Racial neoliberalism and the fragmentation of one neoliberal order

Abstract

This chapter asks whether we are witnessing the disintegration of one phase of neoliberalism. The chapter reviews the concept of racial neoliberalism and argues that we are witnessing a shift in neoliberal formations. Whereas previously, formations of racial neoliberalism have been characterized by the continuation of racialized divisions by other means, accompanied by a muting of racialized referents in political and institutional worlds, a variety of factors has led to a breaking apart of this recent set of tacit agreements. Instead, we see the impact of political crises met by a resurgent movement towards anti-politics, economic crises reshaping alliances around issues of nation and of class and new configurations of elite and popular racisms. In this context of fragmenting neoliberal orders, practices of racial neoliberalism also fragment, with a battle between competing versions of official racism. The chapter outlines some key characteristics of this moment of contest between competing racisms.