Racism

The etymology of the word race is not clear. Three possibilities from Latin are the derivations of the word ratio „nature, essence,“ radix „root,“ or generatio „procreation.“ All variants can be reconciled with today’s understanding of the term. The term racism originated in the 20th century, more precisely in the 1920s/30s (cf. Zerger 1997, 19 u. 80).

The Duden defines racism as an ideological justification of racial discrimination. People or population groups with certain biological characteristics are by nature superior or inferior to others in terms of their cultural performance (cf. Duden 2007, 879).

Another definition describes racism as a one-sided and extreme distortion of reality in the sense of an exaggerated self-image and a disparaging image of others (cf. Geulen 2007, 7).

Conceptual delimitation

How does racism differ from xenophobia or right-wing extremism? Racism is understood as oppression or unequal treatment based on biological, genetic differences. External physical characteristics as well as historically or culturally determined habits are hierarchized. The appearance of one’s own people is placed above that of other peoples. This creates a supposed feeling of superiority, resulting in discrimination against the other people on the basis of their race.

Thus, in contrast to right-wing extremism, the term has less to do with hostility to democracy, which speaks against the rule of law in the basic order. Although this is also directed against people with other biological characteristics, it places the emphasis on a critique of democracy. The discrimination of racism takes place less because of a different origin, language or religion. In this case, one would speak of xenophobia (cf. Führing/ Lensing 1994, 62). Nevertheless, it is often difficult to make a sharp distinction because of overlaps. Right-wing extremists follow the racist idea and take an active approach to it. Even in the social center there is a part, a gray zone, that subscribes to the racist idea (cf. Koller 2015).

History

There have always been many different population groups that differed from each other hereditarily. For example, there are the Pygmies, the Mongols, the Indians or the Arabs – all with their specific characteristics. At first glance, the most striking difference between people is their skin color. On the basis of these external conspicuous features, which are visible to everyone, classification came about in order to be able to categorize the groups and then evaluate them.

In the 15th century, the so-called Age of Discovery, Portugal and Spain divided the world among themselves. The Europeans found access to new trade routes and countries with a lot of wealth were exploited. To do this, they needed labor, and as a result, the Atlantic triangular trade took hold. This in turn led to the Africanization of slavery. Slaves were taken to the New World and the profits they made went back to the European royal courts. Where slavery had already established itself in profitable colonization, a hierarchy based on skin color emerged. Military superiority conditioned a perceived moral and religious superiority (cf. Hund 2017, 20).

The Europeans understood their task to be to convey progress in their sense to the supposedly less developed peoples of America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Systematically, most of the globe was colonized and divided between Europe and Japan.

In school textbooks, for over 100 years beginning in the 1870s, for example in France, the black race was portrayed as capable of improvement. This was justified in such a way that strongly pigmented humans are most similar to the monkey particularly regarding the head form. White-skinned people, on the other hand, were portrayed as the most perfect species. This falsely learned classification led to the erroneous belief of a hierarchy according to hereditary characteristics (cf. Victor 2012).

During the Nazi era, the Aryan race was then considered the most valuable race. Between 1939 and 1945, Sinti and Roma, so-called half-breeds, Jews and many other groups were graded to such an extent that they did not have the right to live in Germany. The result was the so-called racial mania. Its effect was a new, racially motivated anti-Semitism. The extermination camp where most people died by gas chambers, poison injections or shooting was Auschwitz (cf. Wippermann 2005, 75). After the lost Second World War, the Germans‘ sense of superiority dwindled again. The process of denazification was supposed to help ‚white vests‘. It was strongly influenced by the Cold War (cf. Hund 2007, 151).

A milestone regarding racial equality was the American Civil Rights Act of 1964, which declared racial segregation in public illegal. The Civil Rights Act represented a major step towards freedom for African Americans as well, but it was not the end of the struggle for equality (cf. Bringle 2015, 6).

Forms of racism

As can be seen from the previous sections, the core racist idea is to construct white, Western people as the ’norm‘ and to valorize them over the rest of the world’s population (cf. Othering).

In order to get an overview of the different forms of racism, a distinction is made between three general and five explicit manifestations. In principle, the basic forms are often mutually dependent and intertwine.

Basic forms

Structural racism refers to the institutionalized form of discrimination and is characterized by its hierarchical power structure. Here, racism takes place ‚from the top down‘ and abuses social dependency relationships. Some examples of this are racial profiling and poorer job and educational opportunities for people with an immigrant background (organization vs. group of people).

Cultural racism is understood as exclusion based on cultural as well as religious attributions. Culture takes the place of a ’superior race‘, which is why this form is also described as ‚racism without races‘ or ’neo-racism‘. The ethnocentric perspective is assumed to be the only correct one and interculturality is considered harmful. Exemplary here are anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic attitudes (circle of people vs. circle of people).

Everyday racism encompasses day-to-day experiences of discrimination that result from the interaction of individuals. These can be unintentional or deliberately racist and usually occur very subtly. They include, for example, derogatory language use and the trivialization of discriminatory experiences (individual vs. individual) (cf. Ogette 2017).

Explicit forms

1 postcolonial racism names the contemporary marginalization and stigmatization of dark-skinned people as the aftermath of colonial racial ideology. Such ways of thinking include the displacement of ongoing Western profit through colonial territorial divisions and exploitation, and ethnocentric representations of the world. The rejection of self-designations such as black, people of color, blackfacing, and race realism also fall into this category. To this day, disparagement based on phenotypic characteristics is structurally embedded. The Doll Test shows the influence this can already have on children. Furthermore, one’s own unconscious prejudices can be determined with the help of the implicit association test (cf. ibid.).

2 Anti-Semitism refers to the totality of statements hostile to Jews and thus replaces the outdated, religiously based anti-Judaism. The most common prejudices refer to the allegedly genuinely Jewish nose and the stylization as money-grubbing and influential. From the latter, numerous conspiracy theories are spun, according to which Jewish people control the world (Rothschild theory). In addition, there is Holocaust denial up to and including justification, as well as anti-Semitism hidden under a pretended criticism of Israel (see Polak 2018).

3 Gadje racism includes discrimination against Sinti and Roma. ‚Gadje‘ means non-Roma and replaces earlier terms such as antiziganism and -romanism. Thus, for the first time, the side practicing racism is focused on definitionally. Sinti and Roma are stigmatized as homeless, uncivilized people or romanticized as ‚free people‘. Both versions contribute to their being seen as third-class people and as not belonging to society (see AAS 2019).

4 Anti-Muslim racism often coincides with anti-Islamism, as both share the intention of discrediting Muslim people. On the surface, discrimination is based on religious affiliation, but the reality is that it is generalized based on phenotypical characteristics. Often, those affected are assumed to lack the ability to integrate or to hold extremist beliefs.

5 Anti-Asian racism encompasses all devaluations of Asian people. Symptomatic are the degradation of the eye area or seemingly positive attributions such as diligence and intelligence. However, these stigmas also contribute to a racist othering and, in case of doubt, lead to the majority society not taking the racist content seriously. In contrast, the assumption that Asian people pose a general risk of infection with the Corona virus is overtly racist (cf. Dapp 2014).

 

Literature

Amadeu Antonio Foundation (2019): Racism against Sinti and Roma. https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Flyer_GMF_Roma.pdf [12.03.2020].

Bandelow, Borwin: Xenophobia is in all of us. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/angstforscher-borwin-bandelow-ueber-fremdenangst- 15763320.html [25.12.2018].

Bringle, Jennifer (2015): The civil rights act of 1964. new york: The Rosen Publishing Group.

Dapp, Teresa (2014): We are not gooks! In: Time Online https://www.zeit.de/zustimmung?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2Fpolitik%2Fdeutschland%2F2014-02%2Fwir-sind-keine-schlitzaugen [12.03.2020].

Duden (2007): Das Fremdwörterbuch. 9th ed. Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut.

Führing, Gisela/ Lensing, Mechthild (1994): What does fremd mean here? Berlin: Cornelsen.

Geulen, Christian (2007): History of racism. Munich: Beck.

Harvard University: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/germany/selectatest.jsp [12.03.2020].

Hund, Wulf D. (2017): How the Germans became white. Little (homeland) history of racism. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler.

Koller, Christian: What is racism, anyway? http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/213678/was-ist-eigentlich-rassismus [26.12.2018].

Ogette, Tupoka (2017): Exit racism. Learning to think critically of racism. Münster: Unrast.

Polak, Oliver (2018): Gegen den Judenhass. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

Victor, Jean-Christophe: The emergence of racism. http://www.bpb.de/mediathek/178985/die- emergence-of-racism [12.12.2018].

Wippermann, Wolfgang (2007): Rassenwahn und Teufelsglaube. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Zerger, Johannes (1997): What is racism? An introduction. Göttingen: Lamuv.

Youtube: Doll Test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpUyB2xgTM [12.03.2020].