Racial Ideology Research Articles

Introduction to Part 1 of the Themed Issue, ‘Racism and Colonialism in Hegel's Philosophy’: Rationale and Topics

It is increasingly realized today that Western modernity has not only promoted progressive ideals such as scientific thought, human rights and democratic political systems. Its history is also marked by a much darker side, one of brutal conquest, biological and cultural destruction, enslavement and exploitation of non-European peoples in the context of European colonialism. This dark side of Western modernity was legitimized by pro-colonial ideologies of property, war, civilization, progress and race. Such ideologies emerged in areas like jurisprudence and philosophy since the 16th century, often building on views from classical antiquity (Pagden 1995). They shaped academic paradigms such as ‘scientific racism’, colonial anthropology and Orientalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and in many ways continue to influence contemporary societies and their academic practices.

White parents' racial socialization during a guided discussion predicts declines in white children's pro-white biases.

Although parent-child conversations about race are recommended to curb White U.S. children's racial biases, little work has tested their influence. We designed a guided racism discussion task for U.S. White parents and their 8-12-year-old White children. We explored whether children's and parents' (a) pro-White implicit biases changed pre to postconversation, (b) racial socialization messages (color conscious, external attributions for prejudiced behavior and colorblind racial ideology [CBRI]) predicted changes in each other's implicit biases, and (c) associations varied by the type of racism (subtle vs. blatant) discussed. Children's and parents' biases significantly declined, pre to postdiscussion. Parents' color conscious messages predicted greater declines and messages reflecting CBRI and external attributions predicted smaller declines in children's bias. These patterns were observed during discussions of subtle, but not blatant bias. Effects of children's messages on parents' bias were mixed. Our findings suggest that color conscious parent-child discussions may effectively reduce implicit pro-White bias in White children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Haunted Monasteries: Troubling Indigenous Erasure in Early Colonial Mexican Architecture

This essay examines the placement and displacement of Nahua labor in the architectural history of Mexico’s early colonial monasteries. It takes as its point of departure the story of a ghost in the Tlaxcala monastery as told by a Franciscan missionary to analyze the discursive and spatial dimensions of emergent racial ideologies in Mexico’s earliest Catholic missions. While the ghost’s appearance signals the eruption of unresolved tensions between the missionaries and the Tlaxcalans in a cohabited religious complex, the specter also animates settler colonial domination. Cross-referencing Nahuatl and Franciscan documents reveal the ghost story as a whitewashed tale of monastic ritual life wherein the ghost effaces Indigenous labor at precisely the moments and places missionaries deemed it most threatening. In so doing, this study illuminates how racial ideologies were structured discursively and experientially at the missions and contributes to urgent debates about how the history and preservation of Catholic architecture in Mexico conceals and represses the lived experience of Indigenous peoples.

The Transit Fix—Border Externalization and the Interplay of Capital and Race in the Transit “Migration” State

Abstract What happens after border externalization? States and regional organizations of the Global North increasingly engage in transnational migration management that seeks to prevent potential irregular migration beyond their territory. Despite the impressive financial and political resources the involved actors mobilize to reach this goal, little is known about the effects of this strategy on their target states and populations. This paper conceptualizes border externalization as a spatial intervention that absorbs contingent migrant flows into an interplay of capital and race. It argues that the immobilization and differential integration produced through externalization can serve as a spatial fix for labor shortages in transit “migration” states. This differential integration disempowers the targeted migrant population and aggravates racial antagonisms. Hence, border externalization is not just a (by-)product of racist ideology and policy, but also intensifies racial hierarchies in the space it intervenes into. The paper studies this through the case of the “EU-Turkey Deal” and Turkey’s Syrian refugee population, building on document analysis and primary interview data with industry representatives, farmers, NGO workers, and government officials. On a theoretical level, the paper thereby contributes to the recent trend that reinserts the border into global processes of racialized capital accumulation.

Defending the Color Line: White Supremacy and the Legacy of Brown

Building on W. E. B. Du Bois’s color line concept, I argue that white supremacy is deeply embedded in U.S. educational organizations and that White racial actors, opportunity hoarding, and the cultivation of racial ideology and racial ignorance help sustain it. In doing this, I seek to move away from the aspirational progress narratives often associated with Brown to the racial hierarchies and various forms of harm that schools reproduce, even when they are racially diverse. Taking the recent attacks against critical race theory as a backdrop, I argue that educational institutions not only contribute to educational inequity but also socialize people into relations of racial domination and subordination through organizational practices and individual actions. In the article’s conclusion, I highlight my efforts to disrupt these patterns and work toward the creation of more liberatory education spaces.

Understanding racism

ABSTRACT This article defends an account of racism as centrally an ideology, a system of illusory ideas. It argues that the relevant ideology has the effect of oppressing people of some racial identities, an idea it explains and explores. It defines ‘racialism’ as a kind of essentialism about racial identities and argues that it is false. Both racialism and the vice of racism, which consists of having morally impermissible attitudes to people in virtue of their racial identities, are among the consequences of racial ideology. On this view, not all differential treatment on the basis of racial identity is racist.

The dynamics of racism and antiracism in a Scottish charity

This research explored how staff and families using a Scottish trauma-informed charity, striving to enact antiracism, understand and approach race and antiracism in services for families of colour. Thematic analysis was applied to data from ten interviews with six staff participants and four families. Six interlinking themes emerged. Staff identified the charity as a ‘white organisation’ and sought ‘a common frame of reference’ with families, while families expressed overwhelming ‘gratitude’ to staff. ‘Identities were owned and disowned’, with participants using ‘colour-blind’ racial ideologies. Staff ‘located responsibility’ for bridging cultural gaps in families of colour. White staff, while well-intentioned, did not express a fundamental understanding of racism, impeding their ability to enact antiracism. This reflected wider Scottish policy and lay beliefs of being a post-racist society, and challenged organisational attempts to fully embody trauma-informed practice. Challenges and recommendations for researching racism in the third sector are discussed.

Ideological Crisis, Compliance, and Self-Censorship: Identifying the Symptoms of Sinhala-Speaking Theatre Through Its Responses to the Civil War

Abstract: Although many Sinhala-speaking plays created in Sri Lanka after the 1960s focused on contemporary political and social issues, there were surprisingly few theatre productions that addressed the civil war, a significant political crisis in Sri Lanka. Additionally, those few plays that addressed the Civil War failed to provide an opposing thought to the racist ideology that led to the Civil War. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to discuss the issues that caused Sinhala-speaking theatre to pay less attention to the civil war. French philosopher Louis Althusser claimed that “The Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression” (Althusser 1971: 145). Along with the argument by Althusser, I will also explore how ideology and repression weaken the significance of the war for the Sinhala-speaking theatre during wartime .

What Is a Hakka?: Tracing the Development of Hakka Ethnic Identity in Jamaica

Abstract: Weaving together literature from postcolonial, cultural, and anthropological studies, this essay traces the historical reethnicization of "Hakka" across nation-states from the nineteenth century to the present as a reflection of the savvy techniques that Afro-Asian communities use to navigate conflicting racial ideologies throughout the African and Asian diasporas and beyond. It argues that "Hakka" serves not only as an ethnic identifier for groups in southern China and Taiwan (primarily) but also as a flexible signifier that is used by Chinese Jamaicans to navigate and resist state-based racial technologies throughout multiple countries and time periods.

크로아티아 ‘언어 순수주의’에 나타나는 인종적 우스타샤 언어 이데올로기

Croatian is the common language of the Republic of Croatia, the national language representing the Croatian people, and the core national symbol. After independence in 1991, Croatia sets priorities to complete the identity of pure Croatian people, which is different from Serbian, and to recreate the Croatian language for this purpose. The core of Croatian language policy is generally described as ‘Croatian purism’. Croatian purism, led by only fighting spirit, is, in principle, to remove all elements that undermine Croatian purity. The ideology that extremely emphasized the purity of the Croatian people in Croatian history comes from Ustasia. The Croatian Independent State (Nezavista Država Hrvatska: NDH), which was a practical aspect of Ustasia, implements ‘language purism’ according to the principle of ‘blood and language’. The situation and development method of the two-lingual purism are very different, but in ‘Croatian purism’ unique to fighting spirit, some aspects of NDH's ‘blood and language’ ideology appear. This study studies NDH's linguistic purism based on Ustasia’s racial ideology and ‘Croatian purism’ based on the romantic nationalism of ‘one language = one territory’ from an ethnolingustic perspective.

Colorblind racial ideology as an alibi for inaction: Examining the relationship among colorblind racial ideology, awareness of White privilege, and antiracist practices among White people

AbstractThis study examines the relationship among White antiracism, colorblind racial ideology (CBRI), and White privilege awareness. We use Critical Race Theory (CRT) to frame the historical context of racism in the U.S. and the emergence of racist ideologies. We examine the extent to which White privilege awareness mediates the relationship between CBRI and antiracist practices among White people. We found that (1) participants’ antiracist practices were increased the more they rejected power‐evasive forms of CBRI, (2) people who were more aware of their White privilege were also more driven toward antiracist practices, and (3) respondents’ awareness of their White privilege was enhanced as they rejected power evasive forms of CBRI. We also found that White people were more likely to participate in antiracist practices when they rejected power evasion CBRI partly because rejecting CBRI enhanced their awareness of White privilege. Our results suggest that the fight against racism requires White people to acknowledge and dismantle the privileges that come with being a member of a dominant group. We contend that CRT is a powerful framework for psychology because it helps resolve the problem of understanding how structural phenomena become ideologies that shape the way people believe and behave.

“Everybody that's here, is legal” white employers' racial ideologies in the workplace and justifications for hiring undocumented Latino laborers

AbstractWhite employers routinely hire undocumented Latino immigrant workers based on their perceived racializations about their subservience. Researchers have explored how employers racialize Latinos, yet there is less understanding of how white employers justify breaking immigration labor policies. This study analyzes the justifications of both racialized exploitation and organizational decoupling that supports violations of immigration laws. Using in‐depth interviews with 20 white employers, this study explores employer racializations of Latinos, views of whiteness in the workplace, and justifications to hire undocumented immigrants. White employers praise Latinos for their perceived subservience, favor whites for management, and neutralize their own unlawful actions of hiring undocumented laborers. White employers frame themselves as rational, innocent, and virtuous while reinforcing racial stratification and breaking immigration laws. This study provides insights on employer labor practices with implications for labor mobility, migration reform, and racial inequality in the workplace.

Restricted affiliation: the costs of otherness among Afroczechs

ABSTRACT The increasing presence of African diasporic people in Europe and their identity politics have given rise to a proliferation of studies on their experiences, albeit with the exception of central eastern Europe (CEE). This research expands on this scholarship by addressing lived experiences, racialisation processes and struggles to belong among Afropeans in Czechia. Grounded in ethnography the study draws from narrative interviews with self-identified Afroczechs who are closely connected to both their African heritage and their Czechness. We conceptualise their identity politics as Restricted Affiliation in a sense that the state of belonging to Czechia has distinct limits due to the high costs of racial Otherness they experience. The findings demonstrate the limits of a shared language vis-à-vis racial ideologies in Czech national identity constructions and contribute to more visibility and further theorising of Czech blackness.

“Walking Together”: Can Racism Be Overcome by a Postsecular Spirituality?

ABSTRACT The continuing power of racist ideology threatens liberal democracy, for racism is more than a personal bias or a social construction. It is an ideological framework that reduces human beings to an existence along a color-coded spectrum, with people designated as “white” at the top of the hierarchy and people designated as “black” at the bottom. One has to see this ideology clearly in order to choose a proper response and then act accordingly. First, the reality of “race” has been exposed as unscientific and illusory, and as based not on biology or genetics, but on a legacy of empowerment for some and enslavement for others. Second, this racist ideology, part of our disenchanted, secular age, is exposed as a continuing form of enchantment in its manner of seeing the world, opening the possibility for a spiritual response. Third, dismantling this racist ideology requires a reimagining of “blackness” as a source of life and spirituality, as a way of countering and rewriting the dominant racist narrative. Fourth, a postsecular spiritualty, based on the work of Pope Francis—that emphasizes the importance of protecting our common human dignity, of caring for each other, and of “walking together”—can be engaged as a path for action in the battle against racism.

Raced and risky subjects: The interplay of racial and managerial ideologies as an expression of "colorblind" racism.

Contemporary manifestations of race are dynamic and elusive in the forms and shapes they take. "Colourblind" racism is effective at drawing on seemingly objective and race-neutral discourses to obfuscate racialized forms of structural exclusion. Framed by Critical Race Theory and Critical Narrative Analysis this paper presents an example from the Australian context that examines the relationships between a grassroots initiative developed by creatives from the African diaspora and two not-for-profit human services organizations, to illustrate how ideologies of race are enacted and obscured by managerialist ideologies and discourses of risk. Specifically, it shows how harmful dominant cultural narratives of deficit and danger transforms racialized Africans in Australia into "risky subjects." In a managerialist organization, risk must be controlled, and thus risk becomes the rationality for the control of racialized and risky subjects. Resistance to control by those subjects produces forms of organizational defensiveness that are mobilized through managerialist discourses and practices that work to structurally exclude. These findings illustrate the ways ideologies of race work alongside and through other ideological discourses and practices which render racialized dynamics of oppression race-neutral.

Stronger color evasive racial ideologies predict lower likelihood of open adoption placement with same-sex couples.

Although the adoption rate among same-sex couples has been increasing, limited research has focused on factors influencing decision making related to placing children with such couples, particularly from the standpoint of birth mothers. Additionally, there is a gap in the literature regarding how biases may influence birth mothers' decision to place their child with a same-sex couple. This study sought to examine the association between birth mothers' racial ideologies and their decision to voluntarily place their children with same-sex couples (n = 29) or mother-father couples (n = 354) during the adoption process. Results indicated that birth mothers with stronger color evasive racial attitudes were significantly less likely to place their children with same-sex couples. The need for additional research about the intersections among various forms of bias in the adoption process and the effect of potential interactions between homophobia and racism are discussed. Suggestions for professionals wishing to minimize homophobic and racist bias are provided.

The Impact of the Wars of June 1967 and October 1973 on Contemporary Hebrew Poetry

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the impact of the June 1967 and October 1973 Wars on Zionists’ racist attitude towards Arabs. It also aims to suggest that Hebrew literature, especially poetry, is one of the most important methods that has been consistently used by the Zionist movement in fulfilling its project.
 Methods: The study adopts the textual analysis approach to literature and poetry through employing close reading.
 Results: The two wars deeply affected Israeli society and literature, reinforcing the prevalent racist attitude towards Arabs among the members of that society. Indeed, the poems written by pro-Zionist poets were based on a racist ideology. However, Hebrew writing often captured the mood of Israeli society, which was mostly characterized by fear and confusion, in the aftermath of the wars. In fact, Hebrew literature increasingly reflected this state of affairs after the October 1973 War. All Israeli sectors were experiencing a state of confusion after the 1973 war, an idea which was underpinned by the belief that those who are confused cannot lead, a belief which affected Zionists’ treatment of Arabs.
 Conclusions: The study concludes that literature played a major role in Israeli society, especially during and after the two wars. More specifically, poetry played an effective role in shaping people’s ideas, tendencies, decisions, and political choices, especially during the elections. The study also concludes that racism and hostility towards Arabs explicitly prevailed in Hebrew literature after the two wars.

Examining language and racial attitudes in an L2 French learning context

ABSTRACT This is a quantitative study on language and racial attitudes among learners of French in the English-dominant context of British Columbia (Canada). Such attitudes matter because they can have an impact on students’ learning outcomes in and outside the classroom and they reflect linguistic and racial ideologies that exist in society. A verbal guise test was used to gather data from 83 participants who were taking intermediate and advanced French courses at the University of British Columbia (UBC) at the time of this study. Five varieties of French (from Montreal, Moncton, Vancouver, Abidjan and Paris) and two races (Asian and White) were included. The objectives were to investigate the effect of accent and race on the participants’ language attitudes. The results revealed a clear preference for European French and Quebec French, but these findings can be challenged by the participants’ difficulty in distinguishing among the different varieties. Interestingly, L2 French was evaluated more positively than the L1 varieties from Moncton and Abidjan – a finding that points to the importance of having exposure to non-standard accents in order to enhance positive attitudes. Finally, the participants also demonstrated a preference for the accents of Asians (compared with Whites) in evaluating spoken French.

Translanguaging: A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Translanguaging empowers non-native English speakers in the use and maintenance of their first language. Using their entire linguistic repertoire, English language learners (ELLs) will be able to express themselves better in speech and writing. Support for their home language will increase overall linguistic ability but will also help them maintain connections to their heritage and families and allow them to continue to identify with and be proud of their cultural roots. Opposition and prejudice against the use of languages other than English should be examined and rooted out for the racist ideology it is.

The Providential Genocides: Racial Survival and Acts of God in Fin-de-Siècle Apocalyptic Fiction

This paper focuses on three narratives from the popular press during the boom in apocalyptic literature at the turn of the twentieth century: George Griffith’s Olga Romanoff (1894), Robert Barr’s “Within an Ace of the End of the World” (1900), and M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud (1901). In all three texts, a catastrophic event causes the near extinction of humanity, and the event is inscribed in a religious narrative wherein humanity’s moral failings justify the cataclysm. In these texts, the survivors are European or descended from Europeans, such that post-apocalyptic humanity is exclusively White; all racial Others are depicted as unworthy of divine protection, or even as worthy of divine destruction. The survivors of these disasters fuse social Darwinism and theology to present themselves as racially superior and thus divinely favoured, compared to the deceased. The providential genocide significantly alters ethical ramifications by ensuring that racial elimination does not occur because of deliberate actions on the part of characters, sparing them from any culpability; instead, racial cleansing is presented as God’s will. This sets up a White exclusivist racial utopia free of moral stain, although the persistence of racial ideology into the apocalypse can undermine the utopian sentiment.