Racism - A Short History - George M Fredrickson.pdf - WNLibrary

proposed by its domestic enemies and is sometimes acted
upon. Other examples of such minorities would be the Indians
of East Africa and the Chinese of Southeast Asia. 77 African
Americans, on the other hand, spent most of their first
three hundred years on the North American continent as a
servile labor force. Slave masters or landlords with sharecroppers
have a stake in the preservation of the subordinated
group because its labor is essential to their prosperity.
So long as members of the group stay “in their place,” they
may be treated with the paternalism that is often associated
with vast power differentials. But if they seek to rise out of
their place and demand equal rights with members of the
dominant group, they are likely to be exposed to a furious
and violent form of racist reprisal. 78
But the stereotypes that economic relationships have
produced or reinforced may survive a change in the actual
economic functions performed by the groups. Some Jews
originally became members of an entrepreneurial minority
because of medieval religious prejudices, and the occupational
diversification that followed their emancipation in the
nineteenth century did not eradicate the image of them as
usurious moneylenders and devious traders. The migration
of blacks in the United States from the directly oppressive
conditions in southern rural areas to the somewhat freer
atmosphere of the urban North did not alter the conviction
of most whites that they were lower-caste people, born to
serve. A culture of racism, once established, can be adapted
to more than one agenda and is difficult to eradicate.
The political context is another variable that has independent
significance. As we have seen, the American conception
of citizenship had to include blacks once their full
93