Heterophobia is anxiety seeking an object, not racism proper

Evidence

I suggest, on the contrary, that it is precisely the nature, function and the mode of operation of racism that sharply differ from heterophobia – that diffuse (and sentimental rather than practical) unease, discomfort, or anxiety that people normally experience whenever they are confronted with such ‘human ingredients’ of their situation as they do not fully understand, cannot communicate with easily and cannot expect to behave in a routine, familiar way. Heterophobia seems to be a focused manifestation of a still wider phenomenon of anxiety aroused by the feeling that one has no control over the situation, and that thus one can neither influence its development, nor foresee the consequences of one’s action. Heterophobia may appear as either a realistic or an irrealistic objectification of such anxiety – but it is likely that the anxiety in question always seeks an object on which to anchor, and that consequently heterophobia is a fairly common phenomenon at all times and more common still in an age of modernity, when occasions for the ‘no control’ experience become more frequent, and their interpretation in terms of the obtrusive interference by an alien human group becomes more plausible. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 187

Categorization

• DEFINE: Provides Bauman’s critical distinction between diffusive heterophobia and functional racism, essential for separating folk Islamophobia from state-directed exclusionary projects.
• XREF: The ‘anxiety always seeks an object’ mechanism parallels the reader’s earlier material on scapegoating and moral panic from other theory texts. — connects to: Visceral racial fears are unreachable by rational argument and need symbolic language — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 905; The ‘phobia’ suffix mischaracterizes calculated hostility as irrational fear — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 603; The phobia label turns racist acts into a condition, not a fault — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 690 (+5 more)

Related

• The phobia label turns racist acts into a condition, not a fault (similarity 0.82)
• The ‘phobia’ suffix mischaracterizes calculated hostility as irrational fear (similarity 0.81)
• Visceral racial fears are unreachable by rational argument and need symbolic language (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Prejudice is an attitude in search of an object, not the reverse #corroborates (0.95)
• The term phobia in Islamophobia denotes discrimination, not clinical fear. #contradicts (0.78) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 94
• Islamophobia is a largely unwarranted social anxiety about Islam and Muslims #expands (0.72)
• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #qualifies (0.72) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706