English othering of Arabs began as othering of its own white poor and Scots

Evidence

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, it became commonplace in London to talk about people who are today considered white as “racial and civilizational others.” It was not simply that these others were being compared to England’s colonial populations or to slaves; they were “savages, pure and simple.” In a nutshell, Makdisi suggests that the moment of the creation of a distinctive white English occidental identity was also the moment when the othering of Arabs, Africans, Scots Highlanders, and the poor of London also took place. It is therefore not possible to demarcate a racial or civilizational separation that falls neatly along national lines. Put another way, projects of racialization have both domestic and international contexts that shape them—a central argument in this book. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 149

Categorization

• XREF: Builds the ‘framing/definitional power precedes foreign targeting’ dynamic the reader’s MOC needs — racialization’s machinery is practiced on domestic ‘others’ first. Connects to Loïc Wacquant’s ‘internal colonialism’ literatures and to the reader’s own point in ch5-6 about racialization technologies deployed on internal class others. — connects to: White English identity was forged through othering its own poor and Scots — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 137; White English identity formed simultaneously with othering of domestic and colonial populations; English whiteness formed simultaneously with othering of internal and external populations (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle for the alienation essay: ‘to see the enemy clearly we must first see whom we already practice enemy-making on at home’ — the domestic rehearsal of imperial representation.

Broader Connections

• White English identity formed simultaneously with othering of domestic and colonial populations #corroborates (0.90)
• English whiteness formed simultaneously with othering of internal and external populations #corroborates (0.85)
• Orientalism first targeted England’s own aristocracy and poor before external targets #corroborates (0.80)