The dominated reenact past injustice upon themselves to make it bearable

Evidence

The social commitments of civility thus become the evasion – indeed, the refusal – of civil equality and social justice. For which the dominated are supposed then to be grateful. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 249 (#expands, via linked claim)

White man, hear me! History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us….And it is with great pain and terror that one begins to realize this….In great pain and terror because…one enters into battle with that historical creation, Oneself, and attempts to recreate oneself according to a principle more humane and more liberating. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 277 (#expands, via linked claim)

This astonishing effect of successfully extending the rules of bureaucratic conduct, complete with the delegitimation of alternative loyalties and moral motives in general to encompass the intended victims of bureaucracy, and thereby deploying their skills and labour in the implementation of the task of their destruction, was achieved (much as in the mundane activity of every other, sinister or benign, bureacracy) in a twofold way. First, the external setting of the ghetto life was so designed that all actions of its leaders and inhabitants could not but remain objectively ‘functional’ to German purposes. ‘Everything that was designed to maintain its [ghetto] viability was simultaneously promoting a German goal … Jewish efficiency in allocating space or in distributing rations was an extension of German effectiveness. Jewish rigour in taxation or labour utilization was a reinforcement of German stringency, even Jewish incorruptability could be a tool of German administration.’ Second, particular care was taken that at every stage of the road the victims should be put in a situation of choice, to which criteria or rational action apply, and in which the rational decision invariably agrees with the ‘managerial design’. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 95 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Civility demands that the dominated feel grateful for their own subordination. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 249; Subordinates inflict harm on their own group with benevolence to succeed within dominant rules — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 683; People carry history within themselves and must battle it to become more humane. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 277 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Civility demands that the dominated feel grateful for their own subordination. #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 249
• People carry history within themselves and must battle it to become more humane. #expands (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 277
• Victims’ rational conduct was engineered to serve their own destruction #corroborates (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 95
• Subordinates inflict harm on their own group with benevolence to succeed within dominant rules #complicates (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 683
• Benevolent, sugar-coated treatment of subordinates enlists them in their own oppression #expands (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 768