Beyond Antiracism: Whiteness, Abolitionist Pedagogy, and the Dismantling of Race as a Social Institution

• In Event: Deconstructing Race, Racism, and Antiracism

Abstract

Employing a neo-Weberian critical social theory approach, this paper argues for an abolitionist approach to race and racism. Additionally, this theoretical paper explores the abolitionist critique of antiracist pedagogy. One of the major critiques is that the antiracism minimizes the importance of race as a social institution, thus naturalizing racial groups and their memberships. Abolitionism sees the dismantling of racialized social groups (i.e., “races”) as essential to ending structural racism. From an abolitionist viewpoint, antiracism ultimately reinforces whiteness. The problem of the unequal relationship between abolitionism and antiracism is discussed. The paper concludes by outlining three key components of abolitionist pedagogy.

Author

• Ricky Lee Allen, University of New Mexico