On Racism · 09/24/2007 07:40 AM
From Ella Shoat and Robert Stam’s Unthinking Eurocentrism:
Any analysis of racism calls for certain distinctions. First, racism differs from ethnocentrism. Any group can be ethnocentric, in that it sees the world through the lenses provided by its own culture. But to see the world through the lenses provided by ones own culture is not necessarily racist, nor is it racist simply to notice physical or cultural differences, or to detest specific members of a group, or even to dislike the cultural traits of specific groups. What is racist is the stigmatizing of difference in order to justify unfair advantage or the abuse of power, whether that advantage or abuse be economic, political, cultural, or psychological. Although people of all groups can entertain racist opinions—there is no genetic immunity to racism—not every group enjoys the power to practice racism; that is, to translate a racial attitude into social oppression.
Tags: {commentary}
|
