White Sight: Visual Politics and Practices of Whiteness

From the author of How to See the World comes a new history of white supremacist ways of seeing-and a strategy for dismantling them. From the author of How to See the World comes a new history of white supremacist ways of seeing-and a strategy for dismantling them. White supremacy is not only perpetuated by laws and police but also by visual culture and distinctive ways of seeing. Nicholas Mirzoeff argues that this form of "white sight" has a history. By understanding that it was not always a common practice, we can devise better ways to dismantle it. Spanning centuries across this wide-ranging text, Mirzoeff connects Renaissance innovations-from the invention of perspective and the erection of Apollo statues as monuments to (white) beauty and power to the rise of racial capitalism dependent on slave labor-with the ever-expanding surveillance technologies of the twenty-first century to show that white sight creates an oppressively racializing world, in which subjects who do not appear as white are under constant threat of violence. Analyzing recent events like the George Floyd protests and the Central Park birdwatching incident, Mirzoeff suggests that we are experiencing a general crisis of white supremacy that presents both opportunities and threats to social justice. If we do not seize this moment to dismantle white sight, then white supremacy might surge back stronger than ever. To that end, he highlights activist interventions to strike the power of the white heteropatriarchal gaze. White Sight is a vital handbook and call to action for anyone who refuses to live under white-dominated systems and is determined to find a just way to see the world.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledged (vii) Introduction: The Strike Against Whiteness (1) Part I: White Sight in the World of Atlantic Slavery 1 The City, Ship, and Plantation (29) 2 The World of Statues in the Americas (59) 3 The Natural History of White Supremacy (93) Part II: Imperial Visions, Anticolonial Ways of Seeing 4 The Imperial Screen (123) 5 The Anticolonial Way of Seeing (149) 6 The Cultural Unconscious and the Dispossessed (177) Part III: The Crisis of Whiteness 7 The Strike Against Statues (197) 8 The General Crisis of Whiteness (227) Acknowledgments (265) Notes (267) Bibliography (291) Index (325)

About the Author :
Nicholas Mirzoeff is Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. His many books include the best-selling How to See the World and The Right to Look, and his writing has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, Hyperallergic, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Review :
Included in The Next Big Idea Club’s February 2023 Must-Read Books "Mirzoeff’s new book, White Sight: Visual Politics and Practices of Whiteness, explores how systems of white supremacy see, and thus order, the world in the unbroken history of colonialism, up to the present day. White sight finds articulation in a vast array of visual culture—from the monuments of colonialists and Confederates that occupy (literally) key points in cities and towns, to the deadly vision of the military drone’s-eye view, to the museum displays of species made extinct through colonial slaughter. Where the British Jamaican philosopher Charles W. Mills coined the term “white ignorance” to describe the historically entrenched epistemic block that forecloses knowledge of the brutal material realities of racial capitalism, Mirzoeff’s term takes up the question of how practices of whiteness operate in our fields of vision—and, crucially, how to rupture that white reality and see otherwise." —The Los Angeles Review of Books "White Sight continues Nicholas Mirzoeff ’s bold intervention on visuality and counter-visuality in his earlier book, The Right to Look, as both seek to develop a decolonial framework for the field of visual culture studies...There is also a sense of continuation in the sheer magnitude of the project: the analysis of artworks and visual practice is combined with historical, anthropological and geopolitical knowledge, which is contextualized in the cultural and economic history of the Atlantic world. At its core, this new book is also a call to action: to strike against whiteness." —International Affairs “Mirzoeff’s book attempts more than an analysis of the eponymous ‘visual politics and practices of whiteness’: it is a call to strike against the machinery of white sight and the projection of reality it manufactures. . . Mirzoeff offers a perspective that is deeply personal, stemming at once from his recent experiences as an activist based in New York and his childhood as part of the Jewish diaspora in London. His analysis focuses on Anglo-American visual and literary production. Yet White Sight is not intended solely for readers in the US and the UK. It is bound to become an essential reading for anyone wishing to understand how the mainstream, hegemonic Anglo-American culture and the white sight that buttresses it continues to maintain and rebuild racial disparities. Although the book does not offer readymade solutions for dismantling them, it certainly is a timely and determined call to action.” —Art History "White Sight skillfully illuminates the often-overlooked visual mechanisms that have sustained racial hierarchies. Mirzoeff challenges traditional narratives and expands the understanding of whiteness and its pervasive influence. His nuanced analysis reveals the diverse array of visual practices and representations that have contributed to the construction and maintenance of whiteness, including public monuments, architectural design, and contemporary media. By examining the intersections of race, power, and visuality, Mirzoeff provides a richly detailed portrayal of the complexities and contradictions inherent in the visual politics of whiteness. Although the book’s primary focus on visual culture might seem specialized, it offers a comprehensive view of how visual representations have played a crucial role in shaping and perpetuating racial hierarchies. Through engaging research and a compelling interdisciplinary approach, White Sight offers a narrative that will appeal to a diverse range of undergraduate students, scholars, and anyone interested in the profound impact of visual culture on social and political structures. Ultimately, this work underscores the importance of understanding and challenging the visual dimensions of systemic racism, in an attempt to foster a more equitable and just society." —H-Net Reviews