Race in IR: toward empirical study

Abstract

Errol Henderson writes “the banality of white supremacy, more than the democratic peace thesis, is probably ‘the closest thing to an empirical law in world politics.’” Such a view is likely shared by IR scholars that study race as kindred systems of hierarchy. By comparison, the collective field is now “noticing” its long silence on the subject. Renewed calls to mainstream race have come with an unsettling admission: the “norm against noticing” was not by mistake but an epistemic devotion to a set of intuitions that exclude the agency of a global majority. In our silence—inadvertent or otherwise—we forgo a more accurate account of outcomes where race is theoretically important or even banal as Henderson deciphers. What is made clear by his contribution is that we can and should change course. My response to Henderson seeks to reinforce the argument for a positivist approach to race in world politics—both its promises and challenges.