Seeing Through Race

Seeing Through Race - Hardcover

$75.60
$75.60
Skip to product information
Seeing Through Race
  • Seeing Through Race
Seeing Through Race - Hardcover

Seeing Through Race - Hardcover

by W. J. T. Mitchell
$75.60
$75.60

Book Overview

According to W. J. T. Mitchell, a "color-blind" post-racial world is neither achievable nor desirable. Against popular claims that race is an outmoded construct that distracts from more important issues, Mitchell contends that race remains essential to our understanding of social reality. Race is not simply something to be seen but is among the fundamental media through which we experience human otherness. Race also makes racism visible and is thus our best weapon against it.

The power of race becomes most apparent at times when pedagogy fails, the lesson is unclear, and everyone has something to learn. Mitchell identifies three such moments in America's recent racial history. First is the post-Civil Rights moment of theory, in which race and racism have been subject to renewed philosophical inquiry. Second is the moment of blackness, epitomized by the election of Barack Obama and accompanying images of blackness in politics and popular culture. Third is the "Semitic Moment" in Israel-Palestine, where race and racism converge in new forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Mitchell brings visual culture, iconology, and media studies to bear on his discussion of these critical turning points in our understanding of the relation between race and racism.
ISBN9780674059818
Author W. J. T. Mitchell
PublisherHarvard University Press
GenreEducation and Arts
FormatHardcover
PublishedMay 2012
LanguageENG- English
Pages248
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art Nonfiction Social Science

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by W. J. T. Mitchell

Seeing Through Race

Seeing Through Race - Hardcover

Seeing Through Race - Hardcover

By W. J. T. Mitchell

About W. J. T. Mitchell

W. J. T. Mitchell is the Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. He is the author or editor of eight books published by the University of Chicago Press, including Picture Theory, Iconology, and Landscape and Power. He is also the editor of Critical Inquiry.

You may also like