Racism recruits non-racists by promising utopia through selective killing

Evidence

In the context of Nazi Germany, Mosse has written, racism ‘defended utopia against its enemies.’ Racism could embrace people who were not themselves racists, Mosse argued, principally through appeal to ‘the thought that some had to be killed so that others could live to the full.’ When we look for signs of racism’s presence, then, it is not simply to be found in the racial hostility some individuals bear towards others not of their race, but also in the ideas that the state must protect itself from those who do not share its values, ideals of beauty, and middle-class virtues. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 43

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Mosse’s insight that racism persuades even non-racists via the utilitarian logic that ‘some must die so others live fully’ is a profound mechanism of collective violence.
• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s theme — sacrifice of some for the collective’s life/health is the same purification logic, here applied to racism rather than ritual.