Abstract

Race today is a field of problematization—to use a term of Michel Foucault’s. It arises both as what must be thought and as what defies many of the categories and techniques of thought. Its importance is undeniable, and its impacts inescapable, no matter what our particular racial identities happen to be. Yet, race does not confront us as a defineable object with which to grapple; rather, it pervades our situation, seemingly without limit, as ubiquitous disparity, wound, demand, fear, and provocation. Race is where we are and who we are, and where and who we have been all our lives. Yet, it seems untenable—perhaps intolerable. ¹