Racial formations as data formations

This commentary uses Paul Gilroy’s controversial claim that new technoscientific processes are instituting an ‘end to race’ as a provocation discuss the epistemological transformation of race in algorithmic culture. We situate within context abolitionist agenda against racial-thinking, underscoring relationship between his post-race polemic and post-visual discourse. then challenges studying regimes computation, which rely on structures are, for most part, opaque; particular, modes classification operate through proxies abstractions figure racialized bodies not single, coherent subjects, but shifting clusters data. argue this regime, emerges epiphenomenon classifying sorting – what we call ‘racial formations data formations’. discussion is significant because it raises theoretical, methodological political questions scholars media critical studies. It asks: how supposed think, identify confront racialisation when they vanish into systems beyond our perception? What becomes racial regimes?