On Reflexive Racism: Disavowal, Deferment, and the Lacanian Subject

Diacritics 48 (4):76-101 (2020)
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Abstract

The term ‘reflexivity’ continues to maintain an interpretive hegemony in discussions on modernity and the Self. As a form of praxis, applications of reflexivity frequently rely upon an acknowledged awareness of one’s self-conscious attitudes, dispositions, behaviors and motives. This paper will take aim at such contentions, exploring the extent to which examples of racism rely upon a level of reflexivity, best encapsulated in Žižek’s ‘reflexive racism’. Specifically, it is highlighted how examples of non- racism/anti-racism assert the formal promotion of a monadic subject, solely adept at ‘uncovering’ and ‘relinquishing’ their racism (disavowal); and, an equally unhelpful social constructionism, which depoliticizes racism by relocating and relativizing it to a particular socio-historical context (deferment). In outlining this response, specific attention is given to Lacan’s subject of enunciation and subject of the enunciated, from which it is concluded that it is in the obfuscation of one’s ‘position of enunciation’ that examples of reflexive racism reside.

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Jack Black
Sheffield Hallam University

References found in this work

Žižek, Antagonism and Politics Now: Three Recent Controversies.Ilan Kapoor - 2018 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 12 (1).
Why Žižek for Political Theory?Jodi Dean - 2007 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 1 (1).
Learning to Tickle: how to transmit knowledge as if re-telling a joke.Dennis Yao - 2012 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 6 (2).
How Politically Correct Is Political Correctness?Joan Marques - 2009 - Business and Society 48 (2):257-266.

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