key concepts RGS
Colour-blindness
when people pretend there are no races, people should be treated as if their ethnicity doesn't matter
Cultural archieve (Wekker,2016) & (Said, 1993)
Knowledge of structures of attitude and reference about culture, which foregrounds the centrality of imperialism to Western culture.
Everyday racism (Essed, 1983)
Racism is more than structures and ideologies. It is;
- systematic
- socialized
- cumulative
Grounds for race making (Hall, 1992)
Religion; way to disctinct 'old christians' from 'new christians'. (Jews and Muslims)
Biology
Scientific racism or racial biology. Classification of different phenotypes and/or genotypes into discrete races (Aryan, Semite, Negro,...)
Culture
Racism re-coded from biology to culture. Race is shared history. Institutionalized racism.
Race as a floating signifier (Stuart Hall)
“Race works like a language”
A “signifier” is a word, and the “signified” is the meaning or concept it represents
Linguistic theory
The connection between the word and the concept is arbitrary, which means its a social agreement and not a fact
Race as prejudice (prejudice approach)
It focuses on the individual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours of people
Racial Structures (Lentin)
Racial logics that have specific historical origins in European invasion, slavery and colonisation.
Two modalities of race (Lentin)
- Naturalism: some races are naturally inferior
- Historicism: some races are part of humanity but ‘in need of civilisation’
Racialization
Racialised groups are hierarchically ordered and ‘social relations’ and ‘practices’ emerge that fit the position of the groups in the racial regime.
Relation between racism and colonialism
Colonialism naturalized and justified racism. It is the origin to modern racism.
Reverse racism
When individuals from racial groups that have typically been in power (Whites) claim to be victims of racial discrimination from typically marginalised racial groups.
Structural racism
Prefered over institutional racism by Bonilla-Silva and Essed, but basically the same only more comprehensive and overarching.
Valladolid debate
First public moral debate about the treatment of the colonized, by their colonizers.
White innocence
Not knowing/ not wanting to know (collective action problem)
Biologization of difference (Oyêwùmí)
The process through which Western ideas and theories about gender and sex have been imposed on African cultures, often essentializing and oversimplifying complex indigenous systems of categorization.
Gender as a perfomance (Butler)
Acting out a gender (masculine/feminine) usually to fit the norms. Based on the idea that gender is a social construct and not innate or fixed.
Gender as performative (Butler)
Gender is something that you reinforce on yourself through routine. Producing a series of effects.
Heteronormativity
The thought that heterosexuality is the norm, and that people should conform to male/female gender roles.
Intersex
When people do not have a clearly definable sex due to having a mix of both genitalia/reproductive organs.
Social reproduction
The ways in which societies maintain the structures and values over time. Things need to be reproduced in order to continue existing.
Performativity
The idea that certain actions or behaviours don’t just express an existing identity or role but actually create an identity.
Homonationalism
National recognition and inclusion of homosexuallity.
Sexual identity
Being straight or gay is often seen as a part of someone’s identity/core being, but sexuality is something someone can identify with.
Sexual scripts (Gagnon & Simon)
- Cultural/historical scenario (traditional)
- Social/interpersonal scenario ( Adapting script to social scenario)
- Personal/interpsychic scenario (desires, fantasies etc.)
Mati-work (Wekker)
Mati are women who engage in sexual relationships with men and with women, either simultaneously or consecutively, and who conceive of their sexual acts in terms of behaviour. Not an identity.
"Ask the other question"
When I see something that looks racist, I ask, ‘Where is the patriarchy in this?’ When I see something that looks sexist, I ask, ‘Where is the heterosexism in this?’ When I see something that looks homophobic, I ask, ‘Where are the class interests in this?’” (Matsuda, 1991)
Cultural domain of power (Collins & Bilge)
This domain involves the manipulation and deployment of cultural elements, such as language, symbols, rituals, and narratives, to influence and shape the beliefs and behaviours of individuals and groups.
Disciplinary domain of power (Collins & Bilge)
In essence, power operates by disciplining people in ways that put people's lives on paths that make some options seem viable and others out of reach.
Interpersonal domain of power
How power dynamics play out in personal interactions.
Structural domain of power
The ways in which power operates within larger social, economic, and institutional systems.
Identity politics
Politics based on what people identify with. Crenshaw critiques the lack of intersectionality in social and legal contexts.
Intersectionality (Collins, 2015)
References the critical insight that race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, ability, and age operate not as unitary, mutually exclusive entities, but as reciprocally constructing phenomena that in turn shape complex social inequalities.
4 unresolved questions Nash (2008)
1. Lack of clearly defined intersectional methodology
2. Black women as prototypical intersectional subjects
3. double meaning; is intersectionality a theory to understand multiply marginalised groups, or our own positionality?
4. The coherence between intersectionality and lived experiences of multiple identities.