Description
Examining global IR knowledge production outside the Anglophone academia, this article revisits critiques of intellectual whiteness to transcend the non-White/White (non-West/West) dichotomy in current postcolonial critiques of IR theories. The article reviews Hobson and Sabaratnam’s critiques of intellectual whiteness in IR knowledge production, proposing their common pillars as dichotomy, linearity, and nihilism, then proposes the epistemology of whiteness beyond binary oppositions as the logic of existence (how do different subjects of world politics and history exist?), the logic of development (who drive global development and in what ways?), and the logic of recognition (how should we conceptualize racism outside colonial contexts?). It postulates that, under the heavy influence of a modernity worldview, whiteness as a racialized mindset can be taken up by thinkers or writings that intentionally resist Eurocentric version of intellectual whiteness in their scholarships. Empirically, it applies the logic-trio to examine articles regarding Africa and Sino-African relations on core Chinese academic journals by highly influential IR scholars. This article reveals a return of an unproblematic acceptance and internalized appreciation of modernity as the endgame of history among Chinese intellectuals, significantly shaping their answers to these questions.
