Rasa jako medium

In his book Seeing Through Race (2012) W.J.T. Mitchell rethinks race by drawing on studies on visual culture and iconology. Accepting race as both illusion and reality, Mitchell conceptualizes race as a medium, as an ensemble of cognitive filters that are inscribed in the gaze and through which seeing takes place. His argument must be seen in the context of the debate on the usefulness of the very category of race. Rejected by the life sciences and critiqued within the humanities, race is still an important prism through which we see our social reality, nor has racism disappeared. As a product of racism, race can, in Mitchell’s view, serve as a window onto the elusive and complex dynamics of this ideology.