Rethinking race and racism astechnologies of affect: theorizing the implications for anti-racist politics and practice in education

AbstractThis article draws on the concept of race and racism as "technologies of affect" to think with some of the interventions and arguments of critical affect studies. The author suggests that critical affect theories enable the theorization of race and racism as affective modes of being that recognize the historically specific assemblages which are practiced in schools and the society. It is also argued that rethinking race and racism as technologies of affect, a vision of anti-racist politics and practice in education can be formed in ways that go beyond recognition or resistance, but rather attend to the production of pedagogical spaces and practices that create ways of living differently. The education implications of this idea are discussed in relation to how teachers and teacher educators can begin not only to analyze the affective mobilizations of race and racism, but also to engage in political struggles that harness the affective forces of anti-racist action in everyday life.Keywords: raceracismaffectaffective turneducationanti-racism Notes1. I thank one of the anonymous reviewers for rightly pointing out that in conceptualizing 'race' as a technology of affect, we need to constantly keep in mind that 'race' only assumes meaning through construction of action.2. My long-time ethnographic research which extends over the past ten years investigates how school practices and discourses in Greek-Cypriot schools are entangled with emotions and affects in relation to issues of race, ethnicity, peace, and conflict. In particular, I am interested in exploring the ways in which teachers' and students' emotional practices and discourses are 'racialized' and 'ethnicized' in everyday school life. Ethnographic methods in general (Denzin Citation1997; Holstein and Gubrium Citation2000) are used to draw attention to the dynamic and interactive nature of verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotions through the study of social interaction over time (Sturdy Citation2003). These methods allow for rich data collection – e.g., through documents, field notes, interviews, observations – that reveals different dimensions of participants' emotional expressions. The collection of these data is usually conducted through staying in the field for a considerable amount of time that ranges from a few weeks to several months. The narrative fragments that are presented in this article are drawn from different ethnographic case studies collected in three primary schools (see Zembylas Citation2010a, Citation2010b, Citation2010c, Citation2011).3. An expression of disgust in children's everyday language.4. I am indebted to one of the reviewers for suggesting that I specify the technology of affect at work in each of these three narrative fragments. In addition, as this reviewer notes, in anti-racist pedagogy we hear many stories and dismissals about how grief and recognition of racism are linked in various confessional ways; that is, transformation through confession has become a key technology of anti-racism driven by affect, notably crying.