'Now you see, now you don't': comments on Paul Gilroy's article

Abstract

Paul Gilroy criticizes the excesses practised in the name of anti-racism. The French philosopher, P. A. Taguieff, denounces anti-racist postures as mirrors of the racist ones, while Etienne Balibar notes that the changes inducted in nation-states generate post-racism. Our concern should be less with the relative biological meaning of race than with the political project of those resorting to a negative individualism to restore their self-esteem. Strong patterns of social learning exist in the area of race. Several scripts can be offered to the victims of racism: the search for commonalities from a community of suffering; the restoration of the subject and of its freedom to define its identity as a site of resistance; the integration on grievances of misrepresentation and deprivation. The consciousness of the multiplicity of subject positions and of problematic relations may, however, discourage operational politics, especially by those who have accumulated repertoires of savoir faire.