“Sometimes We Have to Quash Our Own Ego to Stop Ourselves from Saying Something”: The Burden of Representation and Racialized Affective Practices

Abstract

This article examines the burden of representation as lived by spokespersons involved in the fight against racism in Quebec. Semi-directed interviews with fifteen of these activists revealed mixed feelings about their role, expressed through the lexicon of burden and heaviness. To make sense of the spokespersons’ affective experience of racialized representation, affects are apprehended through a decolonial approach that takes into account the asymmetry of affective norms and—by ricochet—the affective performances that can be expected or demanded of anti-racism spokespersons. Analysis of the semi-structured interviews through the lens of affects made it possible to identify four affective practices implemented by the spokespersons: awareness-raising, adaptation, protection and contestation. By examining these affective practices, this article sheds light on the processes by which racialization and denial of racism (re)shape the affective demands of spokesperson work, and consequently prompts a rethinking of the affective practices of anti-racist political representation.