed spaces create raciali:ed psychic spaces7 Arnold 3arr refers

to this asraciali:ed consciousness, and it is a ter# that is#ch #ore useful to use /ithin theconte)t of those people /ho do not fully understand that they are engaging in covert acts of

/hiteness G/hite privilege racism, all /hile they simultaneously engage in ARM4!L based socialactivism7 2efined 1y African A#erican philosopher 2r7 Arnold 3arr, raciali>ed consciosness


28/37

replaceDsX racis# as the traditional operative ter# in discorses on race7 :he concept of

raciali>ed consciosness %ill help s e@a#ine the %ays in %hich consciosness is shaped in

ter#s of racist social strctres777 NRaciali:ed consciousness is a term that /ill help us understand/hy even the /ell!intentioned /hite liberal /ho has participated in the struggle against racism may

perpetuate a form of racism unintentionally(3arr, **+7 Poplar vegan-oriented literatre in the

USA sch as 4egan :he Ie% !thics of !ating (&arcs, **+, 9eing 4egan in a Ion-4eganWorld (:orres and :orres, **T+, :he 4egan Sorce1ook (Stepaniak and &essina, ***+, and

9eco#ing 4egan (2avis and 4esanto, ***+, %hich are considered vegan 1i1les for the vegan

stats ;o, do not deeply engage in critical analysis of ho% race (raciali>ation, %hiteness, racis#,anti-racis#s+ inflence ho% and %hy one %rites a1ot, teaches, and engages in vegan pra@is and

lti#ately prodces vegan spaces to affect cltral change7 9t %hat does it #ean to 1e

conscios of race %hen e#1arking on %riting pro?ects sch as vegan-oriented researchV :his ispart of a larger conversation on ho% raciali>ation, race, and %hiteness fnctionsM#anifest %ithin

vegan spaces in %hite do#inated nations7 O%Pie the peace and environmental movements, the AR

movement is predominantly /hite and middle class.Andre% Oo%an, a 4P at the H#ane Society

of the U7S7, said srveys indicate the AR movement is Iless than three percentI people of color7 5nApril, 8/ people fro# over * states attended the first Lrassroots AO Conference in IYC, 1t

the people of color cacs n#1ered only eight7 'f no one is racist, /hy is the movement largely

segregated(Ha#anaka, **T+ Si#ilarly to second %ave USA fe#inis# that falselyniversali>ed the %hite #iddle class heterose@al fe#ale e@perience as ho% all fe#ales

e@perience social space, po%er, and strggle, #ainstrea# vegan rhetoric ass#es the sa#e7

While veganis# itself does create oppositional spaces of cons#ption that challenge the standardspaces of A#erican carnicentric diet, this essay %ill e@plore ho% #ainstrea# vegan pra@is

si#ltaneosly creates socio-spatial episte#ologies of %hiteness that re#ain invisi1le to #ost

%hite identified people7 5nterestingly, it can 1e arged that the /hite racial demographic in the?>A are collectively una/are of racismand %hite do#ination as an ongoing covert, institutional,

and systemic process(:ana and Sllivan, **.G Yancy, **+7 3rther#ore, this ignorance

co##only #anifests as a post-racial or raceless approach to dealing %ith the %orld7 5t can

manifest into believing thatan event a1ot animal rights, %ith 8*) %h

cal berkeley wimsatt sergentleventhal neg umkc round1

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