Europe has repeatedly redefined its identity against successive non-white and non-Christian others.

Evidence

In the earliest moments of Europe’s modern continental self-formation, Europeans conceived of themselves in contrast largely to Jews and Moors or Muslims. A little later, once African colonization and colonial countermigrations had each materialized, Europeans elevated themselves on a hierarchical scale the counter-measures for which were provided for the most part by those from “darkest Africa” and the indigenous of Latin America. In the wake of more recent trends, Europeans have come once more to define themselves over and against Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East. Roma, whose distant source was the Indian sub-continent, have never been thought to belong. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 923

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the standing reading theme on how polities define membership — parallels the exclusion logics in ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and ‘Things Fall Apart’.
• QUESTION: The claim that ‘Roma have never been thought to belong’ invites checking when Roma first arrived in Europe and how their Indian origin was historically framed.