Symbolic violence works only by masking the power relations behind imposed meanings.

Evidence

0. Every power to exert symbolic violence, i.e. every power which manages to impose meanings and to im{Jose them as legitimate by concealing the power relations which are the basis of its force, adds its own specifically symbolic force to those power relations. — Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and…, 672

Categorization

• DEFINE: The book’s foundational axiom defining symbolic violence as imposition that conceals its own power basis.
• DEEPTHINKING: Dense, paradigm-level shared premise for the entire theory — but excerpt is only a single sentence plus short gloss. Borderline; kept for definitional clarity rather than depth luster.
• XREF: connects to: The media codes only certain groups’ violence as religiously motivated — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 198; Symbolic and physical violence reinforce each other as sovereign marking — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1044; Structural exclusion that hides its own mechanisms constitutes violence — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1741 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Symbolic and physical violence reinforce each other as sovereign marking #expands (0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1044
• Islamophobic ideology selectively attributes violence to religion only in the Muslim case. #exemplifies (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 354
• The media codes only certain groups’ violence as religiously motivated #exemplifies (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 198
• Structural exclusion that hides its own mechanisms constitutes violence #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1741
• A truth commission focused only on individual acts buries institutional violence #exemplifies (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1608
• Perceiving a group as powerful and malevolent rationalizes extreme violence as self-defense #exemplifies (0.72)