FEAR, VIOLENCE, AND SOCIAL UPHEAVAL: COLLECTIVE RACIAL TRANSFORMATION IN MOHSIN HAMID'S THE LAST WHITE MAN

Abstract

Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man (2022) offers a profound literary exploration of the collective psychological and social consequences of racial transformation. Through the unprecedented phenomenon of white individuals awakening with dark skin, the novel examines how fear, violence, and institutional instability emerge when historically privileged identities become uncertain. This article investigates the relationship between racial transformation and collective social upheaval by employing Critical Race Theory, theories of collective trauma, and social psychology. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study examines how fear is socially constructed, politically manipulated, and transformed into exclusionary practices that reinforce racial boundaries even during periods of demographic change. The findings demonstrate that Hamid portrays violence not as an inevitable consequence of biological difference but as a product of ideological systems that equate racial identity with security, authority, and national belonging. Simultaneously, the novel explores processes of adaptation, reconciliation, and ethical reconstruction, suggesting that societies confronting historical privilege may gradually develop more inclusive forms of collective identity. By integrating literary analysis with contemporary theories of race and collective trauma, this article contributes to scholarship on speculative fiction, Critical Race Theory, and the social psychology of racial conflict.