Race, Nation, Class: A Neo-Marxist Critique

Abstract

Racial discrimination is a phenomenon, which can be experienced in individual lives, in groups and communities, and in the structures of a global society. Racial discourses and the performance of discrimination are historical issues that are based on colonial and global relations. That’s why the topic of racism needs to be laid bare as an individual sensitisation as well as a structural – political, social, institutional, etc. – challenge. Often, education is held up as the solution to this. By this we mean education in a wide sense that addresses people of all ages, knowledge or social groups. According to Étienne Balibars and Immanuel Waller-stein’s book Race, Nation, Class - Ambiguous Identities (1991), we want to add a neo-Marxist perspective on the discussion of racism in issue 13 of on_education. We recognise a marginalization of historical and structural voices because some articles in the volume risk individualising a structural phenomenon – that of racism. To unpack our critique, we begin with a short overview of what a neo-Marxist perspective on racism comprises. In the second step, we outline how our perspective can enrich the discussion by summarising the main points of the volume's texts and critiquing them. In the final step, we conclude our argument with reflections on speaking about racism and education.