Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages in Marxist and Critical Race Theories Toronto by Abigail Bakan and Enakshi Dua eds.

Abstract

Reviewed by: K. E. Barber, York University, Toronto, CanadaHow should we theorize anti-racism? Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages in Marxism and Critical Race Theories provides response to this question by engaging with the historic (5) between Marxist and postcolonial/critical race studies, each of which has played prominent role in the theorization of racism. The editors of this volume, Bakan and Dua, conceptualize the divide as problematic gulf between two polarities: Marxists reduce race to epi-phenomenon of the economic, ignoring the influence of culture; critical race scholars reduce race to purely cultural phenomena, ignoring materiality and the influence of capitalism. In order to address racism, we must be able to understand the processes that generate race and (6) - complex processes that cannot be addressed if we allow the theoretical divide to persist.Bakan and Dua argue that the divide leads to mis-match between theory and the social and political praxis that informs anti-racist action. As result, their goal is to present integrated analyses of Marxist and postcolonial/critical race theories that unite culture, modernity, and whiteness (6) with a dynamic capitalist mode of production and global processes of imperialist war and conquest (6). Given the broad scope of this endeavour, the editors focus their inquiry by structuring the collection around four central questions that form the four sections and 13 chapters of the book: (1) Are postcolonial/critical race scholars opposed to Marxism?; (2) Can Marxist theoretical framework account for race?; (3) How do black and Third World scholars address the race/class divide?; and (4) What models can we look to that successfully integrate race and class? (9-10).The first two sections, titled Rethinking Foucault and Revisiting Marx , discuss points of convergence between Marxist and Foucauldian scholars. Although these sections identify Foucault and Marx as their central figures, the contributions also remind us that neither Marx nor Foucault engaged with the idea of race in meaningful way. Yet the editors suggest that the division of race scholars into Marxist and Foucauldian camps is pervasive problem, and that uniting these camps is necessary and possible. Rethinking Foucault begins with chapter by Enakshi Dua who provides historical context for the divide. Dua argues that division resulted from shift amongst anti-racist scholars who found that Foucauldian concepts allowed them to problematize liberal notions of equality evident in Eurocentric Marxist anti-racist approaches (20). Subsequent chapters by Enakshi Dua and Robert C. Young attempt to dismantle caricatures of so-called Foucauldian approaches to race by locating Marxist ideas and critiques of race within the work of prominent scholars such as Edward Said, Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall, each of which were also influenced by postcolonial and cultural studies. The second section, Revisiting Marx , attempts to demonstrate how Marxist theory can account for race. Abigail Bakan interprets race as type of social difference rooted in and oppression, understanding racism as an ideological codification and practical expression of extreme alienation (105). …