The Limits of Whiteness

Whether it is through outright military domination, or contingent economic control, or pervasive cultural influence. White people, and frames developed by white people, are omnipresent at this historical moment.

After the end of slavery in the United States, the defeat of National Socialism in Europe, and after the official but unrealizable end of colonialism, a new definition of whiteness pervades. The hard versions of white supremacy gave way to subtle versions which attempt to lead at times by example and in other times by default. Some may call it cosmopolitanism, hoping it exists in places like Cairo or Delhi. Yet even there those cosmopolitan elites are designed to be easily moveable to New York or Paris. Be they the type that creates art or makes falafel sandwiches.

Within this context, this seminar is based on the students own fieldwork. These investigations are into the violations of racism against common human understanding. They will interrogate the following questions that delimit whiteness. Why is it that cultural appropriation by white people becomes internal resistence to the white status quo? Why do certain institutions profess openness and inclusion and yet they defy their immediate demographic realities? And why do white people keep gentrifying poor “ethnic” neighborhoods that they once abandoned, only to complain about the differences to the places they came from?

As a class we will focus on the inter-relations between these questions through not just the lens of race, but also class and particularly gender. Part of my claim is psychosocial, and is intimately related to various connected but distinct patriarchies. The class question can only be approached after sufficient work has been made in uncovering underlying issues. We will look for examples of cultural appropriation throughout history, explore the shape and tenor of gentrification in Berlin, and see how institutions large and small present immediate challenges to non-whites. Our theoretical framing will come from readings of Fanon, Lorde, Said, hooks, Mbembe, and Moten. Through fieldwork and discussion, we will see if we can imagine futures beyond the limits of whiteness, worlds without hegemony and a classless society built on solidarity, justice, and real equality.

The colour of the current world order is white.