"Theory of Racelessness" by Dr. Sheena Mason. A Review

 

Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Antirace(ism)

Sheena Michele Mason

Palgrave MacMillian

ISBN: 978-3-030-99944-5; May 2022; Hardback - $119.99, eBook - $89

 

It’s a hot topic, and one that can generate a firestorm of accusations, assertions, and counterattacks. The resulting temperature feels like it has been clearly rising in the last decades. There are multiple reasons presented as to why, some anecdotal, some conspiratorial, and others more socially aware. Just drop the word “racism” into a friendly conversation at work or at the mall, and immediately reactions range from lowered voices and embarrassed looks, to animated pronouncements and declarations. Recently an acquaintance from King’s College in NYC, Dr. Anthony Bradley, announced that a new discussion of the subject was brewing and that Dr. Sheena Michele Mason, Assistant Professor of English (African American Literature) who received her PhD from Howard University, was spearheading this discussion in an upcoming book, “Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Antirace(ism)”. I quickly obtained a copy. The work is part of the African American Philosophy and the African Diaspora Series published by Palgrave MacMillian. It is in eBook and hardback form, encompassing 224 pages. And, it is an academic work, heavy with African American literary studies.

 

Even though “Theory of Racelessness” is heavy with African American literary studies, it is a volume that stays on task: to present and workout a theory of racelessness, and how this can change the temperature in our lives and society. As the author notes, the theory of racelessness “is a methodological and pedagogical framework for analysis that illustrates how the undoing of racism requires the undoing of “race,” inspires a more astute identification and analysis of racism, and stops unintentionally reifying racism by upholding race ideology and its corresponding language” (1). This means that Mason works out a philosophy of race, ethnicity, culture, and class “that extends and explores the boundaries of racial skepticism and delineates clearer paths toward racial elminativism” which she sees as aiding us in transcending racism (Ibid.). Her premise hooked me, and thus I dove deeper in.

 

The core tenets of Mason’s theory of racelessness are rehearsed throughout the volume, just in case a reader forgets. Those central principles embrace: Race does not exist in nature. Race does not exist as a social construction. Everyone is raceless. Racism includes the belief in race as biological or a construction. Racism is not everywhere and is not the cause for every perceived “racial” disparity or negative interaction. Racism can be overcome” (111, fn 1). These main values undergird the entirety of the volume.

 

The literary approach Mason takes to show aspects of the theory of racelessness is intriguing. Early in the book, the author explores how certain writers are considered outside of the African American Literary canon and dismissed. While doing this, Mason examines how the rise of racism birthed and gave life to race, and she does so by examining earlier black literature to the present. But then she moves on, in the majority of the work, to show how several African American authors within the accepted boundary markers (the canon) have displayed and expressed what Mason is theorizing, such as Larsen, Chase-Riboud, Harper, Morrison, and others. In a concluding statement to one of the chapters, she observes how the “chapter’s theory of racelessness in literature highlights the absence of race and the presence of race(ism), and highlights how writers like Harper, Larsen, and Chase-Riboud present the absence of color and race as part of the solution to race(ism). In other words, in this chapter, I highlight the nonexistence of “race” and the existence of racism” (107). Her careful reading of multiple literary works is breathtaking! One can easily see that she is expert in African American literature.

 

For Mason, the goal is to help people deracialize and see themselves more clearly outside of racism. To do so “goes a long way to stop the conflation of blackness with poverty, criminality, ignorance, immobility, collectivism, the undermining of individual agency and identity, and so on” (218). The author is clear that if people “are sincere about solving and resolving racism, they must be for abolishing the concept of race” (Ibid.) as she has worked hard to lay out in the book. I appreciated that, without making out a new enemy or boogeyman, the author asks uncomfortable questions about who benefits from keeping race alive? Who benefits in promoting narratives of black people being highly targeted by police violence? Who benefits? And her hint is cryptic: only a small minority of folks who find it helpful and beneficial to divide and conquer people (218-9).

 

The work is meant for academics. She even spends one extensive chapter explaining how she would walk students through three or four literary pieces to help them recognize this theory of racelessness in a classroom setting. “This course inspires students to recognize the fallacy of race, its racist origins, and the interconnectedness of race(ism) today that allows racism, ultimately, to persist, and to look for solutions to racism within literature” (170). It’s easy to see, she is a skilled instructor and guide.

 

Because it’s an academic work, and because it is grounded heavily in African American literature, I found much of the technical details outside of my frame of reference. That made comprehension a bit tricky for me. Also, the author has a code-language that I think I grasped, but it added to my difficulty – such as the oft parenthetical addition to the word race, like race(ism) and raci(al/st). Mason seems, also, to enjoy fabricating words such as eracesure, and others. None of this is bad, it simply made me slow down my reading pace, do lots of re-reading, stopping, and pondering the point. All of this for readers to take note of, but also to say, I feel confident that I was grasping her schema, but may have missed items or misperceived in places. I’ll put it out there and own it.

 

“Theory of Racelessness” is attention-getting, to be sure. I’m fascinated by the authors approach, and I appreciate where I think she is heading. Some of her conclusions seem to go along nicely with my book published in 2021, “Our Heads on Straight” and specifically the seventh chapter, “Imagery and Narrative”. This is undoubtedly a work for scholars. It would be a good use of monies for college and university libraries to snag a copy, and for professors and researchers to pester their administrators to make it available for their schools. As an academic work, it is priced outside of most individual budgets, but if you care about the subject, it would be a valuable addition to your own personal collection. Not only is it a book I highly recommend, I hope you will join me in bedeviling the author to come out with a more blue-collar, popular-level of the work. I think she’s onto something deeply significant!

 

As I stated earlier, an acquaintance pointed me to this book. So, I asked the publisher for a copy, and thankfully, they sent me an e-version used for this review. They made now demands on me and they paid me no bribes. Therefore, this evaluation is all mine which I freely give.