left-wing authoritarians cannot self-perceive their own authoritarianism once you understand this phenomenon, you see it everywhere

Happy release day to @SheenaMasonPhD and all readers eager to get a copy of her new book, The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race Is the Future of Antiracism, which will change how many of you think about, talk about, or even teach about race and racism. For a review copy, please email or DM. For more about her and her conversation-changing book, see below. ---- If we want to get rid of racism, we have to get rid of the idea of race. That’s the core idea behind scholar Sheena Michele Mason’s provocative new book, The Raceless Antiracist: Why Ending Race Is the Future of Antiracism. The reason is simple: the very concept of race—a categorization of humans based on physical traits that arose in Europe in the 1600s as a way to justify colonization and enslavement—is irrevocably intertwined with racism. Put another way, the idea of race is itself part of the very machinery of racism. “Only through the abolition of our belief in human races and the discontinuation of assigning ‘races’ to humans can we ever hope to complete the work of antiracism and inaugurate not merely a post-racial era but a post-racist one,” says Mason. “We have transformed a fiction into a phenomenon that today most people believe exists in some helpful, immutable, or otherwise significant way, but the very idea of ‘race’ is a human invention that renders some of us somewhat human (if human at all) and others fully human and causes all of us, including those who sincerely want to end racism, to remain within the system of racism we seek to abolish.” She does not see such a call as hopelessly quixotic or misguided. Rather, she sees it as a completely logical and practical one. If, as is clear, the idea of “race” is a misguided humanmade invention of recent origin that has no basis in fact, there is no reason to continue to give it nourishment, to pretend it’s real, or to reify it. It can and must be ended, she argues, because it is the only way to end the thing that is real—racism, or, more specifically, antiblack racism. As she writes, “It’s not enough to simply say there’s no such thing as ‘race’ and end the point there. We cannot shrug off the reality and impact of antiblack racism with ‘race-shouldn’t-and-doesn’t-matter’ mantras or the misuse of figures like Martin Luther King Jr. While I agree that ‘race,’ as a proxy for color, isn’t real, racism—which has real-world causes and effects—is.” If the cruel truth is that so long as the belief in human “races” and the practice of racialization continue to be the status quo, the reality of racism will remain, how can we bring a future of racelessness to fruition or, more specifically, how can we create a future without racism? How do we discuss, teach, identify, and stop the causes and effects of racism without hardening any of its components? Informed by her personal experiences as an American who is racialized as black, her research as a doctoral student at Howard University, and her work as a professor who specializes in American and Africana literature and the philosophy of race, she provides a map for doing just that called the togetherness wayfinder. The core tenets of the togetherness wayfinder are as follows: 1. Race/ism (i.e., racism) is a socially constructed system of economic and social oppression that requires the belief in human “races” and the practice of racialization to reinforce various power imbalances. 2. “Race” is an imaginary component of the socially constructed reality of racism (i.e., race/ism). 3. Racialization is the process of applying an inescapable economic and social class hierarchy to humans that creates or reinforces power imbalances. 4. The belief in human “races” and practice of racialization affect people differently. These differences serve to uphold the machinery of racism, acting as obstacles to unification, healing, and reconciliation. 5. Translation of what one means by “race,” including the presumed absence of “race,” can lead to understanding and bridge-making. The racelessness translator helps people interpret “race” into something being said about culture, ethnicity, social class, economic class, the causes/effects of racism, or some combination thereof. 6. Race/ism does not exist everywhere in the same way. We can end it. Here, the point of the hybrid term “race/ism” is meant “to highlight the deep reciprocal connections between the apparition of ‘race’ and racism and to make clear that the illusion of ‘race’ itself is a symptom—an effect—of racism,” she says. Her use of scare quotes around the word “race” is also intentional. “I use them to avoid the unintentional upholding of power imbalances and to signify that I see the illusion of ‘race’ and how racialization manifests in practice as integral parts of ‘racism.’” This is why the typical antiracist call to reconstruct or reform of “race” is not the answer, she argues. “Despite what others say, colorblindness is also not the answer. We’ve been reconstructing the idea of ‘race,’ addressing the impact of racialization, and trying to change how we see ourselves for centuries.” But none of this ever gets to the root issue. In a world where the causes and effects of antiblack race/ism persist, she challenges each of us to think differently about our relationship with the idea of “race.” Filled with insights from Africana studies, history, philosophy, literary studies, and the social sciences, she offers practical tools to dismantle the illusion of race and envision and make a future where everyone is rightly humanized and where humans see themselves and each other as commonly biological alongside all other beings. It’s not only a revolutionary lens but also a much-needed one rooted in compassion, truth, imagination, and the desire to create a world without white supremacy and antiblackness. The Raceless Antiracist is for educators, activists, and anyone ready to embrace the future of social justice and antiracism. “If you are ready to walk the path toward true equity and shared humanity, join me,” she says, knowing her vision is a collective one. “Together, we can end racism.” About the Author Sheena Michele Mason is an assistant professor of English at SUNY Oneonta. She holds a Ph.D. with distinction in English from Howard University and specializes in Africana and American literature studies and philosophy of race.