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WHAT HE SAID AND WHAT HE WROTE
Firstly we have to limit the problem in terms of time, space and
nature.
Unlike antisemitism, racism is a relatively recent phenomenon
in history. It is true, we witness pervasive racial attitudes and
prejudices in the past. But they have not developed into
ideological and institutional racism until the XIXth and XXth
centuries. As you see, I mean by racism only biological racism.
This has taken the form of virulent antisemitism in the first half
of this century.
In order to determine the geographical space of racism, I consult
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Macropaedia. V. 15, pp 359-366). It
states that racism has developed in western Europe mostly in
regions where Protestantism has spread and in the white colonies
of western Europe, namely North America, South Africa and
Australia. I will not discuss to what extent this is true, though, I
think, we can assume that it is reasonably true. The UN Sub-
Commission and Commission on Human Rights also indicate in
their resolutions these regions and countries as particularly
susceptible to racism.
Racism encompasses racially oriented prejudice, attitude,
discrimination, harassment, violence, segregation, persecution as
well as expulsion and extermination. Some western circles try to
make racism dissappear by breaking it down into xenophobia,
heterophobia, ethnocentrism etc. They claim that in some
European countries there is no racism but xenophobia with some
racial violence, that in every country there is ethnocentrism, that
heterophobia is common to mankind. Thus there is not much to
worry about.
We also observe some efforts to present racism as a conflict
situation. These circles say that outrageous ethnic cleansing
perpetrated by the Serbs against the Bosniacs is the worst form of
racism. Thus, all conflicts and wars in history also become
examples of racism.
Let me briefly clarify these concepts. Xenophobia cannot be
applied to Jews or migrant workers, for they are not aliens to
Europeans, having been living there for years. Heterophobia is not
supposed to turn into violence or discrimination. Ethnocentrism is
universal. It is a feeling of superiority of ones’ nation or country.
Normally, ethnocentrism is not geared to despising or
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