The Arena of Racism

This text presents a detailed analysis of the vocabulary of racism (prejudice, discrimination, segregation and violence), arguing that racism is not reducible to these elementary forms. The author shows how the experiences of institutionalized racism in America and anti-semitism in Europe can be analyzed to provide an understanding of the complex transition from race to racism. As cultural identities become more fragmented in societies and as the social relations defined by industrial capitalism are in decline, so too are ideas of progress and universality. It is in this context of postmodern social and economic flux that Wieviorka puts forward a definition of racism. He demonstrates that racism has to be understood as an action to factors fixed in the dislocation between the social and the communal.