Know The Author, So You Know What You Are Reading
Allen describes himself as a white Marxist who has transformed from being one who is "more class-focused" to "one who is more race-focused" (p.468). It is important to recognise here that, by his own admission, Allen was/is - that is, remains - a white Marxist, his commitment to a "race-first" perspective notwithstanding.
Globalization(s), Old and New
Allen (2002) asks the reader to consider whether globalization is really all that new.
What if, in reality, humankind has long been global, but "we" [=white people] are only now claiming it to be so? And if this is true, who has benefited from this more recent notion of globalization that embodies what would be a serious case of historical amnesia? Why would "we" [=white people] fail to recognie globalization as a long-standing human condition? Furthermore, what are the real histories of globalization that are occluded and excluded by this more recent turn in the globalization discourse? Put another way, rather than following the pro-market neoliberal paradigm of globalization, what are the Othered [=non-white and/or pluralist/alternative-universalist] narratives of globalization that could provide more significant possibilities for achieving an egalitarian and humanizing global society? In contrast to the discourse on the supposedly new conditions of globalization, it is less commonplace to hear someone say that we have always been global. In fact, to make this argument at this current point in the politics of commonsense on globalization can be risky since certain dominant identities, namely whites, are deluded into thinking that globalization is both profoundly novel and purely positive [emphasis added]. (pp.467-468)
Assuming such white people are deluded, by whom are they so deluded - self or other? Significantly, Allen does not engage this issue, but according to Charles W. Mills, author of The Racial Contract, Blackness Visible and From Class to Race among other works, this is clearly a case of structural, i.e. systemic, self-delusion: the system of White Supremacy (Racism) promotes self-delusion/wilful "amnesia" among white people for strategic purposes, viz. the maintenance, expansion and refinement of WS/R.
Interestingly, white Professor of politics and International relations, John Hobson, provides support for Allen's "we have always been global" and "Other globalization" theses in The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) and "East and West in Global History", Theory, Culture and Society 23(2-3) (2006): 408-10. According to Hobson, Western globalization [=White Supremacy (Racism)] should be described as "Globalization-I", "Globalization-I" having its origin in Islamic and Chinese tradng practices from the 7th-18th centuries.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned concerns, Allen is correct in asserting that
globalization is primarily about white supremacy and the construction of a global white polity, and capitalism is an interesting yet secondary modality of the globalization of white supremacy. (p.476)
Crucially, for Allen, "white supremacy" refers to "the global system that confers power and privilege on those who become identified as white while conferring disprivilege and disempowerment on those who become identified as people of colour [emphasis added]." (p.476)
Marxism and Critical Race Theory
Allen (2002) goes on to contrast "two counternarratives [to the pro-market neoliberal = finance-capitalist = RIBA-nomic account of globalization] that represent politically Left interventions in hegemonic global processes."
One is broadly defined as the Marxist perspective on globalization, which usually assumes that capitalism is the most encompassing global superstructure, and the other is a critical race theory perspective, which takes as its given that white supremacy is the most totalizing of contexts. (p.468)
It is critical (no pun intended) to distinguish Critical Race Theory as a 'Leftist counternarrative" from Islamic Counter-Racism, which is neither 'Leftist' nor 'Rightist' in perspective and/or orientation.
