Food for thought: according to sociologist
W.F. Wertheim, racism generally manifests in 2 forms: exploitation racism and competition racism.
Exploitation racism looks down on a group and is targetted at groups that are subjugated. Exploitation racism is designed to continue their subjugation. Stereotypes include low intelligence, laziness, childlikeness and these characteristics are presented as racially inherent. Rebels are publically punished and dangerous rebels are publically killed but those who do not rebel are not killed as they exist to be exploited.
Competition racism fears a group and is targetted at groups that are not subjugated and can be perceived as competition. Competition racism is designed to create and continue exclusion. Stereotypes include deceptivenness, disloyalty, unreliability and participation in dangerous large scale conspiracies. These characterists are often presented as cultural or as a mix of race and culture. Violence is employed with the goal of removing the whole group through expulsion and genocide.
Competition racism with it’s focus on culture can seem less severe at first but it is not less dangerous.
According to A.R. Wertheim, this is not a stable binary. One form of racism can transform into the other and both can exist at the same time when the social position of a group is in flux. This creates paradoxes where a group is simultaneously imagined to be ‘too lazy to work’ and ‘stealing our jobs’.
It is often assumed that when the social position of a group improves, racism against them must be declining but according to A.R. Wertheim this doesn’t have to be true and racism may simply be transforming. The more power the target of the racism gains, the more completely competition racism takes over from exploitation racism. This is why a group can face genocidal enemies just as their ‘intergration’ is being praised.
QueerAnarchism 