Racism and liberalism: the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion

This essay explores the argument that David Scott FitzGerald and David Cook-Martín make in their book Culling the Masses about the relationship between liberalism and racism, in terms of a balance between inclusion and exclusion. I challenge their dismissal of approaches that see an integral connection between the two and of approaches that see liberalism as inherently opposed to racism. I also discuss their characterization of Latin American ‘racist anti-racism’ and finish by questioning the way that they separate racism from economics.     

What counts as racist immigration policy?

Culling the Masses is a rich, methodologically ambitious book, which sheds much needed light on the factors that influence the adoption and repeal of racist immigration policies across the Americas. Contrary to previous accounts that suggest that the end of racial selection in immigration policy began as a domestic issue in the United States and Australia and then spread elsewhere, FitzGerald and Cook-Martín “find that geopolitical factors were the main drivers of the demise of racial selection.” The sustained attention to the international forces that shape domestic immigration policy—and the means through which they do so—is an invaluable contribution of this excellent book. Culling the Masses also demonstrates that democracy and racist immigration laws not only co-existed comfortably with each other, they have also been causally connected. Somewhat less convincing, however, is the assertion that liberal democracies essentially abandoned racist immigration laws at the end of the 1960s.     

Liberalism and racism: an ‘elective affinity’?

This appraisal of David Scott FitzGerald and David Cook-Martín's Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas argues that there is no ‘elective affinity’ between liberalism and racism, which is the core argument of the book. The notion of ‘elective affinity’, which the authors borrow from Max Weber, requires a structural homology between the ‘electively’ related elements that just does not exist in this case. The relationship between both is entirely contingent, ‘racism’ being a doctrine of inter-group relations while ‘liberalism’ is a doctrine of intra-group relations, with no consideration of how the boundaries of the group are constituted.     

Debunking American exceptionalism and rescuing liberalism

Culling the Masses seeks to explain the shift in American immigration policy from one based on racial and ethnic selection to a more equitable and colorblind approach. The authors argue that international and foreign policy considerations led to a radical shift in policy after World War II. They succeed in debunking American exceptionalism, but in this critique I argue that more attention should be given to the interaction of international and domestic politics, using a ‘two-level game’ framework. Moreover it is important to highlight the contradictions that are inherent in liberalism as a governing philosophy.     

Some Implications of Clark Wissler's Race Theory

A recent attempt to place the name of Clark Wissler in a central position in the history of anthropology ignores his blatant racism. Wissler's racism was evident not only in scholarly and popular circles, but, as well, was employed by the United States government to give ‘scientific’ status to its Immigration Act of 1924. The Act favoured the inflow of Northwest Europeans at the expense of Eastern European Jews and other groups who had been immigrating in massive numbers, and whose presence had become increasingly unwelcome. It was used by the Nazi propaganda machine to justify German anti-Semitism in 1933 and thereafter, and by the United States Department of State to turn away the eventual victims of Nazi genocide. Wissler thus provides a profound scholarly and human contrast to Franz Boas, who publicly deplored racism and immigration restriction. Boas' stand as a ‘citizen-scientist’ partly accounts for his under-evaluation by later anthropologists, most recently by Derek Freeman in his Margaret Mead and Samoa.     

The language of everyday racism and microaggression in the workplace: Palestinian professionals in Israel

Based on interviews with Palestinian professionals in Jewish organizations in Israel, this article discloses a distinctive practice of ‘everyday racism’ and microaggression – a language of everyday racism. This ‘language of everyday racism’ refers to Hebrew words and expressions that are routinely used by Jews in their mundane conversations and that include the word ‘Arab’ when describing a deficiency or defect, some sort of unsightliness, filth, or general negativity (as in the expression ‘You're dressed like an Arab woman’). This article not only describes the language of everyday racism as a specific form of everyday racism and microaggression (national microaggression), it also illustrates how this language activates the Palestinian professionals in a reflexive manner. The discussion section describes how the internal dialectic between structure and agency is critical to understanding the language of everyday racism, which in turn acts as a mechanism of the inequality that underlies face-to-face interactions.     

Is there a post-racism? On David Theo Goldberg’s conjunctural analysis of the post-racial

ABSTRACT

I comment on David Theo Goldberg’s Are We all Postracial Yet? by interpreting it as a programmatic essay towards a new conjunctural analysis of a globalizing racism, and as an emerging globalizing dialogue against racism. In the spirit of Goldberg’s book I relate these two modes of critical engagement in order to open a global perspective through which a relational understanding of racism can be formulated with respect to two neoliberal contexts, continental Europe and the United States. To this end I draw on the work of Étienne Balibar and in particular his early consideration of ‘neo-racism’.     

From ethnic minorities to ethnic majority policy: Multiculturalism and the shift to assimilationism in the Netherlands

Abstract

Recently in numerous European countries of immigration, there has been a widespread ‘moral panic’ about immigrants and ethnic diversity. In The Netherlands, a backlash has occurred in policy and in public discourse, with migrants being blamed for not meeting their responsibility to integrate and for practising ‘backward religions’. Why is it that a self-defined ‘liberal’ and ‘tolerant’ society demands conformity, compulsion and introduces seemingly undemocratic sanctions towards immigrants in a move towards assimilationism? These issues are analysed by providing an overview of modes of incorporation of immigrants in the Netherlands and it presents evidence on the socio-economic situation of immigrants. The article argues that patterns of disadvantage cannot be explained solely by the low human capital attributes of the original immigrants. In spite of multiculturalism, the causes have to be sought in pervasive institutional discrimination and the persistence of a culture of racism. The study argues that a shift to assimilation is more likely to create further societal divisions.     

Race and place at the city limits: imaginative geographies of South Central Los Angeles

In the early 1990s, a new cycle of films emerged that depicted complex portrayals of the lives of African-Americans in the neighbourhoods in which they lived. This so-called ‘hood genre was quite radical in its foregrounding of structural racism and police violence. But Hollywood's marketing of these films muted this radical content by directly contradicting explicit signifiers in the films’ story worlds. While many of the ‘hood films take place on the urban fringe and in suburbs, their promotional materials worked to confine the action, to a mythic ‘inner city'.

This essay studies the two most popular films of the genre, Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society, to illustrate how ‘paratexts' redistricted 'hood films. Through a comparative analysis of the films and their promotional materials, this essay argues Hollywood marketed a racialized ‘imaginative geography' for this important genre of African-American cinema.     

A magnificent atmosphere? Romanian immigration in the political debate of Madrid,Spain

Immigration has consistently been one of the most controversial political topics in many European countries over recent years. Much research has consequently focused on highlighting and describing negative views of immigrants which dominate political debate. This has been particularly the case in studies of Spain. Yet such studies rarely examine positive views of immigration or explain the dominance of some views over others. This article offers a distinct contribution by examining the contested framing of Romanian immigration in Madrid's politics. At the same time that Romanian immigration has increased rapidly to form the largest single nationality population in the country and public opinion has registered specific concerns regarding this nationality, political debate has declared a ‘magnificent atmosphere’ of coexistence. The article explores why, highlighting the stability of discursive and institutional structures which emphasise values of democracy, equality and tolerance over potentially discriminatory acts and statements.     

Denmark between liberalism and nationalism

Abstract

What explains the restrictive turn towards immigrants in European countries like Denmark? Are countries returning to nationalism, or are they following a general European trend towards a perfectionist, even ‘repressive’ liberalism that seeks to create ‘liberal people’ out of immigrants? Recent developments in Danish policies of integration and citizenship, education and anti-discrimination suggest a combination of these two diagnoses. The current Danish ‘integration philosophy’ leaves behind a previous concern with private choice and equal rights and opportunities to emphasize other historical elements, especially the duty to participate in upholding democracy and the egalitarian welfare community, and to promote autonomous and secular ways of life. However, the virtues of this ‘egalitarian republicanism’ are seen by right-of-centre intellectuals and politicians as rooted in a wider Christian national culture that immigrants must acquire in order to become full citizens.     

The Imagined Child: Ambiguity and Agency in Australian Intercountry Adoption

The adoption by Australian couples of children from ‘overseas’ involves claborate processes of bureaucratic assessment, approval and ‘parent education’. This paper explores adults' notions of ‘child’(ren) from ‘overseas’, which help shape and constitute such social processes, not only with couples seeking to adopt, but also with those cultural brokers who assess, regulate and ‘educate’ couples pursuing adoption, such as social workers and psychologists. The ways in which the adoptive ‘child’ is imagined and anticipated by counsellors and would‐be parents alike are explored through ethnographic data from South Australia. However, the proclivities of prospective adoptive parents to imagine their child‐to‐be are attenuated by certain social knowledge in relation to countries of origin. This leads to an exploration of ambiguities and tensions between the intercountry adoptive child as a tabula rasa and as a culturally and historically constituted person. The significance of ambiguities and contradictions for the child's agency and identities is highlighted, within the context of certain social policies around adoption. The chronological age of the child at the time of ‘allocation’ to its adoptive parents is considered as constituting a cultural fulcrum, upon which the identity and situational significance of the ‘origins’ of the child are deemed to subsequently turn.     

Violence against migrants in Greece: beyond the Golden Dawn

Violence perpetrated against migrants by Golden Dawn was rarely investigated or prosecuted by Greek authorities and was discursively constructed as exceptional, contrary to the norms of Greek democracy and committed by marginalized individuals and groups. The article argues that state responses have been shaped by racialized discourses and policies on migration and racism. Anti-migrant violence has been legitimated through three interlinked discursive strategies: a narrative of ‘isolated events’; the denial of its racialized nature; and the rationalization of both state and non-state anti-migrant violence as a regrettable yet understandable defensive reaction to the threats posed by migration.     

Ethnicity and the British Army in Ireland during the American Revolution

People of German‐speaking background have been permanent residents in Australia and Canada for an extensive period of time and are perceived favourably in these multicultural contexts. This has not always been the case. The event of war has the potential to influence the formation of self‐images and stereotypes of ‘others’ and hence to affect the cohesion of ethnic communities. It follows that altered perceptions of ethnicity are likely to alter the ways governments behave towards ethnic minorities. This, in turn, brings a modification in ethnic relations policy. The focus of this article is to examine official attitudes to Germans resident in these countries and external to them during the second world war and in the immediate post‐war period. A particular concern is that of internment. To look comparatively should develop a deeper understanding of its use in two similar (but also different) commonwealth countries.     

I’m neither racist nor xenophobic,but: dissecting European attitudes towards a ban on Muslims’ immigration

During his presidential campaign, the new elected President of U.S., Donald Trump, called for a complete ban on Muslims from entering the United States. Although numerous European observers have been shocked by this proposal, using the most recent European Social Survey immigration module, this paper found that a sizeable proportion of Europeans support a similar ban in their own countries, e.g. Czech Republic (54 per cent), Hungary (51 per cent), Estonia (42 per cent), Poland (33 per cent), and Portugal (33 per cent). The paper also provides evidence that racism and immigration phobia play a key role in shaping Europeans’ support of a ban on Muslims’ immigration.     

Is there a racial order? Comments on Emirbayer and Desmond

ABSTRACT

Emirbayer and Desmond’s THE RACIAL ORDER is a heroic but ultimately quixotic effort. The work relies upon an attempted synthesis of Deweyan pragmatism and Bourdieuian social capital theory. Emirbayer and Desmond deploy an uneasy combination of approaches, insisting upon ‘reflexivity’ in sociological study of race and racism (the pragmatism dimension), and crafting a dubious taxonomy of sociological ‘fields’ where racial conflict takes shape, and in which sociologists study race as well (the social capital dimension). A chapter on ‘racial reconstruction’ proposes to apply their understanding to concrete political struggles, in pursuit of an augmented ‘racial democracy’. While the book is tremendously erudite theoretically and provides a valuable literature review, it does not advance racial theory very much. The authors are distracted by Bourdieu’s scientism and obsession with classification. Although ‘racial order’ is revealed to be a chimera, there is still much to be learned here.     

Ethnicity, ‘status groups’ and racialization: A contribution to a debate on national identity in Britain

This paper is an intervention in a debate on national identity between ­Kenneth Smith on the one hand, and Tariq Modood, Richard Berthoud and James Nazroo, on the other, which had its origins in the influential study, Ethnic Minorities in Britain written in 1997 by Modood, Berthoud and Nazroo, and also Jane Lakey, Patten Smith, Satnam Virdee and Sharon Beishon. I pay particular attention to Smith’s insistence on ethnic self-­selection; his critical observations on the concept of ‘ethnicity’; and his advocacy of its replacement with the Weberian concept of ‘status groups.’ It is argued first of all, that self-selection should be pre-eminent; second that, in racialized societies, ‘ethnicity’ needs to be retained as a defining category; and third that the Marxist-derived concept of ‘racialization’ is more useful than ‘status groups’ as a way of understanding racism, both historically and in the present.     

Multicultural society and everyday cultural racism: second generation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel's ‘crisis of modernization’

Abstract

The core of this article sets out to examine the extent to which a multicultural society can prevent cultural racism, which, like multiculturalism, is by definition based on a culture of diversity and separation. The ‘first modernity’ was organized along national lines, with a centralist state that opted to create an essentialist and uncontested national identity. Immigrants, especially those who came from ‘third world’ countries, were expected to undergo a process of assimilation, and to integrate into the dominant culture by relinquishing their particular past and tradition. Multiculturalism, which emerged historically as a criticism of that perspective, aims at creating a kaleidoscope of associations and cultural communities, which inevitably presents a challenge to the one ‘truth’ of the nation-state with the argument that this ‘truth’ favours some groups over others. Within the multicultural model, identity politics of various groups is perceived as a means to achieve recognition, acceptance, respect and even public affirmation of differences. However, do multicultural society and identity-related differences provide a solution to cultural racism as well?

Investigating the second generation of the Ethiopian Jews, who migrated to Israel during its transformation from ethno-national republicanism to a neo-liberal, multicultural society, can help answer this question. By presenting their patterns of association, character of protest activities and the newly formed hybrid identity that Ethiopian youth have developed as a means to liberate themselves from a discriminating reality, and by examining the Others’ reaction to that challenge, this article uncovers certain mechanisms and methods of action through which a multicultural society, having a thin and mild version of multiculturalism, does not diminish cultural racism, particularly its everyday non-institutional version, but in fact augments it.     

Critical realism,agency and sickle cell: case studies of young people with sickle cell disorder at school

Critical realism suggests that historical structures may operate as underlying generative mechanisms but not always be activated. This explains the near-absence of references to racism by black students with sickle cell disorder (SCD). Through case studies we show how latent mechanisms are not activated, and how social actors come to develop corporate agency. Themes discussed include: wider/historical racisms (carers' own experiences of overt racism at school); conscious actions (moving away from a school where racism was experienced); awareness of anticipatory retaliation (multiculturalism as a form of societal inoculation against accusations of racism); naming racism as an emergent strategy (when communal discussions enable multiple negative experiences to be framed and named as racism); and ‘passing’ (not ostensibly experiencing racism if one is sufficiently light-skinned). Critical realism suggests how racism may be structuring the experiences of students with SCD at school even in the absence of specific accounts by young people.