2 'Class Racism'

This concluding chapter has the subtitle ›introduction‹ because it takes up the results of the previous reflections, connects them with recourse to rudimental ideas of Marx’s sociology, and relates both to a blueprint of the basic structure of a historical materialist theory of racism. At first, I will argue that racism analysis did not make ample use of elementary categories of the ›Critique of Political Economy‹ up to now – including ›economic character masks‹ and ›commodity fetishism‹. Subsequently, I will widen the focus from modern race-based racism developed in the course of European colonialism and the formation of capitalism to a perspective comprising the history of class societies at large. This extension will elucidate that the invention of races was not the origin of racism but only one (relatively late) manifestation of its diverse historical stages of development. Different class societies have found expression in various types of racism. My listing of barbarization, monsterization, contamination, diabolization, savagization, and racialization is the proposal for a typology of racisms. Its complex character is emphasized by references to the intersections of its elements and by an excursus on casteism. Finally, I will present a model of the basic structure of racism as negative societalization. It connects the formation of class societies with the racist exclusion of alienated others and understands racism as a social relation. As it is right and proper for an ›introduction‹, pertinent analyses will have to follow.

American Behavioral Scientist, 1995

2015

This entry includes a political and theoretical conceptualization derived from twentieth century Marxist and black radical responses to labor movement complicity in the tenets and legacies of African slave labor, imperialism and nineteenth century scientific racism. Black radicals have attempted to retain a transformative critique of capitalism while questioning “white left” centering of an industrial proletarian class. While differing from stratification approaches which emphasize interplay between race relations and class inequalities, there is considerable overlap in the conceptualization of race as a status category. Both radical critique and stratification theory also influence contemporary identity politics where the concept of intersectionality assumes a central role over any one category of oppression such as race, gender, class, ability, national origin and sexual orientation. Class/race duality is de-emphasized in favor of a critical approach to multi-dimensional oppressions indicative of a hierarchical culture of “white” wealth, power and privilege.

2011

British Journal of Sociology, 2008

Our chief purpose in this article is to argue for a restoration of a strong notion of agency to sociological accounts of social relations, and particularly those concerned with group formation and conflict. We contend that much contemporary sociological writing on this topic continues to rely on the concepts of race and ethnicity as primary explanatory or descriptive devices. This has two important consequences: on the one hand it reproduces the powerful theoretical obfuscation associated with these concepts, whilst on the other it prompts the notion that human agency has only an illusory role as an intentional agent. Drawing on the intellectual resources of a Hegelian-inflected historical materialism and realism, we challenge both claims by arguing for a post-race, post-ethnicity sociology of group formation, one which allows a greater scope for agency in the determination of social life.

Social Sciences and Education Research Review, 2023

Far from being a past or obsolete phenomenon, racism is branching out and spreading in many forms today. The scope of the concept of racism remains, however, difficult to demarcate. So is the differentiation of this term from other notions that designate similar attitudes, behaviors and practices. This paper discusses some issues of current interest in relation to racism, starting with the link between the terms "racism" and »race«, and debating the current distancing and even separation of the two concepts, despite the linguistic link. The paper also analyzes various definitions and perspectives on racism. Some content issues are approached, such as the fact that racism is, as contrary to some shared attitudes such as xenophobia, both an ideology or theory and a set of exclusionary and marginalizing practices. Furthermore, different forms of racism are addressed, from 'classical', biological racism, which resorted to biological differentiations, to the forms of racism that characterize the contemporary world, which emphasize cultural differences and/or include racist views and practices embedded in social values, norms and even in the functioning of society. These present-day forms of racism have been referred to by various expressions, such as cultural racism, differential racism, symbolic racism, racism without races, neo-racism, and institutional racism. Some conclusions are drawn from these delimitations, discussions and reflections, such as that maybe it might be more accurate to speak of racisms in the plural, given that the hypothesis of multiple racisms is increasingly confirmed by practice, as well as the fact that not only multiple racisms but also multiple dogmata should be considered in order to have a comprehensive overview of exclusion, marginalization, oppression, exploitation or discrimination.

While racism continues to spread, its analysis has been split into a number of different approaches. Generally, their proponents are not profoundly interested in the history of their own concept. They employ and content themselves with a superficial perpetuation of some insufficient references. And yet, getting back to the early development of the semantic field of ›racism‹ can contribute to an understanding of the various interests affecting its emergence as well as the diverging influences determining its later development. It shows that ›racism‹ had a broad-ranging history until its concept was constricted in the course of the rejection of its fascist German form. Mapping the semantiv field of the concept of racism also traces the parallel transformation of the concept of race into an instrument of critique and resistance.

The Philosophical Forum, 2003

sions of historical materialism. But these examples and brief comments do not provide us with an unequivocal general conception of ideology, much less a theory of the phenomenon. In later writings, Marx, again without explicitly defining the notion, proceeds to analyze particular forms of ideological thoughtdemystifying their illusions, disclosing their distinctive social functions, and explaining their relation to the material conditions that he claims causes them to be produced and widely accepted. It is partly on the basis of these various examples, remarks, and particular analyses of Marx and Engels that I will reconstruct the concept of ideology, but where appropriate I will also make liberal use of insights taken from other sources (Marxist and non-Marxist).

Global Labour Journal, 2019