ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the theoretical presuppositions that organize and structure political research and popular understandings in ways that render embodied power invisible. Presumptions about individualism, colorblind perception, methodological individualism and methodological nationalism singly and in combination make it exceptionally difficult to perceive racialization, gendering, and sexualisation. Feminist scholars have pointed out that the abstract individual is far from disembodied. The chapter demonstrates that embodied power is rendered invisible by multiple assumptions that inform everyday perception as well as research paradigms. Assumptions about 'colorblind' perception distort understandings of the economic condition of whites and people of color in ways that mask systemic disadvantage and sustain claims concerning 'reverse discrimination'. Liberation groups seek to transform internalized self-hatred into active modes of resistance, forging collective identities, and mobilizing groups to press for social transformation. Although individualism has a powerful hold on the mental landscape in this neoliberal era, it coexists with a host of entrenched assumptions about the nation.
