Anxious Whiteness, Anti-Racism on Hold: Exploring the Contemporary Disputes About Political Anti-Racism and Decolonization in European Contexts

Abstract

This chapter analyses political processes and disputes that illustrate the contemporary engagement with the agenda of political anti-racism in the radical left and counter-hegemonic academic initiatives in the Spanish state/kingdom. My point of departure is the acknowledgment of what Sarah Ahmed has named as “anxious whiteness” and the analysis unfolds towards an exploratory cartography of the main modes of expression of this political anxiety that continue to re-centre White narratives and historical experiences. The chapter focuses on the specific debate on racism and the left between Helios Garcés and Santiago Alba Rico, the post-austerity politics of ethno-national projects of self-emancipation and decolonisation in Catalonia and Andalusia, and the conditions of exploitation within racial capitalism. The chapter aims to contribute to the understanding of the challenges of contemporary anti-racism and the meaning of key political vocabularies such as decolonization, racialisation and whiteness.