Racism

Are antisemitism and white supremacy manifestations of a general phenomenon? Why didn't racism appear in Europe before the fourteenth century, and why did it flourish as never before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Why did the twentieth century see institutionalized racism in its most extreme forms? Why are egalitarian societies particularly susceptible to virulent racism? What do apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, and the American South under Jim Crow have in common? How did the Holocaust advance civil rights in the United States? With a rare blend of learning, economy, and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present. Beginning with the medieval antisemitism that put Jews beyond the pale of humanity, he traces the spread of racist thinking in the wake of European expansionism and the beginnings of the African slave trade. And he examines how the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century romantic nationalism created a new intellectual context for debates over slavery and Jewish emancipation. Fredrickson then makes the first sustained comparison between the color-coded racism of nineteenth-century America and the antisemitic racism that appeared in Germany around the same time. He finds similarity enough to justify the common label but also major differences in the nature and functions of the stereotypes invoked. The book concludes with a provocative account of the rise and decline of the twentieth century's overtly racist regimes--the Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, and apartheid South Africa--in the context of world historical developments. This illuminating work is the first to treat racism across such a sweep of history and geography. It is distinguished not only by its original comparison of modern racism's two most significant varieties--white supremacy and antisemitism--but also by its eminent readability.

Racism exists in many different forms, in almost every facet of society. This Very Short Introduction demystifies the subject and explores its history, science, and culture.Shedding light on how racism has evolved since its earliest beginnings, and examining the notion of race from a modern genetic viewpoint, Ali Rattansi considers the numerous embodiments of racism - from ethnic cleansing and cultural imperialism to discrimination in politics and everyday life.

This volume presents various perspectives regarding the intersection of racism and sociology. Contents include: Racism in White Sociology: From Adam Smith to Max Weber * Postracial Silences: The Othering of Race in Europe * From the Congo to Chicago: Robert E. Park's Romance with Racism * Telling about Racism: W.E.B. Du Bois, Stuart Hall, and Sociology's Reconstruction * Racism's Alterity: The After-Life of Black Sociology * Whitening Intersectionality: Evanescence of Race in Intersectionality Scholarship * The Politics of (Anti-)Racism: Academic Research and Policy Discourse in Europe. (Series: Racism Analysis - Series B: Yearbooks - Vol. 5) [Subject: Sociology, Racial Studies]

There was racism in the ancient world, after all. This groundbreaking book refutes the common belief that the ancient Greeks and Romans harbored "ethnic and cultural," but not racial, prejudice. It does so by comprehensively tracing the intellectual origins of racism back to classical antiquity. Benjamin Isaac's systematic analysis of ancient social prejudices and stereotypes reveals that some of those represent prototypes of racism--or proto-racism--which in turn inspired the early modern authors who developed the more familiar racist ideas. He considers the literature from classical Greece to late antiquity in a quest for the various forms of the discriminatory stereotypes and social hatred that have played such an important role in recent history and continue to do so in modern society. Magisterial in scope and scholarship, and engagingly written, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity further suggests that an understanding of ancient attitudes toward other peoples sheds light not only on Greco-Roman imperialism and the ideology of enslavement (and the concomitant integration or non-integration) of foreigners in those societies, but also on the disintegration of the Roman Empire and on more recent imperialism as well. The first part considers general themes in the history of discrimination; the second provides a detailed analysis of proto-racism and prejudices toward particular groups of foreigners in the Greco-Roman world. The last chapter concerns Jews in the ancient world, thus placing anti-Semitism in a broader context.

This new work brings together contributions from some of the leading researchers in the field, using the benefit of their experience to explore the practical and ethical issues involved in researching in this often controversial field.

Multiculturalism is regarded as a key feature of Canada’s national identity. Yet despite an increasingly diverse population, racialized Canadians are systematically excluded from full participation in society through personal and structural forms of racism and discrimination. Race and Anti-Racism in Canada provides readers with a critical examination of how racism permeates Canadian society and articulates the complex ways to bring about equity and inclusion both individual and systemically.

The politics of racism have returned with a vengeance in the wake of widespread outrage over racial violence, yet nothing about the idea of racism is the same because everything has changed in how we see, think, and talk about it.

While there are numerous studies of racism and racial inequality at the macro-level of analysis, there has been little work done on the experience of everyday racism for black people. Philomena Essed′s brilliant work fills this gap. This landmark volume compares contemporary racism in the United States and the Netherlands through in-depth interview data from more than 2,000 experiences of black women. As an interdisciplinary analysis of gendered social constructions of racism, it breaks new ground. Essed problematizes and reinterprets many of the meanings and everyday practices that the majority of society has come to take for granted. She addresses crucial but largely neglected dimensions of racism: How is racism experienced in everyday situations? How do black women recognize covert expressions of racism? What knowledge of racism do black women have, and how is this knowledge acquired? How do they challenge racism in everyday life? To answer these questions, over two thousand experiences of black women are analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates the disciplines of macro- and micro-sociology, social psychology, discourse analysis, race relations theory, and women′s studies. Samples include only black women with higher education. Many of their experiences of racism involve the "elite" among the dominant group. The book seriously challenges both the notion of Dutch tolerance and the idea that U.S. racism is a problem of the past. With this concept in mind, Understanding Everyday Racism is urgent reading. Essed′s volume represents a landmark in the study of race and ethnicity and will interest researchers, lecturers, students, and professionals of discourse analysis, policy and women′s studies, sociology, psychology, management, psychotherapy, and qualitative methodology. "Without getting bogged down in nit-picking about the definition of racism, the author has succeeded in presenting the true face of racism and has investigated the sociology and psychology of racism. A marvellously subtle and skillful report of everyday racism." --Counselling Psychology Quarterly "In this provocative book, Philomena Essed weaves insights from psychology, sociology, discourse analysis, and women′s studies into an original and important new theoretical framework. She combines a phenomenological approach of describing the experiences of individuals with a structural account of inequality." --Contemporary Psychology "Racism remains a contested concept in both popular and scholarly discourse. Typically unaware of the extent of institutionalized racism, whites generally deny that racism exists. People of color typically see things differently and interpret the dominant group perspective as insensitive and insincere. Philomena Essed′s groundbreaking volume, Understanding Everyday Racism tackles this ambiguity surrounding both popular and scholarly interpretations of racism and sheds considerable light on the difference between dominant and subordinate group views. . . . Essed′s volume makes an extremely important and unique contribution to our understanding of contemporary racism." --Contemporary Sociology