Critical “Race” Approaches

Abstract

In this chapter, the author approaches the concept of "race" in two ways. First, it is a way of life, a fundamental product of Western cultures, deeply embedded in the European colonial past, lived out in the present as a taken-for-granted reality. Second, it is an analytical concept that has conditioned both academic and everyday ways of interpreting the world around us. The cultural geographies during most of the twentieth century tended to ignore race rather than addressing racism. The chapter begins with a review of the concept of "race" as it is understood in contemporary anti-racist geography. Then, it moves to a brief analysis of how the production of anti-racist geography developed in three contemporary Western and Northern contexts. The chapter engages the process of social construction, not only by pointing out discernible differences in intellectual contexts, but also by promoting dialogue between/among geographical cultures.