European racism functioned as a complete system of thought, not mere prejudice

Evidence

George Mosse developed a related argument with respect to European racism, pointing out that racism is ‘no mere articulation of prejudice,’ but is instead ‘a fully blown system of thought.’ … All racists held to a certain concept of beauty – white and classical –to middle-class virtues of work, of moderation and honor, and thought that these were exemplified through outward appearance. Most racists consequently endowed inferior races whether black or Jew with several identical properties such as lack of beauty, and charged them with the lack of those middle-class virtues, and finally with lack of any metaphysical depth. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 42

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Mosse’s thesis that racism as a ‘fully blown system of thought’ rests on beauty, middle-class virtue, and metaphysical depth as white-coded markers.
• XREF: The beauty/virtue/metaphysical-depth triad echoes the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ article’s claim that dress moral panics encode class and identity signaling.