Escaping whiteness? Primitivism and the search for human authenticity

Introduction To be outside whiteness is to be outside the cold and instrumental realm of modernity. It seems an outlandish claim. Yet there are many who appear convinced by it: whites who have ventured into non-white territory and found a better, 'more alive', type of person, a more 'real' way of being, and non-whites who have found in their skin colour a symbol of human authenticity.