Racism and Masculinity essays

Racism and Masculinity essays Racist violence is predominantly committed by men, but what is the relation to masculinity, in what way is this violence a "situational accomplishment of masculinity" (Kersten)? The traditional explanation would see racist men as underprivileged "victims of modernization" who compensate economic depravation or a insecure gender identity through racial violence. Recent research on young male racists in Germany has problematized this view. Typically, violent racists would come from stable middle class families (Hoffmeister and Sill); privileged youth seem more likely to be racist than non-privileged (Held); the only significant relation that could be established was between racism and a general value orientation towards success, competition, money and strength (Heitmeyer). One author summarized that racism is a consequence of "Dominanzansprche", "demands for dominance" (Rommelspacher); these youth try to meet their high demands on success and superiority, because only these seem to gua rantee a desirable, i.e. masculine, identity. It is fairly irrelevant whether they come from privileged or underprivileged families, whether they in fact are dominant or not, it's the notion that identity can only be achieved as and through dominance that makes them racists. Whether as a fantasy (belonging to a superior culture) or as realized in racial violence, dominance can equally function as identity practice. I therefore want to define dominance as a form of identity practice that constructs a difference which legitimizes dominance which grants the agent of dominance the illusion of a superior identity, the other's identity is denied, confined, erased. Dominance therefore is a relation of identities, a process of constructing the other and the same as an oppositional, hierarchical relation. It is no coincidence that sexism has been described in similar terms, because dominance is central to the concept of masculinity. B ...