FROM WHITE PRIVILEGE TO IDENTITY CRISIS: A CRITICAL RACE THEORY ANALYSIS OF MOHSIN HAMID'S THE LAST WHITE MAN

Abstract

Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man (2022) presents an innovative literary exploration of race by imagining a world in which white individuals gradually awaken with dark skin. Rather than depicting racial transformation as a biological phenomenon, the novel employs magical realism to expose the ideological foundations of whiteness, privilege, and racial hierarchy. This study critically examines the novel through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), focusing on the psychological consequences of losing white privilege and the reconstruction of identity following racial transformation. Using qualitative textual analysis, the research investigates how Hamid dismantles the assumptions of racial superiority through the experiences of Anders and other characters whose identities are destabilized by changes in racial appearance. The findings demonstrate that racial identity in the novel is neither fixed nor biologically determined but socially constructed through historical systems of privilege and exclusion. As white privilege disappears, characters experience anxiety, grief, alienation, and existential uncertainty, revealing the extent to which privilege shapes personal identity and social belonging. Simultaneously, the novel proposes the possibility of ethical transformation by encouraging empathy, mutual recognition, and resistance to racial binaries. By integrating Critical Race Theory with contemporary literary criticism, this article argues that The Last White Man challenges dominant racial ideologies and imagines a post-racial future founded upon shared humanity rather than inherited privilege. The study contributes to contemporary scholarship on race, identity, and post-racial discourse by demonstrating how speculative fiction functions as a powerful medium for interrogating systemic racism and reimagining social justice.