Racial comparisons, relational racisms: some thoughts on method

Abstract The dominant method in studies of race and racism across different geographic and temporal instances has been comparative. This, I suggest, has been predicated on a set of assumptions about the discreteness of the instances. By contrast, I argue that comparativism misses deeper and larger issues about the workings of race and racism fuelled by the relations between racial configuration and racist conditions across times and places. I trace the varying methodological modalities of comparativism and relationality in the study of race and racisms, their contributions and shortcomings, contrasts and connections.