The semantics of race

I argue that the concept of race assumes specific meanings relative to prevailing historical conditions and discourses in given societies. In analysing these changes in significance, I focus on contemporary cultural conceptions of race. Here, I argue against the prevailing wisdom, that racial reference does not necessarily invoke underlying biological reference. From this I derive a general conception of race as virtually vacuous, reflective of dominant social discourses, forging self‐ and other‐ascriptive identities of anonymity, but at the same time defining inclusions and exclusions in respect of the body politic. The transformations in the spatio‐temporal significance of race reveal the concept to be an inherently political one, assuming significance as it orders membership in and exclusions from the body politic. I conclude by indicating some implications of the analysis for resisting a racialized status quo.