Racism locates identity beyond will so conversion yields loss not change

Evidence

Unlike Judaism, Jewishness had to be, emphatically, stronger than human will and human creative potential. It had to be located at the level of natural law (the kind of law that ought to be discovered, and then taken account of and exploited for human benefit, but which cannot be wished away, tampered with, or neglected – at least, nut without terrible consequences). … The product of conversion – be it religious or cultural – is not the change, but loss of quality. On the other side of conversion lurks a void, not another identity. The convert loses his identity without acquiring anything instead. Man is before he acts; nothing he does may change what he is. This is, roughly, the philosophical essence of racism. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 179

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core philosophical move of racism: identity fixed at the level of natural law, prior to and impervious to any act of conversion.
• XREF: This is the natural-law vs. volitional identity split that grounds later Islamophobia readings on immutable racialized difference. — connects to: Race and ethnicity are mutually converting categories caught in a double demand; Racism repositions its targets from repentable sinners to unregenerable vermin — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 209; Theoretical disputes over race dictate divergent political strategies for transformation (+3 more)

Related

• Race and ethnicity are mutually converting categories caught in a double demand (similarity 0.86)
• Claiming a new racial identity unravels when ancestry is revealed, except through passing. (similarity 0.81)
• Racism repositions its targets from repentable sinners to unregenerable vermin (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Theoretical disputes over race dictate divergent political strategies for transformation #expands (0.75)
• Racism repositions its targets from repentable sinners to unregenerable vermin #expands (0.72) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 209