The presence and absence of race

Wade examines the presence and absence of race, and David Theo Goldberg's thesis in The Threat of Race that racism under neoliberalism continues in hidden form, not named as such. Wade argues that Goldberg's approach privileges an overly institutional presence for race and thus loses sight of the real and continuing presence of race in contemporary societies, especially notable in biotechnological and genomic contexts. This depends on defining race in a clear way, so that it can be recognized when it is present: race is not about biology, but about a constant movement between nature and culture, mediated by classifications of Others, based on histories of western colonialism and postcolonialism. Wade goes on to argue that, in Latin America, racialized difference is, if anything, made more explicit in the context of what Charles Hale has labelled 'neoliberal multiculturalism'.