Race Theory Research Articles

Constant ‘physicality – agonistic’ base of human existence and its cultural derivations and inversions

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine the inversion of essential cultural values, such as physical perfection and the sports spirit, in 20th-century Europe. Periods emerged when physical perfection, once celebrated, morphed into tools for eugenics, racial theories, and ideological segregation. Similarly, the sports spirit became entangled in political and ideological conflicts. I approach this through the Marxist lens of ‘base—superstructure’ relations, focusing on the biological ‘base’, often misinterpreted through social Darwinism. This base is not subject to dialectical changes, does not develop spirally but remains a constant fundament of human existence. It anchors pre-human and human interactions centered on physical fitness and interpersonal competition rooted in sexual selection. From this premise, I propose a philosophical model progressing from the general to the specific, built on four levels. At its foundation lies the unchanging physicality-agonistic ‘base’. From this base emerge three enduring cultural ‘structures’: physical culture, agonistic culture, and the uniting of these two sports cultures. These structures produce two cardinal values—physical perfection and sports spirit—while also giving rise to inversive superstructures that veer toward cultural distortions. I connect these inversions to the influence of elite groups shaping public opinion, aligning this analysis with Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony. In this last stage, this perspective finds synergy with traditional Marxism, highlighting the role of elites in steering societal values and cultural frameworks.

On the consequences of childbirth: obstetrics/gynaecology, comparative anatomy and racial theories in 19th century France and Brazil

The following paper is centred on an analysis of comparative studies of the human pelvis developed over the 19th century by mostly French natural scientists, physical anthropologists, students of the...

Strategi Komunikasi Hubungan Masyarakat Youth Ranger Indonesia dalam Penyebaran Informasi

The development of information technology has presented challenges for non-profit organizations such as Youth Ranger Indonesia (YRI) in information dissemination activities, especially for its target audience, namely youth. As an organization that focuses on youth empowerment, YRI requires an effective communication strategy to reach the audience and ensure that the message delivered can be received properly and correctly. This study aims to determine the media and communication strategies used by YRI Public Relations (PR). This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach, with primary data obtained from in-depth interviews with YRI PR, while secondary data is obtained from literature and YRI social media documentation. The communication strategy described refers to the 4 Step of Public Relations (RACE) theory, namely research, action, communication and evaluation from Cutlip, Center and Broom. The results of the study show that YRI uses digital media such as WhatsApp, Gmail and Instagram. The communication strategy used by YRI is in accordance with the RACE theory, and has been proven to help YRI PR carry out information dissemination activities more effectively. This research is expected to be a reference for YRI Public Relations in developing more effective information dissemination strategies, to strengthen YRI's role in efforts to increase youth potential.

Jean Barré de Saint-Venant et la colonisation nouvelle

The aim of this article is to explore the intellectual and political trajectory of the Dominguan planter, scientist, and agronomist Jean Barré de Saint-Venant (1737-1810). As a member of the Circle of the Philadelphes and of the Chamber of Agriculture of Le Cap Français, between the end of the Old Regime and the Napoleonic period, Barré de Saint-Venant outlined through his memoires and printed works a creole path to agricultural, economic, and institutional progress in the plantation society of Saint-Domingue. By blending philosophy, racial theory, colonial history, scientific experiments, and empirical knowledge, his reflection and action within the central and peripheral imperial administration demonstrate the active participation of Barré de Saint-Venant and other Dominguan colonists in the pursuit of a so-called «colonisation nouvelle», based on expertise in the service of the legislator, on technological and governmental modernisation, on the promotion of an enlightened public sphere, and on the exploitation of the enslaved African. On the other hand, Barré de Saint-Venant’s ideas and reform projects invite us to reflect further on the notion of «Caribbean Enlightenment».

Adaptive politics, or countering the myth of German transformation after 1945

Abstract International Relations (IR) accounts of the post–World War II international order often claim that after its defeat, Germany ‘transformed’ from a fascist, militaristic, and racist state into a model liberal democracy, facilitating its full rehabilitation and integration into Western institutions and alliances. Yet a closer examination of post-war German domestic and international politics challenges this account: denazification was widely reviled, survivors faced ongoing persecution, and a retooled antisemitism asserted itself in international diplomacy. This article offers the concept of adaptive politics to capture how collectively held beliefs, identities, policies, and conduct travel across incisive political events like defeat in war, occupation, and genocide, outlining the complex concurrence of continuity, adaptation, and change in their aftermath. Drawing on theories of sovereignty, biopolitics, racism, and antisemitism, the article tracks the unfolding of West German adaptive politics in the immediate post-war period, focusing on efforts to exonerate perpetrators, modifications of racism and antisemitism, and the role of the trauma diagnosis in debilitating survivors. By sanitising this history, IR scholarship positions the post-war liberal international order, and the international politics of the West more broadly, as entirely disconnected from the disordered conduct associated with Nazism.

The Aversive Racism Theory of Cultural Appropriation: Attributions of Target Intent Suppresses Evaluations of Intergroup Harm.

This research investigates whether racially dominant (White) and minoritized group members (Black) differentially evaluate intergroup harm in ambiguous (vs. overt) acts of cultural appropriation (the aversive racism hypothesis), due to attributions of positive intentions to the target (the intent as justification hypothesis). Four experiments (N = 1,020, 3 preregistered) and an internal meta-analysis converge to demonstrate that White perceivers evaluated less harm than Black perceivers in ambiguous acts of cultural appropriation. Attributions of positive intent served as a mechanism underlying this effect; naturally occurring variations in positive intent mediated the link between participant race and harm evaluations (Studies 2 and 3), and experimentally manipulating target intent altered harm evaluations as well as motivations for collective action (Study 4). Findings integrate work from multiple academic disciplines with insights from contemporary theories of prejudice to suggest that perceivers' attributions of positive intent can obscure their evaluations of harm in acts of cultural appropriation.

Was Kant a Cosmopolitan Racist?

Abstract Contemporary debate on Kant’s practical philosophy has focused on racial claims appearing primarily in transcripts of students’ notes taken during his lectures. But was Kant – the champion of world citizenship – really a racist? It is certainly hard to defend him from the charge of racial prejudices. However, a universally exclusivist standard of rationality such as the one he promoted leads at worst to cultural imperialism. It is more doubtful whether this amounted also to a full racist theory, as this would have implied seeing some races as inherently incapable of full rationality. Kant’s biological theory of races – the investigation of race being a theoretical rather than practical task – did not serve such a racist purpose. This article argues that Kant was ultimately interested in scientific distinctions, assuming the point of view of a naturalist researcher (Naturforscher). Accordingly, he cannot be said to be a biological racist.

The racialisation of AIDS in Denmark: Tabloid media scandals of sex, race and contagion

In 1992, a Danish tabloid newspaper published the picture, name and address of a Black man on its front page under the title ‘He is the AIDS killer’. The outing marked the beginning of a controversial public scandal in Denmark directly leading to the introduction of a new law criminalising HIV in 1994. Centring questions of race and nationality in connection with HIV/AIDS, we examine in what ways the discursive framing of this, and two other public scandals, became tools of interpellation calling into existence ‘problematic’ and ‘dangerous’ groups like the racialised immigrant. Drawing on theories of race and racialisation through the work of Michel Foucault and Alexander G. Weheliye, we understand racism as structurally constituted within biopower and the violent expulsion of racialised people as a form of structural racism integrated in the state apparatus. Thinking about race in this way allows us to investigate how the figure of the racialised immigrant is represented vis-à-vis a racialised regime of representation as well as within a specific economy of fear and white paranoia. Our analysis shows that the racialisation of AIDS in Denmark, through which the control and disciplining of racialised bodies were made possible, worked in tandem with the cultural production of a national health crisis narrative that – put together – enabled, produced and pushed for particular political reactions and interventions culminating with the passing of the HIV Act in 1994.

Disallowing Multiplicity: Internalized Hierarchies, Dissociation, and Unformulated Bits of Self in a Poor, Mixed-Race Kid

ABSTRACT In this paper, the author considers how binary and categorical models of identity function as a means of maintaining hegemonic normative ideals. These frameworks necessarily create tremendous psychic tension for people with multiple, interrelated, mixed subjectivities, leading to the dissociation of aspects of self. Race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory are identified as fields that consider nonnormative, nonbinary, and multitudinous subjectivities. The author shares autobiographical experiences related to growing up mixed race and in poverty to reckon with his own intersecting identities and explore how hidden subjectivities and normative multiplicities manifest inside and outside of the consulting room and how professional psychoanalytic spaces assume homogeneity. A perspective of mixed-race experience is elaborated, and a new consideration of mixed-class experience is offered in which identity categories are considered from nonbinary, fluid, and trans perspectives that embrace a both/neither mentality. The author challenges the field of psychoanalysis to critically examine its unconscious transferences of the homogeneous analyst, as well as the structures, pedagogies, and theories within its institutions that maintain normative, binary standards of subjectivity.

Police leaders’ support for civilian oversight and implicit bias training: assessing the influence of perceptions of systemic racism

ABSTRACT This study uses a sample of police leaders from across the United States to explore the extent to which their support for civilian oversight boards and implicit bias training, as two aspects of police reform intended to improve racial injustices, relate to their belief that systemic racism is an issue in criminal justice. Presented in the context of symbolic racism theory, we assess how respondents’ willingness to acknowledge systemic racism in criminal justice relates to more supportive perceptions of civilian oversight boards and implicit bias training. These relationships remain significant even when controlling for other individual and agency-level factors that are known to affect perceptions of systemic racism and support for public policies designed to improve racial justice. This study discusses the need for additional research and consideration of how police officers’ racialized attitudes relate to their support for common reform recommendations.

Has population mental health returned to pre-pandemic levels, among and between racialized groups and by immigration status?

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted population health, including mental health, in ways that were patterned unevenly by pre-existing systemic inequalities such as structural gendered racism and xenophobia. However, it remains unclear whether pandemic-related mental health deterioration has persisted over time. Drawing on theories of disruptive events and structural racism, we conceptualize the pandemic as a prolonged macro-level disruptive event with unequal ramifications for different racialized groups and by immigration status. We use six waves (2017–2022) of repeated cross-sectional data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS; N = 121,063) from men and women from nine racialized and immigration status groups (US-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and noncitizens of White, Latina/o, and Asian racialized groups, respectively). We use multivariable regression to examine changes in psychological distress within each group, and then assess patterns of racialized health disparities between Latina/o and Asian groups, respectively, compared to White US-born citizens, who occupy the most structurally privileged social status. Our analyses reveal several key findings. First, we observed persistent increases in psychological distress from 2020 through 2022, relative to the pre-pandemic period (2017–2019), for all racialized and immigration status groups, among men and women. Second, few groups had returned to pre-pandemic distress levels as of 2022. Third, there was a consistent health advantage for White US-born citizens across the pre-pandemic and pandemic years, whose highest post-pandemic distress measure was lower or equivalent to the pre-pandemic distress of US-born Latina/o and Asian groups. Fourth, the psychological distress gap between the White US-born population and US-born Latina/o and Asian groups, respectively, grew or held steady through 2022. Finally, the 2020–2022 period was associated with a reduction in pre-pandemic health advantages among Asian immigrant groups, relative to US-born White citizens, especially among men. Our findings provide strong evidence that population mental health has not recovered from the pandemic period.

Correction to: Separate from Class? Toward a Theory of Race as Resource Signal

Correction to: Separate from Class? Toward a Theory of Race as Resource Signal

Race, sovereignty, and White settler colonial studies: placing settlers at the Cultural Interface

ABSTRACT White settler colonial studies has been widely criticised for representing settler colonialism as an impenetrable and inevitable structure. This article therefore turns to explore how race preconditions and limits the construction of settler subjects. We draw on Torres Strait Islander theorist Martin Nakata’s Cultural Interface theory to unsettle ‘common-sense’ theories of race, and reconceive of the place where European and Indigenous cultures meet as sovereign Indigenous land. We extend Cultural Interface theory to locate White settler standpoints within the intertwined histories of racial capitalism and European and US imperialism. We argue that these histories orient settlers towards White possessive sovereignty. This article then deploys this framework to provide a deeper understanding of the disciplinary limits of White settler colonial studies through two case studies. First, we analyse Liberia’s construction as a settler colonial nation to denaturalise and historicise White settler standpoints. Second, we analyse the White settler standpoint institutionalised in White settler colonial studies’ descriptions of the settler/Indigenous binary, the logic of elimination, and settler sovereignty. In both cases, White settler standpoints are shaped and limited by the racialised logics of White possessive sovereignty. We nevertheless conclude that settlers may reorient themselves towards Indigenous sovereignty.

Looking Back to Look Forward: Publication Trends in the First Decade of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Looking Back to Look Forward: Publication Trends in the First Decade of <i>Sociology of Race and Ethnicity</i>

Starting with the self: Conceptualizing an anti-racist early childhood pedagogy by critiquing white educators’ social-emotional competencies

While much research attention has focused on young children's social-emotional (SE) competencies, an increasing body of evidence points to the importance of educators’ SE skills. Indeed, scholars have suggested that such skills support educators’ emotional well-being which, in turn, prevents burnout and facilitates a positive learning environment for young learners. Although the preceding benefits are well recognized, scholars have yet to fully explore how the interconnected domains of SE competence are linked to and support anti-racist pedagogy in early years classrooms. Drawing on systemic racism theory, this paper builds on and broadens the scope of the extant anti-racism in early childhood literature by focusing on (i) the positionality of white educators as it pertains to anti-racist pedagogy; (ii) conceptual and practical connections between anti-racist pedagogy and white educators’ SE competencies; and (iii) identifying how educators can evaluate and improve their pedagogies in a play-based early years classroom.

Neighborly Surveillance: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and the Development of a Post-Jim Crow Ideological Apparatus

The relations of production in Deep South regions like the Mississippi Delta require a high degree of control over race and class configurations. While the overt, de jure White supremacy that marked the post-Reconstruction era allowed for effective repression of dissent, the promise of federal intervention and grassroots organizing during the years of the civil rights movement required White elites to recalibrate methods of control. By integrating theories of racialization of space, internal colonialism, and Althusser’s (2006) notion of the ideological state apparatus, I suggest that this transition from overt to implicit control was accomplished by creating a culture of neighborly surveillance in which everyday Whites were deputized to surveil and report on civil rights organizing at the grassroots level. By neighborly surveillance, I refer to surveillance between and amongst private citizens enacted outside the purview of the formal state but in the interest of the powerful elite who control the state. I document this process through analysis of the archives of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, an official state agency tasked with spying on and counteracting civil rights activity. These records demonstrate the extent to which non-state actors assumed the roles originally exercised by the de jure Jim Crow regime. Beyond augmenting understandings of the civil rights movement-era US South, this article contributes analytical insights to social and ideological transitions in other post-colonial, post-authoritarian spatial contexts.

Racist targeting and denial in academia: the ineffectiveness of current policies and practices to address evolving forms of racism

ABSTRACT Studies on bullying and harassment in academia, investigative news reports, and surveys continue to find that reporting these incidents leads to retaliation. Contributing to this work, we apply the lens of systemic and everyday racism theory to a narrative analysis of 25 semi-structured interviews with faculty and staff of colour, who experienced racist targeting and how they addressed these issues formally and informally. We find that, rather than assist them with the harassment they faced, such policies created an additional layer of everyday racism, emotionally segregating experiences leading to isolation and withdrawal, and contributed to racism-evasiveness in academia. Our data expose weaknesses in the implementation of policies that do not reflect modern-day expressions of racism. We recommend individual and institutional changes to protect faculty and staff of colour who have challenged racist individuals and structures.

What to Do after the Emancipation Proclamation? A Princeton Seminary Alumnus’s Views on Racial Issues and Slavery in Brazil and the United States (1852–1867)

Abstract This article reflects on how the concept of race and views on African Americans and Afro-Brazilians permeated the American Presbyterian missions that operated in the Brazilian empire in the nineteenth century. This analysis considers the writing and reading of Ashbel Green Simonton (1833–1867), a Princeton Seminary alum sent to Brazil as a missionary by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). In his missionary activity, Simonton founded the first Presbyterian Church and the first evangelical periodical in Brazil. Considering the intercessions between the racial theories stemming from natural history and nineteenth-century theological anthropologies, as well as the missionary’s interactions with the racial and slavery issues that permeated the American Civil War (1861–1865), this article analyzes Simonton’s journal (1852–1867), the books requested by Simonton at Princeton Theological Seminary (1856–1858), and the periodical Imprensa Evangélica (Evangelical Press, 1864–1867).

The need to address limited access to capital and strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in order to increase black new venture creation

PurposeRacial wealth inequality is a significant and growing issue in the USA. Improving the lagging rate of black new venture creation and successful entrepreneurship could help close the gap. The purpose of this paper is to focus needed attention on the financial challenges resulting from institutional and systemic discrimination that black entrepreneurs must deal with. Following this literature review, the paper makes recommendations and broad public policy suggestions.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts a literature review and discusses the myriad of reasons black entrepreneurs struggle with inadequate access to capital, with special emphasis on weaker entrepreneurial ecosystems that have resulted from systemic racism.FindingsThe paper sheds light on several factors which continue to directly impede successful black entrepreneurship including discrimination in lending, distrust in institutions, over-reliance on (inadequate) personal capital and declining black-owned banking and financial institutions, as well as community banking options in black communities.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is conceptual and relies on prior literature. The proposed solutions are just a starting point and are certainly not meant to be all-inclusive or comprehensive. Much future research, particularly longitudinal research, is needed to further develop theory and specific public policies which can close the disparities this study has discussed. This study outlines several key areas in need of further quantitative and qualitative studies to better understand black entrepreneurship.Practical implicationsThe US economy will increasingly suffer if the nearly 15% of population (and growing) made up of black communities continues to struggle. The broad-based policy solutions proposed in this paper would allow for increased access to capital that would address the long-term deficiencies and help to close the racial wealth gap.Social implicationsThrough this study’s broad-based potential solutions, entrepreneurial ecosystems can be strengthened to build the environment for successful new venture creation in black communities. The longer-term benefit would be increased tax revenues, improved communities with fewer individuals needing support through government assistance and greater social stability as economic gaps between various racial groups are closed.Originality/valueUsing a broader entrepreneurial ecosystem framework and a systemic racism theory lens, this study discusses the limited capital black entrepreneurs have access to. Following this literature review, this study offers broad-based policy solutions that can strengthen ecosystems and directly address the issues raised in the paper.

Racial capitalism and firearm violence: Developing a theoretical framework for firearm violence research examining structural racism

Despite the early promise of centering structural racism in explanatory models of firearm violence, there are noticeable gaps in what's been produced thus far; in particular, a deeper and more serious engagement with long-standing theories of racism is needed to further enrich our understanding of how structural inequalities produce unequal burdens of firearm-related harms. Thus, building on theories and concepts from a range of academic fields and Black philosophical perspectives, we developed a theoretical framework to help explain the role of place-based structural racism on firearm violence disparities. A central component of our framework is the concept racial capitalism, which contends that racial exploitation and the accumulation of assets depend on and reinforce one another. In this article, we present our framework and highlight how two processes related to racial capitalism—racialized dispossession and racialized spatial stigma—are connected with geographic disparities in firearm violence. We also present the results of an ecological cross-sectional study that reveals a potential key association between racial capitalism and firearm violence disparities on the neighborhood-level. We used a structural intersectionality approach and descriptive epidemiological methods to highlight and quantitatively describe spatial firearm violence disparities that could potentially be linked to the varying exposure of two dimensions of racial capitalism—historical redlining and contemporary racialized subprime mortgage lending. We found that sustained disadvantaged census tracts (tracts that were historically redlined and experienced higher contemporary subprime lending) experienced the highest burden of firearm violence in Baltimore City between 2015 and 2019. Our research suggests that racial capitalism could potentially be a root cause of firearm violence disparities. A theoretical framework based on racial capitalism can inform the development and usage of indicators and analytic methods for racism-related firearm violence research. Moreover, this framework can identify factors to prioritize in equity-based violence prevention policies and programs.