Racism and Power Dynamics in ‘The Last White Man’: A Deconstructive Study

Abstract

Ethnicity and race are identity markers that associate or identify a person with a specific race or ethnicity based on certain values and characteristics. However, colonization led to the creation of binaries between races: colonizers, who were white, as superior, and colonized peoples as inferior. This division gave rise to racism and discrimination; whites were considered superior, while other races, especially blacks, were considered inferior and uncivilized. This paper aims to highlight the restructured and internalized racial discrimination and the elements that support it reflected by Mohsin Hamid in ‘The Last White Man’. This paper analyzes Mohsin Hamid's latest novel, “The Last White Man,” through the lens of Critical Race Theory to highlight racism in a racially integrated society and how power dynamics promote and sustain it. Critical race theory rejects the notion of a racially integrated color-blind society as a way to eliminate racism; rather, it utilizes power dynamics to promote racism.