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Is Xenophobia Racism? 1 114 Anthropology Southern Africa, 2011, 34(3&4) Is xenophobia racism? 1 Kenneth Tafira Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag, Wits 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa [email protected]/[email protected] The outbreak of anti-immigrant violence in May 2008 in South Africa has prompted a set of theoretical questions and a reappraisal of theoretical suppositions. While the attacks have in the main pervasively been presented as xenophobia, I argue in this paper that what is termed xenophobia is in fact racism – New Racism – practised by people of the same population group, which has characterised post-apartheid South African black social relations. These are implications of decolonisation and difficulties of assimilating and integrating black African immigrants into the new South Africa. On the other hand there is increased culture contact and intermixing as a result of the accelerated presence of people of other identities. There are of course conceptual and definitional limitations of the term xenophobia in describing the complex social realities occurring in South African black communities. I therefore call for the deconstruction of the term xenophobia and propose that we begin to see it as culturally-based racism. The article explains that this kind of racism is heavily entrenched in cultural differences enunciated by dissimilarities in nationality, ethnicity, language, dress, customs, social and territorial origins, speech patterns and accents. These differences are deepened by social and economic inequalities, and frustrations among local people are expressed thorough economic grievances, which however mask the preceding cultural contempt and disdain. In addition, some current black on black practices are reminiscent of apartheid white anti-black racism. Drawing on my fieldwork in Alexandra, I then discuss a wide range of labels which are used to refer to African immigrants. Keywords: Xenophobia, New racism, anti-immigrant violence, labelling, South Africa, Alexandra On 11 May 2008, violence against black African immigrants of the definitive and theoretical limitation of the term xeno- erupted in South Africa, starting in the Johannesburg town- phobia where practices, nuances and logics in Alexandra are ship of Alexandra and spreading to other areas of Gauteng. concerned, which I find more racist than xenophobic . How- When the violence subsided, sixty-two people were dead, ever all this begs the question: what is xenophobia and what hundreds injured and maimed and thousands displaced. The is racism? The definition of the former is more straightfor- attacks were in scope and nature characteristic of pogroms. 2 ward, while the concept of racism poses dilemmas because of The thrust of my argument is that what has been termed xen- its fluidity and the lack of general agreement of what consti- ophobia in many circles, including the media and academia, is tutes racism. The paper begins with some theoretical exposi- actually racism, that is, to be more succinct, the New Racism 3. tions; I present some arguments to show why I am inclined to The New Racism is racism practised by black people on other use the term racism instead of xenophobia. The following blacks, who belong to the community but are seen as socially section of the paper bolsters this argument with ethnographic and culturally inferior. I further argue that racism is not neces- evidence from my fieldwork in Alexandra in 2009, which I sarily based on skin colour (ie. that it is possible for people of have extrapolated for the purpose of this paper. I end with the same skin colour to practise racism against each other 4), some suggestions as to why it is important to treat xenopho- but on differences in culture, nationality, language, dress, hab- bia analytically as racism. its and ethnicity. This kind of racism is more of a cultural In my understanding the use of the term xenophobia is nature; culture takes precedence over anything else. I am inadequate to comprehend the violent attacks against black cognisant of the complexities that arise from this problema- African immigrants in South Africa. I call for the deconstruc- tique, particularly the question: what activity constitutes rac- tion of the term xenophobia and suggest that, rather, we ism, and/or what is xenophobic ? need to consider post-apartheid South African black and As I will show later, I have equated xenophobia with racism black relations as the New Racism . Xenophobia as a universal and have maintained that what is seen as xenophobia is actu- phenomenon has been broadly defined as an intense dislike, ally racism. I have attempted to achieve that by taking a hatred or fear of those perceived to be strangers (Crush semantic route and putting both xenophobia and racism into a 1996; Frederickson 2002; De Master and Leroy 2000). The conceptual and theoretical framework. Indeed I am sceptical term denotes behaviour specifically based on the perception 1. This paper is based on my Masters research conducted in the Johannesburg's Alexandra Township in 2009, culminating in a dissertation entitled Black Racism in Alexandra: Cross border Love Relationships and Negotiation of Difference in a post-Apartheid South African Commu- nity , Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand. 2. The Coalition Against Xenophobia, formed in the wake of the violence, has, in its Declaration, termed the violence pogroms similar to those in nineteenth century Europe. 3. I have departed from my earlier work where I termed this ‘black racism’ (Tafira 2010). I have realised the complications that arise from using this term. It is possible that black racism might be confusing to some, implying that it may be seen as racism by black people on whites. In this sense I mean racism by black people on other black people 4. One might think of the German/Jewish; British/Irish relations. Members of these groups are of the same skin colour but their relations are marked by virulent racism. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2011, 34(3&4) 115 that the Other is foreign, or originates from outside the com- heid racism to what is called xenophobia, and to what I call munity or nation (International Labour Organisation et al. the New Racism, are all forms of racism, which are trans- 2001:2). In the wake of the 2008 violence, some authors have formed over time, subjected to contingencies of history and proposed the analysis of the events as Negrophobia or Afro- the ever changing socio-cultural and material landscapes. phobia (Gqola 2009; Mngxitama 2009). Negrophobia is seen How and when does one kind of racism change into another, as the fear and dislike of black people and their culture which may be different in form, content and manifestation, (Fanon 1967; Chinweizu 1994; Gqola 2009); Afrophobia then yet still remains racism? According to Goldberg (1993: 92), would denote the fear and/or dislike of Africans and their cul- this is subject to existing social conditions: ture. Phobia as defined by Hesnard (cited in Fanon 1967) is a The methodological predisposition one brings to neurosis characterised by an anxious fear of an object or any- the analysis of racism will influence, if not fully thing outside the individual; it must arouse both fear and determine, its definition. The conception of the revulsion. These definitions I think are incompatible with the phenomena analysts take themselves to be salient, implicit, explicit or hidden racist practices that black addressing is circumscribed by the constraints of people exercise towards each other. Although both Gqola method. Studies of racism have tended to divide (2009) and Mngxitama (2009) have noted that the attacks methodologically between those assuming an were racialised and characteristic of Negrophobia, I argue individually oriented and those accepting a that what happens in South Africa is neither xenophobia, structural approach. Negrophobia nor any other kind of phobia, but must be Goldberg further states that: understood in the context of racism, practised by black peo- Nevertheless, the meaning of racism is significantly ple against other black people. My supposition is that this narrowed to omit a range of expressions – namely, New Racism, which is cultural, may indeed take on an eco- practices, effects and implications – that I want to nomic outlet. However, it is not economic in origin but the insist are properly constitutive of racialised economic logic serves to deepen the differences, which are discourse, in general, and (subject to proper mobilised to effect prejudices, discriminations, notions of definitional constraints) to racism in particular inferiority and superiority and, subsequently, violent attacks (Goldberg 1993: 93). and pogroms. Following from these observations, I have come to the con- My renunciation of the term xenophobia and subsequent clusion that in South Africa the discourse of xenophobia adoption of the term New Racism is inspired mainly by the fol- should come to an end. We need now to analyse, treat and lowing propositions: xenophobia has been the term the media see what is called xenophobia as a form of racism, which is has used, juggled around and fed to their audiences; it is pos- practised among population groups of the same skin colour. sible that the media themselves do not understand the racial This may become the new paradigm. nature of anti-immigrant attacks; commentators who have Since the decline of the biological conceptions of superior used the term may have done so unconsciously and inadvert- and inferior races, which were so prevalent in the nineteenth ently or for lack of a better term to describe anti-immigrant century, and their disappearance from public and academic practices in post-apartheid South Africa. I assume that it may discourse (Modood 2001), what has emerged is the cultural be incomprehensible to many people that racism can be a assemblage of racism. What is generally regarded as xenopho- practice between people of the same skin colour.
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