ABSTRACT
Up to now, I have argued for a critical engagement of race, whiteness, and education but have kept the scope within the implicit assumption of the nation state. As globalization becomes an intellectual as well as political project, this chapter argues that critical education benefits from an intersectional understanding of race, whiteness and globalization discourse. At the turn of the 1900s, W.E.B. Du Bois argued that the problem of the color line is the twentieth century’s main challenge. Following Du Bois, I suggest that the problem of the twenty-first century is the global color line. As capitalism stretches across nations, its partnership with race relations also evolves into a formidable force. Appropriating concepts from globalization, this chapter outlines a global approach to race, and in particular whiteness, in order to argue that the problem of white racial domination transcends the nation state. Borrowing concepts from globalization discourse, such as multinationalism, fragmentation, and flexibility, a critical pedagogy of whiteness promotes an expanded notion of race that includes global anti-racist struggles. Finally, the chapter concludes the book by suggesting that educators consider seriously the insights of the neo-abolitionist movement.
