Gobineau’s racial hierarchy framed whites as possessing order and perseverance.
Evidence
At the same time, they created for themselves identities that projected them as superior and ingenious. Gobineau (in Biddiss, 1970, p. 136) summarizes these identities: … We come now to the white peoples. These are gifted with reflective energy, or rather with an energetic intelligence. They have a feeling for utility … a perseverance that takes account of obstacles and ultimately finds a means of overcoming them … an extraordinary instinct for order, not merely as a guarantee of peace and tranquility, but as an indispensable means of self-preservation. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 42
Categorization
- DEFINE: Captures the specific vocabulary of 19th-century scientific racism that underwrote settler superiority claims.
- XREF: connects to: Gobineau tied patriotism’s revival to the political rise of a racial class — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2272; Racism functions to secure a dominant group’s hegemony over subordinate groups. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 635
Broader Connections
- Gobineau tied patriotism’s revival to the political rise of a racial class
#expands(0.82) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2272 - Racism functions to secure a dominant group’s hegemony over subordinate groups.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 635