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

TWO The Rise of Modern Racism(s)
awakened the demons of racism to a greater extent than
the polemical defense of slavery had done. The rhetoric of
the latter had been leavened by a good deal of condescending
paternalism that had stressed the inherently “childlike”
nature of African Americans. Postwar racism, especially in
some of its popular manifestations, portrayed black males
as beasts lusting after white women, some of whom needed
to be hanged or burned alive by lynch mobs to keep the
rest properly cowed and respectful of white authority. 56
These two flawed or limited late-nineteenth-century
emancipations—of the Jews in Germany and of blacks in
the United States—may seem very different in both context
and character. But there are some intriguing analogues that
make a close comparison worthwhile, even if, in the end,
the differences are more significant than the similarities. In
both cases, first of all, federalism served as an obstacle to
equal citizenship. The American Civil War may have determined
that a state cannot be sovereign, but resolution of
this constitutional issue did not prevent the states from having
rights that could, given a Supreme Court respectful of
their prerogatives, make it extremely difficult to protect
blacks from discrimination. As we have already seen, German
citizenship in the Reich after 1871 did not prevent discrimination
on the state level under the cover of established
religion. Second, in both the United States and Germany,
rapid industrialization and economic growth gave rise to
situations where members of the majority were in competition
or at least potential competition with members of the
outgroup for jobs or other economic opportunities—something
that would have been inconceivable in the era of the
ghetto and the slave plantation. 57
82