Bourgeois racism signals that the ruling class senses its own mortality
Evidence
Oh! the racism of these gentlemen does not bother me. I do not become indignant over it. I merely examine it. I note it, and that is all. I am almost grateful to it for expressing itself openly and appearing in broad daylight, as a sign. A sign that the intrepid class which once stormed the bastilles is now hamstrung. A sign that it feels itself to be mortal. A sign that it feels itself to be a corpse. And when the corpse starts to babble, you get this sort of thing: — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 93
Categorization
- DEFINE: Césaire’s method here — diagnosis rather than moral outrage — is a stance later postcolonial and critical race writing adopts: treating racism as a symptom to be examined, not merely denounced.
- XREF: Previews the machinery that Islamophobia readings will need: racism read as class-doom signaling rather than merely prejudice. — connects to: Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 571; Imperial racism and bureaucracy supply the elements of totalitarian rule — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 567; Obsession with mortality functions as a form of psychological slavery. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2115 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility
#expands(0.88) - Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule
#expands(0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571 - Imperial racism and bureaucracy supply the elements of totalitarian rule
#expands(0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 567 - Obsession with mortality functions as a form of psychological slavery.
#complicates(0.72) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2115 - Bourgeoisie aestheticized crime to mask their own practiced illegalities
#expands(0.70) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 435