At 04:55 PM 9/28/99 -0400, Charles Brown wrote:
>The main racism among black petit bourgeoisie ( there are no black big
bourgeoisie) is among black Reaganites like Clarence Thomas who are
anti-black racists. including their espousal of the concepts you put on
this post. There is not such thing as black anti-white racism, but
prejudice. The notion of Black racism against whites, and that it is
growing , is a main stay of racist ideology 1999 (and that is a scientific
statement).
>
>
Charles, the 1999-style racism is much subtler than the crude white/black
kkk variety which your language implies. Its function is much different too.
It is not crude anti-black (or anti-white) racism anymore - but race based
identity politics. The "enemy" is no longer simply a concrete person of a
different skin color but a racialized bogy man, a non-descript abstract
identity hinting some undesirable traits associated with 'races', such as
the 'criminal' the 'welfare mother' the 'racist' the 'neo-nazi' the
'anti-semite/holocaust denier' etc.
The main idea is to produce race-based identity that can be manipulated for
political purposes. As we all know, an outside threat generally boosts
solidarity and thus can be manipulated to create such an identity. So the
trick is to manufacture a sense of outside threat without offending too
many people. Abstract identities with racial innuendos but not explicitly
identifying real persons do that trick rather well. That is what I mean by
playing a 'race card' - a politician or moral entrepreneur erecting such
'racialized' bogy men not to direct frustration at a scapegoat ('lynching
mob' racism) but to reinforce sense of racial identity and manipulate it to
its own polical goals.
Bell used that quite extensively (e.g. one of his trick was distributing a
manufactured Aryan Brotherhood pamphlet endorsing O'Malley), but to his
detriment - he started as the forerunner but could manage to get only 17%
of the votes.
Another point. If I were to allocate the sources of bigotry, I'd say that
about 50% of it originates in the machinations of politicians and moral
entrepreneurs, perhaps 40% originates in negative personal experiences
involving a member of another ethnicity or culture which most people
erroneously attribute to the personal traits rather than different
expectations, norms of behavior, type of interaction etc. (it is a well
know psychological mispereception), and only about 10% in more-or-less
bigoted attitudes and beliefs.
wojtek
