City and Sensibilities: The Dynamics of Racializing Segregation

Abstract

Along with class and gender, race is actively involved in the (re)production of current cities. Through racialization, which constitutes an epistemic, political, and social process, domination produces racialized subjects. This production, governed by the illusion of rigid, stable and complete ontological categories, coexists with the advance of capitalism in its neocolonial stage, producing racialized subjects and experiences throughout the world, "beyond colour". Migrants, enslaved workers, refugees, the undocumented, and segregated urban dwellers are examples of racialized and declassed humanities reproducing colonial dominion and exploitation in the twenty-first century and making racialization a key vector for studying urban experiences. This chapter engages in a dialogue with the contributions of Frantz Fanon and critically discusses the notion of racialization in relation to spatial configurations and urban sensibilities. We implement the concept-figure of "black", defined in relation to the structuring processes of sensibilities. After reflecting upon the links between urban space and the practices of racialization, we define the dynamics of "racializing segregation". The unit of analysis is the figure of the "negro villero" (literally, blacks from the slums) in Argentina. Finally, we underscore some analytic relations between racializing segregation and urban sensibilities reproduced by the logics of "exclusion", "surplus", and "exception".