The global hierarchy of race

[DuctapeFatwa]

..Colour is something white people never have to think about because for them it is never a handicap, never a source of prejudice or discrimination, but rather the opposite, a source of privilege. However liberal and enlightened I tried to be, I still had a white outlook on the world. My wife was the beginning of my education. ..When we left these shores, it felt as if we were moving closer to my wife's world: this was east Asia and she was Malaysian. And she, unlike me, had the benefit of speaking Cantonese. So my expectation was that she would feel more comfortable in this environment than I would. I was wrong. As a white, I found myself treated with respect and deference; my wife, notwithstanding her knowledge of the language and her intimacy with Chinese culture, was the object of an in-your-face racism. ...

Second, there is a global racial hierarchy that helps to shape the power and the prejudices of each race. At the top of this hierarchy are whites...With global hegemony, first with Europe and then the US, whites have long commanded respect, as well as arousing fear and resentment..And the impact of white racism has been far more profound and baneful than any other: it remains the only racism with global reach. Being top of the pile means that whites are peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism...Even when well-meaning, we remain strangely ignorant....

The Chinese - like the Japanese - widely consider themselves to be number two in the pecking order and look down upon all other races as inferior....At the bottom of the pile, virtually everywhere it would seem, are those of African descent, the only exception in certain cases being the indigenous peoples...

The dominant race in a society, whether white or otherwise, rarely admits to its own racism. Denial is near universal...It was only two years ago, you may remember, that the first-ever United Nations conference on racism was held - against the fierce resistance of the US (and that in the Clinton era). Nothing more eloquently testifies to the unwillingness of western governments to engage in a global dialogue about the problem of racism..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1046113,00.html

[mkregel]

1. Excellent Article!

Should be required reading for all college students...l.

[Brucey]

2. Interesting.

We can't deny it's there. Anthropologists will tell you that there's no such thing as races, but humans certainly align themselves according to skin color and other physical appearance properties. Weird, but true.

[scarletwoman]

3. A very important article!

Thanks for posting it -- excellent food for thought...

sw

[T_i_B]

4. VERY interesting

Other factors serve to define and reinforce a race's position in the hierarchy - levels of development, civilisational values, history, religion, physical characteristics and dress - but the most insistent and widespread is colour. The reason is that colour is instantly recognisable, it defines difference at the glance of an eye. It also happens to have another effect. It makes the global hierarchy seem like the natural order of things: you are born with your colour, it is something nobody can do anything about, it is neither cultural nor social but physical in origin. In the era of globalisation, with mass migration and globalised cultural industries, colour has become the universal calling card of difference.

This is the way I have come to see it. Racism is still a huge thing, as the article very eloquently demonstrates but the main reason for racism that I have always found seems to be fear of that which is different. People want to be with people like themselves and a different colour skin stand out as being different. I tend to see a lot more racism in rural areas where things are more insular and homogenised than I do in big cities.

Of course there is a damm sight more at play as the article demostrates very well. This is an article well worth a read.