Race Critical Theories: Text and Context

by Philomena Essed (Editor), David Theo Goldberg

Race Critical Theories brings together many of the key contributors to critical theorizing about race and racism over the past twenty years. Each previously published text is accompanied by a fresh statement - in most cases written by the authors themselves - regarding the political context, implications and effects of the original contribution.

Genres: Race, Theory

560 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2001

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm slowly enveloping myself in race critical theories or critical race theories (though somehow the second has been to some extent appropriated by the legal writings on race), it is immensely rewarding and I have found this a great place to start. It is a broad collection of very different kinds of work, a great way to get a sense of what kinds of strands critical race theory contains (though the legal aspect is pretty absent, I don't know enough yet perhaps to comment knowingly on this split nor would I really be able to note a glaring absence at this point). I also don't know enough to evaluate the claim that the glory days of critical race theory was the 80s and 90s, but given the many reprintings and that my copy is from 2008, it seems this remains a key collection.

All of the work is from the 1970s onwards, and it covers a wide range, from a selection from Said's Orientalism to the Black theoretical heavyweights to European studies to third-world feminism, from discourse to literature to affirmative action policy and personal reflection. I know I am biased, but it contains one of the most impossible to read yet illuminating articles by Stuart Hall "Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance", along with a beauty among beauties -- Hall's commentary on the same, which gives it context and more theoretical grounding and which I found to be so immensely helpful. I really liked the structure in fact, the collection of original works in chronological order, followed by commentaries in thematic order to round it off. Some of those commentaries were really lovely and helpful to read, particularly when written by the author themselves, ranging from explanatory to personal/autobiographical/theoretical context.

My only critique was that you had no idea in what context the pieces were written or the date without flipping back to the acknowledgments page. I think in a collection of some kind a brief paragraph was really necessary to introduce the work. There's also the cover, I've just been staring at it trying to figure out why on earth they chose it. Covers are important, and this is an unfortunate one that ensures no one will just pick the book up on a whim, but still, it's worth picking up.

[Mona Kareem]

If this is your first book on race theories, you made a good choice!