Colorblind Tools: Global Technologies of Racial Power

A study of anti-Blackness and white supremacy across four continents demonstrates that colorblindness is neither new nor a subtype of racist ideology, but a constitutive technology of racism. Marzia Milazzo's Colorblind Tools offers a transnational account of anti-Blackness and white supremacy that pushes against the dominant emphasis on historical change pervading current racial theory. She uncovers transnational continuities in structural racism and white supremacist discourse from the inception of colonial modernity to the present, tracing the global workings of colorblind tools that camouflage and reproduce white domination.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 416 pages
Publication date: 30 October 2022
Publisher: Northwestern University Press

In her groundbreaking book, Colorblind Tools, Marzia Milazzo challenges the prevailing focus on historical change in current racial theory. She argues that this emphasis overlooks crucial lessons from the past. By drawing on a vast array of texts on race from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, the United States, and South Africa across various disciplines and genres, Milazzo reveals transnational continuities in structural racism and white supremacist discourse from the inception of colonial modernity to the present. Through her analysis, she unveils the global workings of what she calls "colorblind tools," technologies and strategies that simultaneously camouflage and reproduce white domination. Whether examining the defense of slavery by Rijno van der Riets in the Cape Colony, discourses of racial mixture in Latin American eugenics and their impact on contemporary scholarship, the pitfalls of white "antiracism," or Chicana indigenist aesthetics, Milazzo demonstrates how white people collectively disavow racism to maintain power across national boundaries, and how anti-Black and colonial logics can be reproduced even in some decolonial literatures.

This groundbreaking study proves that colorblindness is not a new phenomenon or a mere subtype of racist ideology. Rather, it is a constitutive technology of racism, a tool that the master cannot do without. Milazzo's work sheds light on the ways in which white people perpetuate racism and colonialism, even in the context of decolonial movements. It challenges us to critically examine our own beliefs and practices and to work towards dismantling systems of oppression and inequality. Colorblind Tools is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complex dynamics of race and racism in the world today.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780810145269