A brief engagement with some conceptual challenges in the discussion about ‘race’ and racism

Abstract

At issue in this discussion is a question of knowledge and how those who work in education use the knowledge at their disposal in practice. How do they, firstly, work with the almost universal consensus that ‘race’ as a biological phenomenon has no inherent substance but that its equally almost universal social acceptance makes it real? Having come to their conclusions, secondly, how do they work educationally with the complexity of the ideological positions surrounding their knowledge? It is argued, that in these questions a particular kind of challenge for the politics of anti-racism arises. This challenge is deeply educational at its core. It talks to how an individual acts in relation to what he/she knows. Towards an engagement with what such a politics is in this contribution this paper seeks to argue that a concept such as ‘race’, and indeed gender, subsists and relies on presumptive agreements about the meanings – the form and substance – attached to looks. The concept depends on the supposedly obvious, the obviousness of likeness. From this it generates the presumption of relatedness. This paper argues that this logic of the look operates as a ‘trope’ of conscription. In engaging with this trope it is important to be clear about how ‘race’ is used descriptively and in social analysis. Two positions are focused upon in this paper to show how the use of ‘race’ in these descriptions and analyses – the knowledge inherent in them – has important educational implications.