Racial versus national oppression differs by which group props up elite rule

Evidence

Theodore W. Allen has explained that the distinction between racial and national oppression turns on the composition of the group that enforces elite rule: under a system of national oppression, such as Britain imposed on India or the United States maintains in Puerto Rico, the conquering power implements its dominance by incorporating sections of the elite classes of the subject population (in modern times a portion of the bourgeoisie and state bureaucracy) into the ruling apparatus. Under the system of racial oppression, elite rule rests on the support of the laboring classes of the oppressor group. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 129

Categorization

• DEFINE: Key analytic distinction that structures the whole argument about how Irish became white: racial oppression recruits the oppressor group’s own laborers as its enforcers.
• XREF: This framework connects directly to the reader’s comparison of category reclassification drivers and to Milgrom/Shapiro-style accounts of how institutions recruit enforcers. — connects to: Oppression of racialized others primarily serves the wealthy, not ordinary white people — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1410

Broader Connections

• Oppression of racialized others primarily serves the wealthy, not ordinary white people #expands (0.82) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1410