While at the moment the world seems to be divided along racial lines and ‘race’ appears to be a central axe of social inclusion and exclusion, in this commentary series we discuss whether it is possible or desirable to go ‘beyond race’. We explain that we want to explore the idea that we might go ‘beyond race’ in four different ways.
1.’Beyond race’ as a demographic reality of a majority population consisting of people of mixed origin
2. ‘Beyond race’ as the possibility to develop public policies that aim to combat inequalities also along color lines, yet are no longer dependent on a notion of race
3. ‘Beyond race’ as the possibility of anti-racist political mobilization not grounded in identity politics
4. ‘Beyond race’ as a new conceptualization of race that is decoupling biology and culture, or even to stop thinking in racial categories altogether, yet without de-politicizing Black’s, or any subjected group’s, history and experience.
Authors from different parts of the world, and with different academic backgrounds were invited to reflect on these issues and to explain their position.
Edited by Sawitri Saharso, Tabea Scharrer, Anju Mary Paul