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Racism

Anna Stoermer

Częstochowa 2012

Contents

• The concept of racism

• Types of racism

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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

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.

• 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.

• 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

• Ruth Benedict, Race and Racism, London 1983 Routledge & Kegan Paul plc

• Van den Berghe, Pierre L., Race and Racism: a comparative perspective, New York 1978 by Wiley

• T. B. Bottomore edited by Sami Zaubaida, Race and Racialism, London 1970 by Tavistock publications

• Ellis Cashmore, Dictionary of race and ethnic relations, third editions, London 1994 by Routledge

• James M. Jones, Prejudice and Racism, Philippines 1972 by Addison-wesley publishing company

• Martin Bulmer & John Solomos, Racism, Oxford 1999 by Oxford University Press

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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↩

3. Van den Berghe, Race and Racism: A comparative Perspective, New York: Willey: 1967, p. 94↩