Neoliberalism displaces racial markers onto marketable and consumable identity conditions.

Evidence

In the new South Africa, as Irlam concludes, then, neoliberalization has meant not so much the demise of race as the displacement of its meanings, first from biology and then cultural difference now to the market-mediated value of commodifiable condition: can you dance, do you look good, are you healthy (looking), what fashion do you drape about you, what car do you drive, what bills do you bear in your wallet? But also what mega-church have you joined, what born again experience to hold at bay the effects of the born again racisms, what evangelical salvation are you seeking as cloned salve to the cutting competition of radically individualized neoliberal life? Class maps race, hardly unhinged from its older anchors of reference. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1606

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘displacement of meanings from biology to market criteria’ echoes the commodification of identity themes in this book and connects to racial americanization/latinamericanization discussions. — connects to: Neoliberal markets pre-optimize and monetize protest identities for profit — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 912; Neoliberalism required culturally transforming non-capitalist societies to extend markets — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 88; Neoliberalism functions as a response to white status threat. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1764 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the shopping-list of identity markers (dancing, fashion, car, wallet contents) as a new racialized status taxonomy in post-liberal societies.