Orientalist binaries were first turned internally on domestic class enemies before external targets

Evidence

Makdisi shows that through the course of the nineteenth century, a clearly polarized notion of what constituted the “normative self” was constructed in opposition to the “degenerate other.” While the normative self was “productive, modern, sober, unadorned, disciplined, rational, frank, fair-minded, moderate, regulated, democratic, hardworking, honest, natural, scientific, virtuous, manly, masculine”—virtues I would argue that fit with an industrial capitalist ethic—the other was “vain, retrograde, obsessed with appearances, irrational, unproductive, undisciplined, lazy, unnatural, licentious, capricious, deceitful, emotional, fanatical, tyrannical, violent, indulgent, voluptuous, sensual, feminine, effeminate,” and thus either a relic of a previous noncapitalist era or part of impoverished groups unsuitable as subjects of domestic capitalism. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 136

Categorization

• XREF: Dialogs with Rana’s and Razack’s accounts that racial othering originates purely in external colonial encounters. — connects to: Orientalist binaries were first aimed at Europe’s own poor and aristocracy. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 148; Orientalist othering was first deployed against internal British targets before empire.; Orientalism first targeted England’s own aristocracy and poor before external targets

Broader Connections

• Orientalist othering was first deployed against internal British targets before empire. #corroborates (0.95)
• Orientalism first targeted England’s own aristocracy and poor before external targets #corroborates (0.95)
• Orientalist binaries were first aimed at Europe’s own poor and aristocracy. #corroborates (0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 148