Racist spectatorship mirrors the voyeuristic fantasy of the Freudian primal scene.

Evidence

We could say that it is a game that centers on the fantasy of seeing, hearing, and hence knowing everything about the Other, without oneself being seen, heard, or recognized as Other. It is about eavesdropping and peeking through invisible keyholes into worlds from which one is normally excluded. The ideal is to participate secretly, without being observed to be doing so, and to observe without in any way disturbing what is going on. What is to be seen and heard in this way is usually some excitingly illicit, dangerous, or forbidden, but pleasurable scene. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1411

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the voyeurism/spectatorship literature — Laura Mulvey on the male gaze and cultural-studies writing on the ‘tourist gaze’; also to the broader surveillance theme running through readings on seeing without being seen. — connects to: The racial gaze subjects the observed to a humiliating double-consciousness — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 878; Racist voyeurism mirrors the Freudian primal scene’s dynamic of seeing without being seen — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1411