Dispositif of Raciality: The Construction of the O ther as NonBeing

This book by the leading political thinker and philosopher Sueli Carneiro examines how race operates in Brazilian society and why myths of racial democracy have so much staying power in the country despite the many ideological and cultural shifts. To understand this, Carneiro develops Foucault's concepts of biopower and dispositif and links them with Charles W. Mills's writings on the racial contract, creating the "dispositif of raciality." Carneiro argues that this concept operates through, on the one hand, "epistemicide," the process whereby Black people are invalidated as knowing subjects, and, on the other, a complicity among white people in relation to the social subordination and elimination of Black people.

As with all dispositifs, however, the dispositif of raciality possesses its own resistance, and Carneiro also addresses Black resistance, understood through the voices and testimonies of insurgents against subordination and epistemicide. Their words reveal that it is from the strength of self-esteem, the recognition of their own autonomy, and the triumph of memory and collective action that the sap of resistance is extracted. It is only through collective struggle, where the care of self and of others becomes emancipatory, that the dispositif of raciality can be confronted.

Hailed as one of the most important works of political philosophy written in Brazil, this book sheds new light on the mechanisms through which racial regimes reproduce themselves and how these patterns might be broken. It will be of great value to students and scholars of Brazil, Latin America, and Black studies and it will appeal to anyone interested in questions of race, racism, and the legacies of colonialism.

Sueli Carneiro is founder and director of Geledés ― Instituto da Mulher Negra, Brazil.