78 New FormatioNs What We (Still) Need to learN: Stuart hall aNd the Struggle agaiNSt raciSm Gilbert B. Rodman Doi: 10.3898/NewF:102.05.2020 Abstract: Forty years ago, in his seminal essay, ‘The Whites of Their Eyes’, Stuart Hall admonished the left for its – our – collective failure in figuring out how to fight back against racism effectively. Sadly, his criticism is no less valid today than it was then, and we still have a lot to learn about how to defeat racism once and for all. We’ve known for more than a century that this thing we call ‘race’ isn’t a scientifically valid phenomenon – and yet it continues to function perfectly well in the world as if it is one anyway. As Hall noted in a 2011 interview, the mere act of unmasking essentialisms and deconstructing binaries doesn’t stop them from ‘roaring away’ in the world, completely undisturbed by our analytic prowess. This essay takes stock of the current state of anti-racist struggles (at least in the US) and offers a critical analysis of how and why our current efforts to combat racism continue to be so ineffective. Keywords: anti-racist activism, Black Lives Matter, racism, Stuart Hall, white privilege Prefatory disclaimer: The essay below was finished in late February 2020, three months before George Floyd’s murder at the hands (or, more precisely, the knee) of Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin sparked weeks of protests across the US, the re-emergence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) as a visible force in US political discourse, and a surge of public commitments from government and corporate leaders to (finally) do something meaningful to end racism and white supremacy. As I write these words in early July 2020, I am tempted to revise this essay in ways that incorporate recent events and temper the pessimism of my original analysis. The past few weeks, after all, have presented glimmers of hope that I would not have thought were possible as little as two months ago. At the same time, however, I remain aware of how much work still needs to be done, and how difficult it will be for a nation facing multiple major crises to maintain the kind of focus, energy, and commitment that is needed to see that work through. And so I’ve left the February version of my essay unchanged, since I’m not willing to believe, not yet anyway, that the events of the past six weeks really will produce the kind of deep, pervasive structural changes in the nation that would make my skepticism seem foolish. That said, I will be delighted if I can look back on this essay in a year or two (or even longer) and realise that my lack of faith was misguided. I want, instead, to draw a different lesson from this episode. It is the degree to which the left is unable to confront and argue through constructively 1. Stuart Hall, ‘The whites of their eyes: Racist ideologies and the media’ in Silver linings: Some strategies for the eighties, (eds.) George Bridges and Rosalind Brunt, pp28-52, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1981, p51. (Hereafter Whites of Their Eyes).