Challenges of anti-racism

Abstract

[Extract] Issues of racism, racial/ethnic identity, citizenship and nationalism receive high media attention and stir up highly emotional debates and responses. Sociologists now concur that there is no such phenomenon as 'race' but that is a social construct that enables differentiation and discrimination on a false notion of race. Yet the use of 'race' as a concept persists. This leads Mason (1994:845) to conclude that

…race is a legitimate concept for sociological analysis because social actors treat it as a real basis for social differentiation and organise their lives and exclusionary practices in terms of it".

Defining racism is not an easy concept. Zelinka defines racism:

as a belief in the superiority of one particular racial or ethnic group and, flowing from this, the exclusion of other groups from some or many aspects of society. This exclusion (and often exploitation) is seen as legitimate simply because of the difference or supposed inferiority of the other group's race, ethnicity or nationality. (Zelinka, 1996:1)