Setting the record straight: racism, empire, and the neoliberal project

In this review essay, I consider two significant theoretical and political contributions of Lars Cornelissen’s Neoliberalism and Race. By revealing the ways neoliberalism is constitutively racialized and locating this tradition in the same problem-space as Black and anti-colonial radical movements, Cornelissen makes a powerful intervention within left critiques of and struggles against neoliberalism. Specifically, I draw out how Cornelissen’s analysis not only pushes against race-evasive theoretical accounts of neoliberalism but it also underscores the necessity of radical anti-racist and anti-colonial politics on the left. Ultimately, the importance of Neoliberalism and Race lies in its profound ability to help us navigate our contemporary conjuncture: reorienting our understanding of how we got here and, in the process, creating room for alternative futures.