Postcolonial Possibilities for the Sociology of Race

Abstract

The author considers what postcolonial theory has to contribute to the sociology of race. Although there are overlaps, postcolonial theory and the sociology of race are not reducible to each other. Postcolonial theory emphasizes the global, historical, and therefore colonial dimensions of race relations, including how imperialism has generated racial thought and racial stratification. A postcolonial sociology of race, therefore, would (1) analytically recover empire and colonialism and their legacies, (2) excavate colonial racialization and trace its continuities into the present, (3) reveal the reciprocal constitution of racialized identities that began under empire, and (4) critique the imperial standpoint and seek out the subjugated epistemologies of racialized subjects. Although such a postcolonial sociology of race is a project that has yet to be fully realized, there are a number of existing sociological works that begin the journey and point us in the right direction.