Is racism a tactic? Reflections on susceptibility, salience, and a failure to prevent violent racist extremism

Abstract

Humans are intrinsically susceptible to extremist ideologies. A more humanizing approach to education would help us both to reduce prejudice toward others and to recognize our own human vulnerability to racism and other fundamentally destructive worldviews. Reflecting on the lessons learned from an outburst of violent racist extremism two decades ago and insights from the field of teaching and learning about the Holocaust, the author argues that our individual susceptibility and institutional vulnerability to extremism allow doctrines like racism to be effective not just as an ideology that persuades others but also as a tactic that makes various identity categories more salient. White Americans, for example, need not feel persuaded by racist rhetoric for it to be successful; as long as the category of “race” becomes more salient and they feel positioned by racial rhetoric, it may have achieved its aim.