The Centrality of Race to Inequality Across the World-System

Authors

  • Manuela Boatca University of Freiburg, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2017.729

Keywords:

race, unit of analysis, citizenship, colonialism

Abstract

While I agree, and have previously argued myself that closer attention should be paid to semiperipheries in terms of their transformative potential, I consider the claim that nonwestern semiperipheries exacerbate and even cause racial/ethnic inequality misleading. 

In the following, I thus want to caution against what I think are three weak links in the authors’ argument: mistaking visibility for causation, conflating the concept of race with the reality of racism (and its many historical and geopolitical configurations), as well as throwing the baby (white supremacy) out with the bathwater (Western knowledge).

I will limit my comments to two aspects. The first one is methodological and concerns the unclear unit of analysis that underlies the authors’ claim for the centrality of non-Western semiperipheries to ethnic/racial inequality. The second aspect is more substantive and targets the relationship between racism and the emergence, functioning, and reproduction of the modern/colonial world system.

References

Arton Capital. 2017. “A Shrinking World: Global Citizenship for UHNW Individuals. Special Report.” Retrieved June 25, 2017 (https://www.artoncapital.com/documents/publications/Arton-Capital-Wealth-X-Report-web.pdf).

Albrecht, Scott, and Robert P. Korzeniewicz. 2018. “’Creative Destruction’ From a World- Systems Perspective: Billionaires and the Great Recession of 2008.” Pp. 94-115 in Global Inequalities in World-System Perspective, edited by M. Boatcă, A. Komlosy, and H. Nolte London. Routledge.

Boatcă, Manuela. 2006. "Semiperipheries in the world-system: Reflecting Eastern European and Latin American experiences." Journal of World-Systems Research 12 (2): 321-346. DOI: 10.5195/jwsr.2006.362

Boatcă, Manuela. 2016. "Exclusion through Citizenship and the Geopolitics of Austerity." in: Stefan Jonsson/Julia Willén (eds.): Austere Histories in European Societies: Social Exclusion and the Contest of Colonial Memories, London: Routledge, 115-134

Böröcz, József and Sarkar, Mahua. 2005. What Is the EU." International Sociology 20.2: 153-173.

Coronil, Fernando. 2000. "Towards a critique of globalcentrism: speculations on capitalism's nature." Public Culture 12 (2): 351-374.

Fellet, João. 2016. “'Compra' de cidadania caribenha vira opção para brasileiro que quer viver nos EUA.” Retrieved June 25, 2017 (http://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-36456703).

Hall, Stuart. 1992. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and power”. The indigenous experience: Global perspectives, 165-173.

Haritaworn, Jinthana. 2016. The biopolitics of mixing: Thai multiracialities and haunted ascendancies. London: Routledge.

Hasenbalg, Carlos. 2005. Discriminação e desigualdades raciais no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Graal.

Henley & Partners. 2017. “Visa Restriction Index. Regional Insights.” Retrieved June 26, 2017 (https://henleyglobal.com/international-visa-restrictions/?page=hvri_infographic).

Mignolo, Walter D. 2006. “Islamophobia/Hispanophobia: The (re) configuration of the racial imperial/colonial matrix.” Human Architecture 5 (1): 13.

Oxfam. 2017. “An economy for the 99%.” Retrieved June 25, 2017 (https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/economy-99).

Pe, Roger. 2016. “Yes, Asia is obsessed with white skin,” Inquirer online, October 1. Retrieved June 25, 2017 (http://business.inquirer.net/215898/yes-asia-is-obsessed-with-white-skin#ixzz4l29zd78T).

Quijano, Aníbal, and Immanuel Wallerstein. 1992 "‘Americanity as a ‘Concept, or the Americas in the Modern World." International social science journal 44 (4): 549-57.

Shohat, Ella. 2017. “Arriving in America. Reflections on Hair and Memory Loss”, in On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements. Selected Writings by Ella Shohat, edited by Ella Shohat. London: Pluto Press.

Todorova, Maria. 2005. “Spacing Europe: What is a historical region?”. East Central Europe, 32(1-2), 59-78.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1979. The capitalist world-economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Downloads

Published

2017-08-11

How to Cite

Boatca, M. (2017). The Centrality of Race to Inequality Across the World-System. Journal of World-Systems Research, 23(2), 465–473. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2017.729

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 2 (2017): Special Issue: Unequal Ecological Exchange

Section

Dialogue: Race in the Capitalist World-System

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.