RACIST VIOLENCE IN 15 EU MEMBER STATES - Cospe

RACIST VIOLENCE IN 15 EU MEMBER STATES - A Comparative Overview of Findings from the RAXEN NFP Reports 2001-2004
Cultures of Racism
In contrast with the above approach, other researchers have attempted to
identify ‘national characteristics’ that favour manifestations of racism,
including racist violence. Drawing on histories of colonialism and the excesses
of the Nazi period in the twentieth century, this approach tries to identify
characteristics that are peculiar to particular countries and their people, at
certain times, and which allow racist violence to thrive. 111 Rather than focus on
racism and racist violence as the actions of an extremist minority, this approach
puts racist violence at the heart of the State and ordinary citizens’ lives. When
cultures tolerate racist values, other manifestations of racism, such as violence,
are, according to this theory, more likely to occur.
Different NFPs approach the subject of racist crime and violence from different
standpoints. For those countries with a National Socialist past, explanations that lie
with the extreme right have a greater appeal, whereas explanations that dwell on a
particular country’s ‘culture of racism’ are, for obvious reasons, less popular.
Meta explanations for racist conflict and violence that are based on economic
competition theory and population size/movements appear at first sight to offer the
most tangible ‘answers’. But their explanatory value fails when we are confronted
with racist violence in times of economic prosperity and against small/stable
minority populations. Herein, other explanations for racist violence are needed.
Explanations of racist violence, which tend to focus on tangible socio-economic
factors, such as unemployment, should also consider the part played by more
abstract influences on manifestations of racist violence – such as perceptions of
threat and related insecurities (as referred to earlier). However, people’s fears and
insecurities, which in turn reflect concrete realities such as unemployment, are less
easy to measure than socio-economic indicators.
Explanations of racist violence can, as outlined in Part I, Chapter One, also focus
on the manifestation and causes of violence. Although the causes of racist violence
can be distinct from the causes of violence, there are points at which the two share
similar characteristics and explanatory factors. Given that the majority of public
place violent crime – whether racist or non-racist in motivation – is perpetrated by
young males, including teenagers and children, explanations of racist violence
should also concentrate on the motivations of these particular groups.
Finally, when looking to explain racist violence as it occurs in certain places, at
certain times, and amongst certain populations, we need to turn our attention to the
specific context of racist violence. 112
111
112
Goldhagen, D.J. (1996) Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the
Holocaust, London: Little Brown.
Webster, C. (1997) Local Heroes: Racial Violence Among Asian and White Young
People, Leicester: Leicester University.
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