What does it mean to “go beyond race”?

Abstract

In this commentary piece, we argue that we must interrogate the meaning of race and examine why and how race does matter in different societies across contexts before we can even consider moving “beyond race.” We understand race as fundamentally related to power, privilege, and oppression; we discuss how we cannot go “beyond race” in the face of persistent racisms, hierarchies and maintenance of power and privilege. We address that demographic changes in itself does not bring us “beyond race” and the importance of active policies and political mobilization through addressing race as an analytical category is necessary to go “beyond racism.”