Dominant groups treat subjugated groups’ potential self-determination as a threat to their own domination.

Evidence

A sociality of the skin, thus, is one of threat. It is predicated on social relation in which the lives – the livelihood, the social conditions of life’s reproduction, the social positioning and self-determination – of the subjugated are threatened at every turn. But it is a sociality, in addition, in which the domination of the dominant is fueled by the threat they invest in the very existence and expression of the subjugated. The potential selfdetermination of the powerless and subjugated, the potentiality of which is always immediately if far from completely signified in a racial state by the invested significance in the skin, is taken as threatening to the continued domination of the powerful. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1504

Categorization

• XREF: Articulates the zero-sum anticipatory-threat mechanism the reader is testing as a general phenomenon — that subjugated self-determination is read as threatening to dominant continuance. — connects to: Subordinate self-determination is read as a threat to dominant rule — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1504; Dominant-race domination is sustained by threat invested in the subjugated — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1504; Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1391 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that domination is ‘fueled by the threat the dominant invest in the very existence of the subjugated’ — threat as constitutive rather than incidental to domination — resists one-sentence summary and rewards sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Subordinate self-determination is read as a threat to dominant rule #corroborates (0.98) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1504
• Dominant-race domination is sustained by threat invested in the subjugated #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1504