Admiration for aristocratic rule slid logically into racial contempt

Evidence

Under the influence of Oxford’s conservative insistence on the rightness of the British system’s provisions for keeping the reins of government in the hands of a highly educated upper class, Moses came more and more to admire that system. Such admiration, of course, postulated as a concomitant an amiable contempt for the capability for government found in members of the “lower” classes—which in this context included everyone not a member of the British nobility. And from this attitude, it was a logical step to reserve supreme contempt for those whom the British aristocracy considered most incapable of self-rule—the people of the nations British troops had conquered, which meant, in general, people of color, brown, yellow or black. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 224

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the colonialism themes this reader tracks around euphemism and moral justification. — connects to: A Yale debater publicly defended colonial delay in self-government — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 226; Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 571; Race doctrines gained appeal by granting aristocratic status by birth — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 237 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule #expands (0.88) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571
• European race thinking originated as aristocratic status anxiety #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 189
• Race doctrines gained appeal by granting aristocratic status by birth #expands (0.82) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 237
• Racism as full ideology was forged in France by a frustrated nobleman #exemplifies (0.82)
• British administrative aloofness fostered belief in permanent racial superiority over subject peoples #expands (0.80)
• Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility #expands (0.78)
• Anti-monarchical sentiment is often mistaken for early racial doctrine #contradicts (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2244
• Early race-obsessed intellectuals were politically harmless and ideologically uncommitted #contradicts (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 464
• Colonial administrators misread their own invented rule as natural racial superiority #expands (0.75)
• Oxford transformed hereditary arrogance into upper-class ideology of noblesse oblige #qualifies (0.72) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 210