Rainbow White Supremacy: On Multiracial Inclusion in the Neoliberal Age
Abstract: In this lecture, Fleming introduces the concept of rainbow white supremacy to signify a shifting array of affective, ideological, and cultural practices that invite us to experience subjugated participation in racial capitalism as inclusive, pleasurable, and most importantly, the normal state of affairs. In so doing, she explores how the commodification of identity politics across the political spectrum and the institutionalization of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the 1980s undermined gains of the Civil Rights Movement and effectively defused radical and leftist demands for the eradication of white supremacy and the end of capitalism. Drawing upon Black studies, critical race scholarship and Black feminist thought, this talk also advances a counterintuitive claim—that the persistence of white dominance in the neoliberal age involves (mis)representing white supremacy as inclusive and pleasurable for people racialized as non-white.
Bio: Crystal Marie Fleming is a Professor of Sociology at SUNY Stony Brook and affiliated faculty in the Departments of Africana Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with degrees in Sociology and French. Fleming is the author and editor of four books and publishes scholarship in the areas of cultural sociology, critical race studies, collective memory and Black studies. Her works include Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France (Temple University Press, 2017); the critically acclaimed How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide (Beacon Press, 2018) and her young adult debut RISE UP! How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy (Henry Holt for Young Readers, 2021). Most recently, Fleming is the co-editor of Beyond White Mindfulness: Critical Perspectives on Racism, Wellbeing and Liberation, which will be published by Routledge in 2022. Her scholarship also appears in journals such as Social Problems, The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Poetics and The Du Bois Review. Fleming is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the American Political Science Association’s Georges-Lavau award for the best dissertation on French politics; the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship; the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, Stony Brook University’s Mid-Career Diversity Award as well as research grants from the Social Science Research Council. A public intellectual and thought leader on anti-racism, Fleming has been featured in a wide range of national and international media, including NPR, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, Vox, Huffpo, Black Agenda Report, The CBS Sunday Morning Show, The Root, The New York Times, Courier International, The Sunday Times, and France24, among others.
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 884 4973 8607
Password: 484503