LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article presents a unique transnational perspective on the racial politics of Dubai's smart urbanism to examine how the two oppositional realms of cultural production – racial difference and anti-racist future – facilitate and contest Dubai's growth as a logistical space, which requires attention to its regional dominance. To this end, it compares the profit-driven, high-tech futuristic spectacles of Dubai to Beirut, an example of the war-torn and toxic cities that are spreading in the rest of the region, while focusing on the racial politics of the exploitative Kafala (sponsorship) system in both cities. As a counter-spectacle, it discusses Beirut-based artist Bassem Saad's artistic work, which tackles the unevenly distributed care and waste economies passing through Beirut. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how anti-racist and feminist mobilizations for abolishing the Kafala envision alternatives to the futurity that contemporary Gulf Futurism propels.