Feudal concepts reaching lower classes made English race-thinking inheritance-obsessed

Evidence

Colonial racism was a major element in that conception of ‘Empire’ which attempted to weld dynastic legitimacy and national community. It did so by generalizing a principle of innate, inherited superiority on which its own domestic position was (however shakily) based to the vastness of the overseas possessions, covertly (or not so covertly) conveying the idea that if, say, English lords were naturally superior to other Englishmen, no matter: these other Englishmen were no less superior to the subjected natives. Indeed one is tempted to argue that the existence of late colonial empires even served to shore up domestic aristocratic bastions, since they appeared to confirm on a global, modern stage antique conceptions of power and privilege. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: English nationalism’s race-feeling stems from liberty conceived as inherited privilege — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 466; Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 571; Supranationalist class identity among English workers retreated before nationalism (+4 more)

Related

• Race-thinking supplied a natural aristocracy to replace the feudal nobility (similarity 0.89)
• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule (similarity 0.87)
• English race-thinking centered on inheritance and eugenics because gentry assimilation preserved feudal concepts. (similarity 0.86)
• The modern race concept was modeled on aristocratic caste ideas (similarity 0.86)
• Nobility’s conquest doctrine split France into two peoples before race-thinking emerged (similarity 0.85)
• British administrative aloofness fostered belief in permanent racial superiority over subject peoples (similarity 0.84)
• English nationalism’s race-feeling stems from liberty conceived as inherited privilege (similarity 0.82)
• Racial ideology entered English statecraft through governing India, not the colonies (similarity 0.81)
• England needed race-thinking as a unifying theory for distant colonies (similarity 0.80)
• Imperialism would have invented racism even without prior race-thinking (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The modern race concept was modeled on aristocratic caste ideas #corroborates (0.80)
• Colonial racism generalized aristocratic superiority to justify empire and shore up domestic class rule #qualifies (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 571
• Supranationalist class identity among English workers retreated before nationalism #expands (0.72)