Black banker,white banker: philosophies of the global colour line

Critical study of the ‘global colour line’ usually begins by observing similarities between the colonial–colonized relationship on the one hand, and the developed–developing relationship on the other. Despite the dramatic historical changes in human equality over time, both relationships are sometimes qualified with reference to race and racism. This article reflects on these continuities and changes via two debates in the philosophy of race: the ‘onto-semantic’ and the ‘normative’. Each of these debates, I argue, can help international relations (IR) better understand the complex social meanings and political transformations of the global colour line. After I have made a case for the use of categories of racialization and racialized identity over the category ‘race’, I suggest that IR theorists, too, should pay more critical attention to the burgeoning literatures on racial habits and racial cognition.