Off White

Off white uncovers the hidden history of race and whiteness in Central and Eastern Europe (including Russia/the Soviet Union). It traces the ideological work of whiteness back to the region's constitutive roots in nation-state building and global colonialism. The collection uncovers the work of race and racism through discourses and practices that have rendered them transparent and natural. It does so in studies of the international system of states and empires, from national self-determination struggles through geographic exploration to diplomacy and cultural representation in literature, film, the media industries, exhibition art and music; in intellectual and academic discourses; and across the many avenues of articulating banal nationalism, including everyday artefacts and language. This is an alternative history of Central and Eastern Europe that breaks through the shield of racial innocence in what may be the last geopolitical stronghold where white supremacy is still unacknowledged as the defining mechanism of state power, social hierarchization, and global interconnection.