From colorblind casting to racial profiling, visual culture is at the heart of contemporary conversations about race and racism. We are living in a moment where representations of racial differences are both highly visible and highly contested in art, popular culture, and mass media across the US and in many other parts of the world. Rather than treat these representations as reflections of reality, this course takes a critical look at the relationship between visual culture and the production of (racialized) knowledge and situates this relationship in a broader global and historical context. We will consider how images shape our 'common sense' ideas about race and its intersections with ability, gender, and sexuality, and explore how race informs what - and how - we see. In addition to reading landmark literature by scholars like Frantz Fanon, bell hooks, Richard Dyer, Edward Said, and Jodi Byrd, students will engage with artists, filmmakers, and activists who work to dismantle what Nicholas Mirzoeff (2023) calls "white sight" or the distinctive ways of seeing that characterize white supremacy.