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The Omission of Anti-Semitism in Anti-Racism

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The Omission of Anti-Semitism in Anti-Racism The Omission of Anti-Semitism in Anti-Racism by CarobAnn Reed Two identifiable trends in this work the most easily recognizable distinc- which are important to distinguish tion between the "New" and "Old" L'auteure discute des d~ff&entesfa~ons are what I call broad-based anti-rac- World peoples was given a hierarchi- dr percevoir Irs questions dc race et & ism and narrowly-focused anti-rac- cal social signification-that is, those raheet ehamlyJe fimpact & ces ism. Woik which I would classify as with lighter skin colour from the Old vues sur fa position qu bccupe narrowly focusedanti-racismincludes "civilized" European World were in- l 'antisdmitisme dans les projets the work of C. Mullard, G. Brandt, herently superior to the darker H. Carby and the skinned inhabitants of the New "un- earlier work of A. tamedn World. Thus the idea of race Sivanandan. Work and the history of racism is linked to The motivation fir the birth of tbe ideology I would classify as the primary exploitable difference ofracism was to make the monetary broad-based kti- between First and "New" Worldpeo- racism includes the ples' skin colour. To narrowly-fo- expLoitation of the newly &covered hrL work of B. Troyna, cused anti-racists this generative mo- and their peop les morally pahbk J. Williams, B. ment and the colonization that fol- Carter and P. lowed it was of paramount impor- Cohen. It is im- tance in the formation of race rela- antiracistes. L 'autcuredimonm com- portant to first identifj and then ex- tions. Brandt, for example, main- mrntdtff.?rentes intnprttationsdr ques- plicate these two visions of anti-rac- tains that the sixteenth and seven- tions essmtiefks au sein du discourn ism because each has adifferent inter- teenth centuries antiraciste ont encouragt l'cxclusion pretation of the central issues within d'une conscience antishnitique hnsces anti-racist discourse and, in myopin- can be seen as a crucial moment projets. ion, it is the gap between the two in the overt articulation of the views that has abetted the omission of racialization and of relations in Anti-racism, like the multicultural anti-Semitism from anti-racist work Europe as a whole... Black peo- agenda it critiques, is an umbrella and added to a confusion about anti- ple became objectified as term encompassing different, some- Semitism's place within the anti-rac- property... and as human capiml times conflicting viewpoints. Al- ist project. at the hard end oftrade, industry though the anti-racist critique began Broad-based and narrowly-focused and colonization (7). in Britain, it has also emerged in anti-racist viewpoints differ in at least Australia, Canada and, to a much four areas; the concepmalization of Brandt then goes on to explain how lessor extent and more recently, the race and racism, the focus of anti- colonialism and its mirror image, United States. However, it was in racist education, the role of the state imperialism, fostered patterns ofcon- Britain, duringtheeighties, that anti- and its institutions (includingschool- tact and exploitation that fossilized racism flourished and the full flower- ing) and the role ofthe blackcommu- into the practice of racism. "It was in ing ofanti-racist theoretical work took nity in the anti-racist struggle. the colonial situation that the vo- place. It was during this time period cabulary and the culture of racism that Chris Mullard did much of his Narrowly-focused anti-racism acquired [its] systemic form" (19). work including Racism in Society and The history of racism that is acknowl- Schools: History and Policy and Prac- According to the narrowly-focused edged and shapes the concept of race tice; and Race Power and Resis~nce. view, the moment racism entered is the history of imperialism, the his- Barry Troyna wrote Racial Inequality human history exposes its cause and tory of the "conquestn of the New in Education and with Jenny Williams, defines its nature. Hence, much sig- World and the system of plantocratic Racism. Education andtheState. Work nificance is given to the generative slavery that was used to exploit the by P. Gilroy, P. Cohen, R. Jeffcoate, moment of 1492. In 1492 Columbus New World's rich resources. J. Nixon, h SivanandanandH. Carby "discoverednthe Americas with their Because primarily Africans were also appeared at this time and con- abundant natural and human re- used as slaves the physical signifierof tributed to the unfolding anti-racist sources. The motivation for the birth skin colour is seen as the elemental dialogue. of the ideology of racism was to make form ofracial division. Although con- Within this body of work there are the monetary exploitation of the nections of racism to other equity many different, sometimes conflict- newly discovered lands and especially struggles is acknowledged, the focus ing views of the anti-racist project. their peoples morally palatable. Thus, on the understanding of a struggle 68 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME against this history of racism remains be given primacy over other forms of but the politid desire to categorize central. Brandt does make the state- oppression. Not only is the primacy segments of humanity and accord ment that links to other struggles of racism in the anti-racist struggle differential treatment to certain cat- must be made, however at no point different to narrowly-focused and egories or groups ofpeople. Not only in hi book, The RraIiaztion ofAnti- broad-based anti-racists but the defi- is the biological signifier not thecom- Rarist TeaEhing,does he explicate how nition of race and so the shape of mon denominator of racism but other they should be made, or how other racism also differs. To define race, attributes such as stereotypical cul- equity issues impact on the anti-rac- many broad-based anti-racist writers tural traits, religion, language, coun- ist struggle. This particular view of use the concept of racialization. uy oforigin can also be used to racialii anti-racism, represented here by the Robert Miles defines this concept as a a person's identity. Hence race can work of Brandt, is characteristic of " political and ideological process by include such non-biological concepts the narrowly-focused anti-racistview- which particular populations are iden- as language (e.g. in Canada in the point. tified by direct or indirect reference linguisticstruggle between the French to their real or imagined phenotypical and English, the French were Broad-based anti-racism characteristics in such a way as to racializd-thought about, spoken suggest that the population can only about in racial terms--by the English Broad-based anti-racism shares be understood as a supposed biologi- (see Berger), religion (e.g. Jews in with narrowly-focused anti-racism a cal unityn (qtd. in Troyan and Nazi Germany and more recently I determination to examine racism and Williams 3). would argue that Muslims have be- the institutionalization of racism in Skin colour is onesignification that gun to be racialized in North America society. has been used but so have other and Britain), nationality (e.g. theJapa- However, it differs considerably significations, for example, the eye nese during the Second World War from narrowly-focused anti-racism shape of Japanese and Chinese peo- and more recently again in theunited in its determination to forge links ple and the supposedly distinctive States), and behaviour (the traveling with other social justice agenda, its noses of Jewish people. Racialization peoples during the Second World definition of racism, and its view of has taken place over and over again War and again more recently in Ger- the history ofracism. To broad-based with different victims and varying many and East Europe). All can and anti-racists, race and racism cannot degrees ofvictimization and resultant have been used to racialize groups of be abstracted from the broad politi- unequal treatment. According to people and accord them discrimina- cal, historical, and social processes of Troyna and Cashmore, "this is a tory treatment. society which have institutionalized world-wide historical pattern; it seems This view of racism, as a historical unequal power. According to Barry to recognize no boundaries nor time and political project that has focused Troyna and Jenny Williams, the fo- limitsn (20). on different victims at different times, cus of anti-racism is a broadly con- The use of this concept of impacts on the broad-based anti-rac- ceived equal opportunity strategy racialization impacts on the defini- ist conceptualizationof the history of which embraces but does not sub- tion race. This shift in the definition racism. As we have seen, according to sume racism. The focus here is on wider forms ofoppression.... Blacks, women, The essentialgenerator of racism is not the biologcal gays, the handicapped form dis- crete but component groups signifier but the political desire to categorize within a more general equal op- segments of humanity and accord dzfferential portunities strategy (12 1). treatment to certain categories or group ofpro@. Broad-based anti-racism is based on the convictions that racial inequali- ties are inextricably linked with and of racism-from this history of black narrowly focused anti-racism, the his- reproduced in conjunction with other oppression to the politically moti- tory of race and racism is fused with forms of oppression and secondly vated process whereby shifting tar- the history of slavery and colonialism that change will more likely be ef- gets of victimization are focused on and skin colour is central to the idea fected if alliances with other groups for unequal treatment with race ide- of race. According to broad-based are formed (122, 123). The under- ology used as justification-is central anti-racism, the history of slavery is standing and deconstruction of race to the different perspectives of nar- an important chapter in the history of and racism are central to the anti- row and broad-based anti-racism.
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