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In addition to the fact that racism refers to behavioral practice, it should also be understood in terms of an ideology that is based on a mythical conception of the category race. All scientific evidence to date points to only one fact: that there is only one race on this planet: the human race (and the origins of which can be traced to Africa). Whatever racial categories “societies” have come up with are categories that have been created artificially by those in power in order to create a basis for otherness as a means for justifying prejudice and discrimination for the purpose of legitimating what I call “unjustifiable entitlement” (to land, labor, and other resources). Before Columbus set sail from Europe there was no “white” race or “black” race or “red” race, or even “yellow” and “brown” race.
In addition to the fact that racism refers to behavioral practice, it should also be understood in terms of an ideology that is based on a mythical conception of the category race. All scientific evidence to date points to only one fact: that there is only one race on this planet: the human race (and the origins of which can be traced to Africa). Whatever racial categories “societies” have come up with are categories that have been created artificially by those in power in order to create a basis for otherness as a means for justifying prejudice and discrimination for the purpose of legitimating what I call “unjustifiable entitlement” (to land, labor, and other resources). Before Columbus set sail from Europe there was no “white” race or “black” race or “red” race, or even “yellow” and “brown” race.
It is the European domination of the world unleashed by the Great European West-to-East Maritime Project that created a need among the Europeans to produce these artificial categories (hence the legitimate view among sociologists today that race is a socially constructed category). Before Columbus there were only ethnicities based on learned, not genetically determined, distinctions of language and culture, such as: in Africa: the Akan, Malinke, Ngoni, Yoruba, Zulu, etc.; in the Americas: the Aztec, Cherokee, Inuit, Maya, Sioux, etc.; in Asia: the Arab, Berber, Han, Jews, Korean, Mongol, Indo-Aryan, Dravids, etc.; and in Europe: the English, French, German, Irish, Spanish, etc. Remember also that all human beings originate out of the same place, regardless of what you believe in: religious explanation (Garden of Eden [if you are a Christian, Jew or Muslim]) or scientific explanation (Africa). In other words: whether you believe in God or in science, both recognize only one race: the human race. However, having said that it is important to emphasize that in singing this favorite mantra of many intellectuals that “race” is nothing more than a social construction, the fact remains that for most in a racialized society phenotypical markers are embodied with what Loury (2002), for example, calls “social signification.”
It is the European domination of the world unleashed by the Great European West-to-East Maritime Project that created a need among the Europeans to produce these artificial categories (hence the legitimate view among sociologists today that race is a socially constructed category). Before Columbus there were only ethnicities based on learned, not genetically determined, distinctions of language and culture, such as: in Africa: the Akan, Malinke, Ngoni, Yoruba, Zulu, etc.; in the Americas: the Aztec, Cherokee, Inuit, Maya, Sioux, etc.; in Asia: the Arab, Berber, Han, Jews, Korean, Mongol, Indo-Aryan, Dravids, etc.; and in Europe: the English, French, German, Irish, Spanish, etc. Remember also that all human beings originate out of the same place, regardless of what you believe in: religious explanation (Garden of Eden [if you are a Christian, Jew or Muslim]) or scientific explanation (Africa). In other words: whether you believe in God or in science, both recognize only one race: the human race. However, having said that it is important to emphasize that in singing this favorite mantra of many intellectuals that “race” is nothing more than a social construction, the fact remains that for most in a racialized society phenotypical markers are embodied with what Loury (2002), for example, calls “social signification.”
For victims of racism (and other similar forms of prejudice and discrimination based on superficial biologically-determined criteria), at one level, it is not difficult to determine what racism is. They really do not need to be told what it is and what it does to them, as attested by their everyday lived experience. In racist societies (as in the United States, or England, or India, or France, or Brazil, or South Africa, or Ireland, or Malaysia, or Sudan, or Mauritania, or Australia, and so on) racism for them involves encounters with a poisoned environment in which, depending upon the society and/or circumstance in question, their dignity and/or their lives are constantly under assault as the racists, by undergoing a process of “uncivilization,” attempt to harass or dehumanize or brutalize or terrorize or murder their victims merely because they belong to a different racial, ethnic, linguistic or other similar grouping.[1]
For victims of racism (and other similar forms of prejudice and discrimination based on superficial biologically-determined criteria), at one level, it is not difficult to determine what racism is. They really do not need to be told what it is and what it does to them, as attested by their everyday lived experience. In racist societies (as in the United States, or England, or India, or France, or Brazil, or South Africa, or Ireland, or Malaysia, or Sudan, or Mauritania, or Australia, and so on) racism for them involves encounters with a poisoned environment in which, depending upon the society and/or circumstance in question, their dignity and/or their lives are constantly under assault as the racists, by undergoing a process of “uncivilization,” attempt to harass or dehumanize or brutalize or terrorize or murder their victims merely because they belong to a different racial, ethnic, linguistic or other similar grouping.[1]
Yet, the ubiquity of racism in racist societies at the personal (or micro) level tends to blind both victims and victimizers to its origins, forms and functions in society as a whole (macro or institutional level), making it difficult to work toward the eradication of this heinous human social disease. At the outset, following Nash (1972) it would help by establishing the fact that racism is an ideology (that is a “style of thought” or a system of ideas and concepts that, in this instance, is neither cogent nor correct). As an ideology, racism has no scientific basis given its essential purpose: to impose a social and cultural significance on the genetic and morphological diversity found in the human race (usually undertaken for the purposes of justifying and maintaining racially-based hierarchical power relations). At its root therefore, racism does not seek to study and explain this diversity (which remains the legitimate project of science), but rather seeks to illegitimately (in terms of science) use this diversity to arrive at explanations for social and cultural differences among different population groups as identified by diverse phenotypes and genetic frequencies. As Nash (1972: 112–13) explains:
Yet, the ubiquity of racism in racist societies at the personal (or micro) level tends to blind both victims and victimizers to its origins, forms and functions in society as a whole (macro or institutional level), making it difficult to work toward the eradication of this heinous human social disease. At the outset, following Nash (1972) it would help by establishing the fact that racism is an ideology (that is a “style of thought” or a system of ideas and concepts that, in this instance, is neither cogent nor correct). As an ideology, racism has no scientific basis given its essential purpose: to impose a social and cultural significance on the genetic and morphological diversity found in the human race (usually undertaken for the purposes of justifying and maintaining racially-based hierarchical power relations). At its root therefore, racism does not seek to study and explain this diversity (which remains the legitimate project of science), but rather seeks to illegitimately (in terms of science) use this diversity to arrive at explanations for social and cultural differences among different population groups as identified by diverse phenotypes and genetic frequencies. As Nash (1972: 112–13) explains:
The ideology of race is a system of ideas which interprets and defines the meanings of racial differences, real or imagined, in terms of some system of cultural values. The ideology of race is always normative: it ranks differences as better or worse, superior or inferior, desirable or undesirable, and as modifiable or unmodifiable. Like all ideologies, the ideology of race implies a call to action; it embodies a political and social program; it is a demand that something be done. The ideology of race competes in a political arena, and it is embraced or rejected by a polity, not a scientific community.… [Moreover], [o]n these grounds, that is, the functional consequences of ideologies, no amount of evidence (even were it scientifically impeccable) will destroy an ideology, or even, perhaps, modify it.
The ideology of race is a system of ideas which interprets and defines the meanings of racial differences, real or imagined, in terms of some system of cultural values. The ideology of race is always normative: it ranks differences as better or worse, superior or inferior, desirable or undesirable, and as modifiable or unmodifiable. Like all ideologies, the ideology of race implies a call to action; it embodies a political and social program; it is a demand that something be done. The ideology of race competes in a political arena, and it is embraced or rejected by a polity, not a scientific community.… [Moreover], [o]n these grounds, that is, the functional consequences of ideologies, no amount of evidence (even were it scientifically impeccable) will destroy an ideology, or even, perhaps, modify it.
It is necessary to stress, therefore, that the ideology of racism was “invented,” it did not emerge naturally out of supposed innate differences in intelligence (despite assertions to the contrary by racist hate groups), in order to facilitate the domination of their victims by means of an unending series of “racial projects.”[2] In the case of racism in the Western world, for example, racism emerged to facilitate the racial project of European domination of PQD peoples and the plunder of their resources by denying their humanity. This is not to suggest by any means that a conspiracy took place in Europe in the fifteenth century when the so-called “voyages of discovery” (in actuality a misnomer because as Burman [1989] clearly demonstrates much of the world was already known by the fifteenth century) would commence and propel Europeans to the far reaches of the earth, and in the process unleash a nightmare on PQD peoples from which many have yet to recover. Rather, it is that the combination of (a) an Occidental version of the Christian religion (which in reality was a corrupted form of an Eastern religion—Christ, it must be remembered, was not a European), developed against a backdrop of the Crusades, with (b) a revolutionary form of economic system that would first emerge in Europe on a large society-wide scale, merchant capitalism, proved to be a potently fertile mixture for the evolution of a European racist ideology. Only racism, backed by a self-conjured device of the “divine mandate,” for example, could have made possible such behavior of “God-fearing Christians” as that mentioned in the following account of a European slave raiding expedition in Africa:
It is necessary to stress, therefore, that the ideology of racism was “invented,” it did not emerge naturally out of supposed innate differences in intelligence (despite assertions to the contrary by racist hate groups), in order to facilitate the domination of their victims by means of an unending series of “racial projects.”[2] In the case of racism in the Western world, for example, racism emerged to facilitate the racial project of European domination of PQD peoples and the plunder of their resources by denying their humanity. This is not to suggest by any means that a conspiracy took place in Europe in the fifteenth century when the so-called “voyages of discovery” (in actuality a misnomer because as Burman [1989] clearly demonstrates much of the world was already known by the fifteenth century) would commence and propel Europeans to the far reaches of the earth, and in the process unleash a nightmare on PQD peoples from which many have yet to recover. Rather, it is that the combination of (a) an Occidental version of the Christian religion (which in reality was a corrupted form of an Eastern religion—Christ, it must be remembered, was not a European), developed against a backdrop of the Crusades, with (b) a revolutionary form of economic system that would first emerge in Europe on a large society-wide scale, merchant capitalism, proved to be a potently fertile mixture for the evolution of a European racist ideology. Only racism, backed by a self-conjured device of the “divine mandate,” for example, could have made possible such behavior of “God-fearing Christians” as that mentioned in the following account of a European slave raiding expedition in Africa:
Then might you see mothers forsaking their children and husbands their wives, each striving to escape as best as he could. Some drowned themselves in the water, others thought to escape by hiding under their huts; others stowed their children among the sea weed, where men found them afterwards, hoping they would thus escape notice… . And at last our Lord God, who giveth a reward for every good deed, willed that for the toil they had undergone in His service they should that day obtain victory over their enemies, as well as a guerdon and a payment for all their labor and expenses; for they took captive of those Moors, what with men, women and children, 165 besides those that perished and were killed… . (From in Kaufman and Guckin,1979: 2)
Then might you see mothers forsaking their children and husbands their wives, each striving to escape as best as he could. Some drowned themselves in the water, others thought to escape by hiding under their huts; others stowed their children among the sea weed, where men found them afterwards, hoping they would thus escape notice… . And at last our Lord God, who giveth a reward for every good deed, willed that for the toil they had undergone in His service they should that day obtain victory over their enemies, as well as a guerdon and a payment for all their labor and expenses; for they took captive of those Moors, what with men, women and children, 165 besides those that perished and were killed… . (From in Kaufman and Guckin,1979: 2)
Therefore, armed with a racist ideology sanctified by European Christianity, and possessing technological superiority (in terms of weapons) to implement this ideology, it became relatively easy for European imperialists to venture abroad into the lands of other peoples and proceed to unleash an orgy of rapine terror and wholesale thievery of resources. And once the ideology of racism had emerged, it was not difficult to soak the entire fabric of European societies in this ideology via the ubiquitous, but powerful process of socialization for generations to come—that is long after the original economic roots of this ideology had disappeared from public consciousness. [3]
Therefore, armed with a racist ideology sanctified by European Christianity, and possessing technological superiority (in terms of weapons) to implement this ideology, it became relatively easy for European imperialists to venture abroad into the lands of other peoples and proceed to unleash an orgy of rapine terror and wholesale thievery of resources. And once the ideology of racism had emerged, it was not difficult to soak the entire fabric of European societies in this ideology via the ubiquitous, but powerful process of socialization for generations to come—that is long after the original economic roots of this ideology had disappeared from public consciousness. [3]
Although the seeds of modern racist ideology in Europe were long planted in the debate that took place between those among the Spanish who decried the brutal exploitation of Native Americans in the sixteenth century and those who argued that the exploitation was supported by Christian theology McNutt 1909),[4] racism, as an ideology, first received widespread respectability in the Western world via a perversion of the Darwinist theory of evolution with its application to the explanation of the pigmentary, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the human community in the nineteenth century by pseudo-scientists. These pseudo-scientists would claim that biological science (Darwinism) provided “proof” of the inherent inferiority of the black peoples: that is that their evolution was on a different time scale from that of whites, placing them (blacks) closer to apes than to humans (whites).
Although the seeds of modern racist ideology in Europe were long planted in the debate that took place between those among the Spanish who decried the brutal exploitation of Native Americans in the sixteenth century and those who argued that the exploitation was supported by Christian theology McNutt 1909),[4] racism, as an ideology, first received widespread respectability in the Western world via a perversion of the Darwinist theory of evolution with its application to the explanation of the pigmentary, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the human community in the nineteenth century by pseudo-scientists. These pseudo-scientists would claim that biological science (Darwinism) provided “proof” of the inherent inferiority of the black peoples: that is that their evolution was on a different time scale from that of whites, placing them (blacks) closer to apes than to humans (whites).
Science today, of course, recognizes that not only is this perverse application of the Darwinist theory false, but even the concept of race itself is false in that scientific evidence points to only one race: the human race—which (ironically for the racists) evolved in Africa! So pervasive has been this false concept of “inferior” and “superior” race in the Western world that on four different occasions the United Nations Educational and Scientific Commission would assemble scientists to examine this issue; their conclusion: “Neither in the field of hereditary potentialities concerning the overall intelligence and the capacity of cultural development, nor in that of the physical traits, is there any justification for the concept of ‘inferior’ and ‘superior’ races” (from European Parliament 1985: 21).
Science today, of course, recognizes that not only is this perverse application of the Darwinist theory false, but even the concept of race itself is false in that scientific evidence points to only one race: the human race—which (ironically for the racists) evolved in Africa! So pervasive has been this false concept of “inferior” and “superior” race in the Western world that on four different occasions the United Nations Educational and Scientific Commission would assemble scientists to examine this issue; their conclusion: “Neither in the field of hereditary potentialities concerning the overall intelligence and the capacity of cultural development, nor in that of the physical traits, is there any justification for the concept of ‘inferior’ and ‘superior’ races” (from European Parliament 1985: 21).
The ideology of racism derives its cogency for its proponents from three principal fallacies "(1) The identification of racial differences with cultural and social differences; (2) The assumption that cultural achievement is directly, and chiefly, determined by the racial characteristics of a population; (3) The belief that physical characteristics of a population limit and define the sorts of culture and society they are able to create or participate in” (Nash 1972: 118). On the basis of these fallacies a number of ridiculous propositions are then generated; chief among them being:
The ideology of racism derives its cogency for its proponents from three principal fallacies "(1) The identification of racial differences with cultural and social differences; (2) The assumption that cultural achievement is directly, and chiefly, determined by the racial characteristics of a population; (3) The belief that physical characteristics of a population limit and define the sorts of culture and society they are able to create or participate in” (Nash 1972: 118). On the basis of these fallacies a number of ridiculous propositions are then generated; chief among them being:
(a) It is not correct to legislate relations between races because God has ordained that some races are not equal to others.
(a) It is not correct to legislate relations between races because God has ordained that some races are not equal to others.
(b) Some races are not capable of becoming modern and “civilized” and hence they cannot be treated as equals of “civilized” races.
(b) Some races are not capable of becoming modern and “civilized” and hence they cannot be treated as equals of “civilized” races.
(c) The “fact” that some races have not made any meaningful contribution to the human civilization is an indication that they are genetically incapable of high cultural achievement.
(c) The “fact” that some races have not made any meaningful contribution to the human civilization is an indication that they are genetically incapable of high cultural achievement.
(d) Even when some races have had an opportunity to associate with civilized races they soon sink back into barbarism once the association ends.
(d) Even when some races have had an opportunity to associate with civilized races they soon sink back into barbarism once the association ends.
(e) To struggle against civil and human rights for inferior races is to struggle for the interests of all races.
(e) To struggle against civil and human rights for inferior races is to struggle for the interests of all races.
(f) Those who struggle for human and civil rights for inferior races are enemies of the civilized races—see Nash (pp. 114–118), for more on this point.
(f) Those who struggle for human and civil rights for inferior races are enemies of the civilized races—see Nash (pp. 114–118), for more on this point.
These assertions, however logical, natural and scientific they may appear to the racist mind have no basis in real fact. Even a cursory study of the history of the human race from the caveman era to the present would quickly reveal the fallacious basis of these assertions. And, of course, to date no scientific evidence has yet emerged that links race with intelligence. Yet, to this day, some five hundred years after the ideology of racism began to take shape in Europe, for example, it continues to flourish in the West in countries such as the United States, Germany, France, etc., governing the behavior of the white majority toward the black minority.
These assertions, however logical, natural and scientific they may appear to the racist mind have no basis in real fact. Even a cursory study of the history of the human race from the caveman era to the present would quickly reveal the fallacious basis of these assertions. And, of course, to date no scientific evidence has yet emerged that links race with intelligence. Yet, to this day, some five hundred years after the ideology of racism began to take shape in Europe, for example, it continues to flourish in the West in countries such as the United States, Germany, France, etc., governing the behavior of the white majority toward the black minority.
How does one explain the persistence of this ideology? Nash (p. 120) provides five basic reasons; specifically, the ideology of racism “(1) Provides a moral rationale for systematic disprivilege; (2) Allows the members of the dominant group to reconcile their values with their activities; (3) Aims to discourage the subordinate group from making claims on the society; (4) Rallies the adherents to political action in a ‘just’ cause; (5) Defends the existing division of labor as eternal.” In other words, to put it simply: racism as an ideology aims to encourage and justify the discrimination of people solely on the basis of their skin pigmentation in all areas of life—in such a way as to negatively alter their life chances and violate their basic human rights—with the aim of dominating them, as will be detailed below, for economic and political purposes.
How does one explain the persistence of this ideology? Nash (p. 120) provides five basic reasons; specifically, the ideology of racism “(1) Provides a moral rationale for systematic disprivilege; (2) Allows the members of the dominant group to reconcile their values with their activities; (3) Aims to discourage the subordinate group from making claims on the society; (4) Rallies the adherents to political action in a ‘just’ cause; (5) Defends the existing division of labor as eternal.” In other words, to put it simply: racism as an ideology aims to encourage and justify the discrimination of people solely on the basis of their skin pigmentation in all areas of life—in such a way as to negatively alter their life chances and violate their basic human rights—with the aim of dominating them, as will be detailed below, for economic and political purposes.
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NOTES
NOTES
[2] I am borrowing this concept from a theory known as racial formation theory developed by Omi and Winant (1994) to explain the persistence of racism in modern societies.
[2] I am borrowing this concept from a theory known as racial formation theory developed by Omi and Winant (1994) to explain the persistence of racism in modern societies.
[3] From the perspective of transmission, racist ideologies depend on the creation of stereotypes and their transmission through agencies of socialization. Racists rely on stereotypes to create otherness because stereotypes permit them to dehumanize their victims. These stereotypes can be both “positive” (intelligent, industrious, ambitious), and negative (lazy, dumb, thieving, etc.) but, above all, in the arsenal of all racists three stereotypes are universal and salient: one has to do with dirt, the other with sex, and the third with trust. For example, those who hold a monopoly over power and resources in the United States, the English, have portrayed all these groups at various times in history as unhygienically dirty, animalistically oversexed, and highly untrustworthy: Native Americans, U.S. African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, etc. But where do stereotypes come from? They come from those who are involved in producing the content of what we today call the media (books, cinema, television, theater, newspapers and magazines, radio, museums, etc.): writers, actors, musicians, entertainers, artists, scholars, museum curators, travelers and explorers, etc. All of these people are involved in the creation, dissemination and maintenance of stereotypes. As stereotypes become widespread in a society over time, other agencies of socialization besides the media become involved: the family, the church, schools, and so on.
[3] From the perspective of transmission, racist ideologies depend on the creation of stereotypes and their transmission through agencies of socialization. Racists rely on stereotypes to create otherness because stereotypes permit them to dehumanize their victims. These stereotypes can be both “positive” (intelligent, industrious, ambitious), and negative (lazy, dumb, thieving, etc.) but, above all, in the arsenal of all racists three stereotypes are universal and salient: one has to do with dirt, the other with sex, and the third with trust. For example, those who hold a monopoly over power and resources in the United States, the English, have portrayed all these groups at various times in history as unhygienically dirty, animalistically oversexed, and highly untrustworthy: Native Americans, U.S. African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, etc. But where do stereotypes come from? They come from those who are involved in producing the content of what we today call the media (books, cinema, television, theater, newspapers and magazines, radio, museums, etc.): writers, actors, musicians, entertainers, artists, scholars, museum curators, travelers and explorers, etc. All of these people are involved in the creation, dissemination and maintenance of stereotypes. As stereotypes become widespread in a society over time, other agencies of socialization besides the media become involved: the family, the church, schools, and so on.
[4] In actuality, the historical antecedents of the origins of the European ideology of racism lie in the first encounters between Europeans and Jews on one hand (following the adoption of Christianity by the Romans under Constantine I in the fourth century), and later, Europeans and Muslims (following the Muslim invasion of Europe in the eighth century), on the other. Remember too that the Muslims who arrived in Europe were made up of many different races and ethnicities. Further down the road, in the eleventh century, came the Crusades, and this was one more formative influence in the genesis of European racism as an ideology.
[4] In actuality, the historical antecedents of the origins of the European ideology of racism lie in the first encounters between Europeans and Jews on one hand (following the adoption of Christianity by the Romans under Constantine I in the fourth century), and later, Europeans and Muslims (following the Muslim invasion of Europe in the eighth century), on the other. Remember too that the Muslims who arrived in Europe were made up of many different races and ethnicities. Further down the road, in the eleventh century, came the Crusades, and this was one more formative influence in the genesis of European racism as an ideology.
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