Race, decoloniality and the will for alterity: A critical-ethical approach to racial (de-)subjection and subjectivation in the modern state

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Globally, the past decade has seen ever-increasing socio-political concern regarding race and racism,from growing BLM and indigenous rights movements to the divisive policies/rhetoric of populist-rightparties. Individuals increasingly reflect on how their lives, their experience of the social world, and theirvery self-understanding (i.e., their subjectivities) are constituted by 'race'. But how exactly has this'racialisation' come to be? What problems does this cause for individuals/societies? And, how could weconceive of possible alternatives to problematic racialisation? In my research, I aim to explore thesequestions through the elaboration of an original 'critical-ethical' framework that (primarily) draws on thelate writings of Michel Foucault, but also supplements them via a critical-constructive dialogue with 'nonWestern' philosophies. 'Critical-ethical' reflects Foucault's (2007) suggestion that 'critique' is groundedon a distinctive 'ethos', driven by a will to (particularised) freedom(s), among these the freedom tobecome otherwise than that which one is constituted (or 'subjected') as (Foucault, 1984).My research begins by employing genealogical methods to critically investigate racial subjection, and itsproblematic socio-political and ethical effects, in the modern state. Genealogies are historicalinvestigations that 'problematise' (i.e. reveal assumptions/contingencies in) current practices,discourses, institutions, etc., that we regard as natural or 'necessary'. I will primarily draw on historicalinformation from the UK, but also compare and contrast this to racialisation in the US and Latin America.By singling out 'racial subjection', I will contribute to Foucault's (1997) own, and to other (Stoler, 1994;McWhorter, 2009), broader genealogies of 'race'. Racial subjection, I argue, lies at the core of racialrepressions and antagonisms witnessed in modern states. Thus, this research is key in getting a betterphilosophical understanding of these wider issues.