12 January 2023, NIICE Commentary 8486
Janssen Micah E. Fajardo
In 1925, African American sociologist, W. E. B. Du Bois published an article entitled “Worlds of Color” that tackled his proposal of the global color line being the “present Problem of Problems of the twentieth century.” It is centered on re-envisioning the global structure with regard to the “dark colonial shadow.” His article elaborated on the global color line as a research agenda and its manifestation in the field and study of International Relations. Du Bois expounds on his theory through the heuristic of the “veil” which serves two purposes which are to symbolize the lived experience of racism, as well as serve as the means for generating thought about this experience. It is time we magnify this deeply-seated matter like the far-reaching picture it is. This article hopes to examine, expose, and emphasize this demand that extends up until today in the 21st century.
The Manifestations of the Global Color Line Today
Anieva’s et al. (2014) elaborated Du Bois’ attestations in their book entitled, “Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Color Line.” Unfortunately, black people are faced with the inability to overcome the veil except “in death, in moments of spiritual ecstasy, in psychological withdrawal, or perhaps in artistic abstraction.” George Floyd may have finally dodged the veil, but what does it mean for the community he left behind and the movement he once again ignited?
The video of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer caused a flood of emotions that has pushed people all around the globe to take to the streets and the internet to make their demand for racial justice. Wirtschafter (2021) in the article, “How George Floyd Changed the Online Conversation about BLM,” stated that the viral hashtag #BlackLivesMatter summed up the movement. This is their veil as the lived experience of racism- a continuous retelling of their history, their existence, their community, and their truth, and the Black Lives Matter Movement was this century’s biggest echo. However, Wirtschafter also reported a recent decline due to conservative and contrasting ideologies. Despite keeping a steady online interest, it is not enough to cause a political, social, economic, psychological, and geographical upheaval that takes accountability for racism. This is their reality: a multi-dimensional and multi-layered problem that needs a multi-dimensional and multi-layered dismantling. As Du Bois (1996a, 551) demonstrates: “Lions have no historians, and therefore lion hunts are thrilling and satisfactory human reading. Negroes had no bard, and therefore it has been widely told how American philanthropy freed the slaves.”
Moreover, this global reckoning illustrated Du Bois’ veil as a “thought-thing” that he described as “intangible, tenuous, but true and terrible.” It brings to light the plight of those behind the veil caused by the global color line’s minimization and even eradication of the realities of power struggle, hierarchies, and discrimination. Moreover, it denies them agency. Unfortunately, thinking about matters related to race and racism can be a bit of a challenge.
Racist Tendencies
Oliver (2020) in his article, “Is racism and bigotry in our DNA?” explains how our brain’s amygdala region is wired with a fear reflex that is triggered by the unfamiliar. Our implicit bias, and fear against others, and intolerance of their differences is a human behavior with both a genetic and environmental component. Indeed, unlearning these traits and reframing this world’s structural paradigm towards racial justice are some of the first few hurdles we are to overcome.
On top of that, language is a powerful medium that articulates racism. A study conducted by Alim et al., on “The Field of Language and Race: A Linguistic Anthropological Approach to Race, Racism, and Racialization” explores how the process of racialization serves as the nucleus of linguistic anthropological approaches. Representations of racialized others are met with varying forms of linguistic racism, from “compliments,” to “jokes.” Sadly, there are chances we have become unwitting conveyors of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and prejudice. The challenge of generating thoughts about the veil does not only lie in race-thinking and race-ordering but also in “racing language” and “languaging race.” These terms were coined by Alim to illustrate the co-constitutive processes of “veiewing race through the lens of language and language through the lens of race.” With that, it is my hope that we stop articulating the following: “People of Color are obsessed with race,” “playing the race card is opportunistic,” and “other people have it worse,” among others.
The 21st Century’s ‘Problem of Problems’
Zvobogo and Loken (2020) began their piece “Why Race Matters in International Relations” with the following words: “Race is not a perspective on international relations; it is a central organizing feature of world politics.” This line alone carries with it the weight of the dilemma the global color line has afflicted non-Caucasian people with, especially the Black community. And true enough, that very dilemma has been left subdued and has awarded the global color line the role of the 21st century’s ‘Problem of Problems’. This global system of exploitation has allowed an intersectional system of discrimination. This issue overlaps among different disciplines and dimensions, and so the lack of awareness and support for the black community’s truth are baffling.
Bringing to the surface conversations of race and racism may feel like treading water: suspended, stagnant, and submerged. Several scholars, think tanks, activists, and analysts have continued to confront the systemic challenge of “silence and evasion.” However, addressing this in the 21st century also calls for a paradigm shift within this political battlefield to allow new ways of thinking and even articulating. Race consciousness, as stated by Peller (1990) is a re-emerging school of thought among scholars of color and must be a wake-up call for the rest to rethink and reassess their stance on racial justice. Refining the principles of race consciousness as needed is vital to understanding the faces and forms of racism and prejudice in today’s era. Committing to this perspective means seeking racial justice multi-dimensionally and pushing for the inclusion of this approach in mainstream international relations theories.
Janssen Micah E. Fajardo is a Research Intern at NIICE.
