Call and response

Goldberg's essay is an extended response to five reviews of his recent book The Threat of Race contributed by Nadia Abu El-Haj, Susan Giroux, Kelly Gillespie, Nelson Maldonado-Torres and Peter Wade. Issues discussed range over the sadistic elements of racism's characteristic violence, the 'disappearance' or 'invisibility' of race and the impact on racisms, the distinction and relation between naturalism and historicism in racial articulation, and the connection to biologism and culturalism, racial epistemologies, racial coloniality and racial neoliberalism. The central theme of the book, the notion of racial neoliberalism, is elaborated and exemplified by reference to the characterization of Obama by some since he was elected president of the United States.