Akademia Polonijna
Wydział Interdyscyplinarny
Instytut Języków, Literatury i Kultury
Katedra Językoznawstwa
Przedmiot: FL-1000  Język angielski
Racism
Anna Stoermer
Częstochowa 2012
Contents
·ð The concept of racism
·ð Types of racism
·ð Most known examples of racism
The concept of racism
One of the first writers to make extended use of word  racism was Ruth
Benedict in a book  Race and Racism (1940). She writes that:
 Racism is the dogma that one ethnic group is condemned by nature to
congenital inferiority and another group is destined to congenital superiority 1.
Social scientists have followed this lead in viewing racism as essentially a
doctrine. The point of is found in the assertions: (a) that people s culture and
psychological characteristics are genetically determined; and (b) that the genetic
determinants are grouped in patterns that can be identified with human races in
the old morphological sense that envisaged the existence of pure races.
Race relation textbooks and sociological reference works do not define
racism, but some of authorities define it differently. Those are Shibutani and
Kwan who speak about racism as an ideology; Van den Berghe calls it a set of
beliefs, saying:
 Only when group differences in physical traits are considered a determinant of
social behaviour and moral or intellectual qualities can we properly speak of
racism 2.
Definition of hers was based on the view that race refers to a group that is
socially defined on the basis of physical criteria. A similar concept, often
confused with race, is ethnic group which too is socially defined, but on the
basis of cultural criteria. Because cultural differences often accompany physical
differences, there is a strong tendency to lump physical and cultural differences
under the term  race . Stated simply, preferences for (or belief in the superiority
of) one s own racial group might be called racism; while preference for one s
own ethnic group might be called ethnocentrism. Both of these terms are
frequently used.
1
Ruth Benedict, Race and Racism, London 1983 Routledge & Kegan Paul plc, p. 97
2
Van den Berghe, Pierre L., Race and Racism: a comparative perspective, New York 1978 by Wiley, p.
23
 However, racism defined as a set of beliefs or attitudes represents little
advance over the concept of race prejudice. The significant factor of ingroup
preference, whether racially or ethnically based, is the power that the ingroup
has over an outgroup. Therefore racism will be broadly defined as follows:
 Prejudice or discrimination by one group toward others perceived as a
different  race , plus the power to enforce it. Groups may be almost identical
physiologically, yet be divided against each other on the basis of culture,
language, religion, nationality, or any combination of the above.
To understand racism is to understand more than the simple facts of slavery,
segregation, discrimination or prejudice. To understand racism is also to
understand differences in cultural heritage, the categorical suppression of the
subordinate culture as well as the imposition of the dominant culture s values on
members of minority cultures.
Types of racism
·ð Racial discrimination (racialism)  as stated in dictionary of race and ethnic
relations (p. 273-4) it is the active or behavioural expression of racism and is
aimed at denying members of certain groups equal access to scarce and valued
resources. It goes beyond thinking unfavourably about groups or holding
negative beliefs about them: it involves putting them into action. Often, racism
are mutually reinforcing in a self-fulfilling way because, by denying designated
groups access to resources and services, one creates conditions under which
those groups can often do no more than confirm the very stereotypes that
inspired the original racist belief.
Racial discrimination operates on group basis: it works on the perceived
attributes and deficiencies of groups, not individualized characteristics.
Members of groups are denied opportunities or rewards for reasons unrelated to
their capabilities, industry, and general merit: they are judged solely on their
membership of an identifiable group, which is erroneously thought to have a
racial basis.
 The racial discrimination may range from the use of derogatory labels, such
as  kike or  nigger , to the denial of access to such institutional spheres as
housing, education, justice, political participation, and so on. The actions may be
intentional, or unintentional. The use of terms racialist and racial discrimination
has diminished in recent years as racism and institutional racism have come into
popular use as expression of both thought and action. Institutional racism is now
used widely to describe the discriminatory nature and operations, however
unwitting, of large-scale organizations or entire societies. A pedant would insist
that the correct term should be institutional racial discrimination, or institutional
racism.
·ð Individual  a racist individual is one who considers that black people as a
group are inferior to whites because of physical traits. He further believes that
these physical traits are determinants of social behaviour and moral or
intellectual qualities, and ultimately presumes that this inferiority is a legitimate
basis for inferior social treatment of black people in American society.
A far more subtle form of racism concerns the analysis and interpretation of
black culture. This individual correctly perceives cultural differences between
blacks and whites, but evaluates the white expressions positively and the black
expression negatively. The negative evaluation of black culture is almost always
based on either (a) the assumed unsuccessful attempt to copy or reproduce white
culture forms, or (b) the pathological reactions to an oppressive status in
American society. Congruent with these evaluations, all racially distinctive
black expressions are assumed to be lower-class expressions.
This view does not accord any legitimate, positive, distinctive cultural
expression to middle- and upper-class black people. These blacks are assumed to
be just like whites in every detail. This view produces statements like the
following from van den Berghe:
 Beyond the specific stigma of skin pigmentation and its numerous social and
psychological consequences, Negro Americans have virtually nothing more in
common than they do with any other Americans; and stigmatization itself, of
course, is far from being a Negro monopoly. 3
3
Van den Berghe, Race and Racism: A comparative Perspective, New York: Willey: 1967, p. 94
 There are many varieties of individual racists, but common to them all is a
belief in the inferiority of black people (physically, morally, intellectually,
culturally, and so on); and the uncompromising, unalterable use of white norms
with the unquestioned assumptions of their superior quality. Although an
individual does not make norms, he internalizes, support, and uses the. Thus
identifying people as racist involves determining the degree to which they are
willing to ascribe inferiority to racial characteristic of black people on the basis
of white norms.
Most known examples of individual racism among others are:
Segregation  means spatial separation between groups who share a common
society. In other words, it is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily
life. It may apply to activities such as eating in restaurant, drinking from the
water fountain, using public toilets, attending schools, going to movies, or in the
rental or purchase of house.
Ku klux klan - Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as
the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in
the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as
white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically
expressed through terrorism. Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been
anti-communist.
Klan members adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and added to the
drama of their night rides, their chosen time for attacks. Many of them operated
in small towns and rural areas where people otherwise knew each other's faces,
and sometimes still recognized the attackers. The Klan attacked black members
of the Loyal Leagues and intimidated southern Republicans and Freedmen's
Bureau workers. When they killed black political leaders, they also took heads
of families, along with the leaders of churches and community groups, because
these people had many roles in society.
·ð Institutional  (also known as structural racism, state racism or systemic
racism) an expression introduced in 1967 by two black activists in the United
Sates, Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. They differentiated
individual and institutional racism and stated that the latter  relies on the active
and pervasive operation of anti-black attitudes and practices. A sense of superior
group position prevails: whites are  better than blacks therefore blacks should
be subordinated to whites . This is a racist attitude and it permeates the society,
on both the individual and the institutional lever,  covertly and overtly . Such a
formulation has great advantages for polemical purposes. It rolls into one ball
cultural assumptions, motivates, institutions, attitudes and beliefs about
superiority. For purpose of social policy and remedial action these various
components need to be distinguished and analysed separately. Since white
society had been slow to respond to the results of such analyses it was very
understandable that black activists should feel impatient with what to the victims
of prejudice and discrimination is apt to feel like hair-splitting and an excuse for
procrastination (Dictionary of race an ethnic relations, 1984, p 131).
Examples of institutional racism:
It is racial discrimination by governments, corporations, religions, or educational
institutions or other large organizations with the power to influence the lives of
many individuals, we distinguish:
Slavery  is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought
and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the
time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to
refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Historically, slavery was
institutionally recognized by many societies; in more recent times slavery has
been outlawed in most societies but continues through the practices of debt
bondage, indentured servitude, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity,
certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers,
and forced marriage.
Colonialism - is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of
colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby
the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure,
government, and economics of the colony are changed by colonizers from the
metropole. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between the metropole
and the colony and between the colonists and the indigenous population. There
are two types of colonialism:
1. Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by
religious, political, or economic reasons.
2. Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access
to resources for export, typically to the metropole. This category includes
trading posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute
much of the political and economic administration, but would rely on
indigenous resources for labour and material. Prior to the end of the slave
trade and widespread abolition, when indigenous labour was unavailable,
slaves were often imported to the Americas, first by the Spanish Empire,
and later by the Dutch, French and British.
·ð Cultural  in the United States has two forms: (1) the belief in the inferiority of
the implements, handicrafts, agriculture, economics, music, art, religious beliefs,
traditions, language, and story of African peoples; and (2) a neoracism in current
American thought which suggest that black Americans have no distinctive
implements, handicrafts, agriculture, economics, music, art, religious beliefs,
traditions, language, or story apart from those of mainstream white America and
those deriving from the pathology of years of oppression in American society.
Cultural racism is very closely related to ethnocentrism (is judging another
culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture. The ethnocentric
individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic
group or culture, especially with concern to language, behaviour, customs, and
religion. These ethnic distinctions and subdivisions serve to define each
ethnicity's unique cultural identity). However, a significant factor which
transcends simple ethnocentrism is power. This power to significantly affect the
lives of people who are ethnically and/or culturally different is the factor which
transforms white ethnocentrism into white, cultural racism.
Most known examples of cultural racism are:
Nazism & Fascism - Nazism and Fascism are two closely resembling forms of
government. There is no a clear cut principle or philosophy underlying either of
these two system of government. Rather their character is defined by nature of
such government as it actually existed, Nazism in Germany from 1933 to 1944
under the leadership of Hitler, and Fascism in Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the
leadership of Mussolini. Neither of these two forms of governments has existed
in any other country at any other time, although many dictatorial governments
do display many of the characteristics of these type of government.
Both Nazism and Fascism are characterized by a strong government with
dictatorial power, which has the authority to intervene in any and every aspect of
personal lives of people in the name of achieving common good of the nation as
a whole. Unlike communism, individual are allowed to own, control and use
means of production and other properties. But the government is free to exercise
any control over it is it considers fit in the interest of the country.
Also individual freedom and right are considered secondary to the common
interests and under the pretext of this common interest, private liberty, property
and life may be taken away any time without any opportunity of legal defence. It
was this principal of common good superseding the individual life and freedom
that was used by Hitler to persecute the Jews.
Bibliography
·ð Ruth Benedict, Race and Racism, London 1983 Routledge & Kegan Paul plc
·ð Van den Berghe, Pierre L., Race and Racism: a comparative perspective, New
York 1978 by Wiley
·ð T. B. Bottomore edited by Sami Zaubaida, Race and Racialism, London 1970 by
Tavistock publications
·ð Ellis Cashmore, Dictionary of race and ethnic relations, third editions, London
1994 by Routledge
·ð James M. Jones, Prejudice and Racism, Philippines 1972 by Addison-wesley
publishing company
·ð Martin Bulmer & John Solomos, Racism, Oxford 1999 by Oxford University
Press