NM's blog

Europeans began to see themselves as "white" primarily during the early modern period, especially from the 17th century onward, in the context of colonial expansion, Atlantic slavery, and the development of racial thinking. Key Phases in the Construction of Whiteness: 1. Medieval Period (before 1500s): Europeans did not have a unified concept of "race" as we understand it today. Identity was based more on religion, ethnicity, language, and region (e.g., Christian vs. Muslim, English vs. French, noble vs. peasant). The idea of being “white” did not function as a self-identifier or category of solidarity. 2. 16th–17th Centuries: Early Colonialism and Slavery As Europeans colonized the Americas and encountered Indigenous peoples and African slaves, new hierarchies were constructed. The transatlantic slave trade and European justifications for slavery helped formalize distinctions between Europeans (later “whites”) and Africans or Indigenous peoples as “non-white” and i...

A good article by David Wearing The myth of the reforming monarch (pdf file)

Jean Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon “Make people ashamed of their existence.” Make them “face the world.” “But to what does this shame amount? What is shame’s sociogenesis, especially in situations of colonial or racial violence? To what extent is the feeling revolutionary? How does it provide the means to solidarity?” Marx : “ Shame is a kind of anger turned in on itself. And if a whole nation were to feel ashamed it would be like a lion recoiling in order to spring.” Mediating the error between class and race

“The internal colonialism thesis was not a plausible explanation of South African apartheid. It could not explain the fact that, by the 1970s, the majority of the workforce employed in modern industrial production in South Africa, such as auto plants, textiles, and steel production, came from the nonwhite sections of South African society that were supposed to be colonized.” Racism was deeply intertwined with capitalism, argues Kundnani