Racism and Xenophobia

The international study of fascism has, over the last 25 years, experienced considerable consolidation. Inspired by influential theoretical publications of Roger D. Griffin and others, a new sub-discipline, “comparative fascist studies,” has emerged that proceeds from a largely common conceptualization of fascism. It explicitly includes and particularly promotes the cross-cultural, as well as inter-epochal investigation into ultra-nationalisms outside Central and Western Europe after the year 1945. The concepts, approaches and hypotheses of this new sub-discipline are well-suited to be applied to the study of inter-war and post-Soviet right-wing radicalism in Eastern Europe. However, before comprehensive classification and informative comparison becomes possible, the putative fascist phenomena of Eastern Europe need more thorough descriptive analysis, field research, and empirical investigation by researchers, in the region.

This article, written on March 25th 2017, aims to analyze the danger
that Donald Trump’s racist and xenophobic white supremacist government
implies for the United States and for the whole world. The following aspects will be addressed here: the left facing the Trump-Clinton electoral dilemma; Stephen Bannon; The Tea Party and Breitbart News; the Alt-right or the “natural conservatives”; Bannon and the Alt-right inside the executive power; and racism and xenophobia, Trump’s administration’s spinal column.

Este artículo, escrito a principios de marzo de 2017, pretende analizar
la peligrosidad que el racista y xenófobo gobierno supremacista blanco de
Donald Trump signifi ca no sólo para Estados Unidos sino para el mundo
entero. Serán abordados aquí los siguientes aspectos: la izquierda frente al dilema electoral Trump-Clinton; Stephen Bannon; el Tea Party y Breitbard News; la Alt-right o los “conservadores naturales”; Bannon y la alt-right dentro del poder ejecutivo; y el racismo y la xenofobia, columna vertebral de la administración Trump.

Socio-cultural approaches to fear of crime have suggested that responses to questionnaires may channel broader social attitudes towards other culturally-related topics also shaping the public meaning of ‘crime’, such as immigration. Building on this idea, this article uses a discourse analytic framework to examine how xeno-racist ideas, claims and positions are metonymically worked through everyday opinions about ‘urban insecurity’ as a crime-related construct. The analysis of open-ended interviews to ordinary citizens in Barcelona shows that the position of a ‘threatening Other’, typically afforded by the insecurity narrative, is pervasively constructed in xeno-racial terms -whether explicitly or by implication-, but is rhetorically rejected on the narrative grounds of its alleged criminal acts. This xeno-racial version of the criminalised Other is itself managed in interaction as a sensitive topic through a set of deracialization strategies that displace rejection from the language of immigration towards culturally contiguous languages of incivilities, cultural differences and socioeconomic disadvantage. The article deepens in the ideological versatility of discourses that subtly warrant the structural privilege of ‘natives’ vis-à-vis ‘immigrants’, thereby legitimizing a tenacious system of native supremacy.

In the migrant rich peri-urban sites of Rongai, Kenya and Katlehong, South Africa, social engagements are being shaped by usufruct ethics. The resulting modes of mutual accommodation are shaped by spatial circumstance and instrumental, pragmatic concerns rather than claims for ownership, representation, or cultural hegemony. In Kenya, ‘being cosmo’ enables residents to brace themselves against ethnicised violence and exclusion while opening space for multi-ethnic newcomers to pursue varied economic and social ambitions often tied to exclusive, ethnicised membership elsewhere. In South Africa, outcomes include multiple ethics of difference simultaneously practiced: some violently exclusive, others remarkably inclusive, yet without enduring hegemonies. Here, residents manage their every-day interactions with Others through disconnection—by ‘minding their own business’—a principle manifested in both passive tolerance and active benefit-seeking. These findings from Africa’s rapidly transforming urban peripheries speak to a growing, global trend in which varied forms of membership are being locally negotiated in the thrown together spaces that characterise many cities of the South. Beyond understanding such local dynamics, they give cause to question the spatial scale at which we locate integration and the very ethics and desired ‘outcomes’ scholars often presume ought to underlie diverse societies.

The migration crisis which has hit Europe hard in the past couple of years seems to be far from over. Xenophobic sentiments are subsequently considered to be emerging across the continent, especially in Mediterranean EU Member States such as Greece, Italy and Malta. This thesis will attempt to analyse the levels of xenophobia exhibited by Maltese young adult students, a significant proportion of the upcoming generation of voters, with regard to black migrants in Malta. While there are a number of other minorities spread across the island, the author chose to focus on black migrants in order to acquire more focused results. This study utilises a quantitative mode of analysis through the use of a survey in order to obtain the results needed. Apart from personal information, 250 young Maltese adults were asked to respond to 11 different questions relating to xenophobia, divided into four categories used to project sentiments towards immigrants, including “realistic threats”, “symbolic threats”, “intergroup anxiety and stereotyping”, and “miscellaneous”. Observations were then made from the results obtained. The findings show that Maltese young adults were not considered to be significantly xenophobic in their perception of black migrants. The main concerns of the respondents regarded overpopulation, diversion of public expenditure, and a change in the religious beliefs of the state. On the other hand, common positive conceptions included: black migrants as a benefit to the labour force; that stereotyping affects their perception of this cohort; and support for intermarriage. By correlating the two sets of data, the author was also able to observe that (1) Maltese female young adults showed comparatively less xenophobic tendencies, (2) that an inverse relationship existed between the level of education and the level of xenophobia, and (3) that young adults in less advantageous socio-economic positions tended to be more xenophobic.

During the Last Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times the Kingdom of Valencia -in the Crown of Aragon- lived bloody persecutions against the Jews (1391) and the complete expulsion of Jews (1492) and Muslims (1609). In the last decades of the 20th century, and now, the Land of Valencia becomes the "scenario" of an Anti-catalanist xenophobia...

WITH A PDF OF PRESS ARTICLES (in Spanish language) OF PACO CERDÀ, VÍCTOR ROMERO, ETC.
(www.levante-emv.com)

http://www.levante-emv.com/valencia/2011/12/18/brutal-oficio-inquisicion/865945.html

http://www.levante-emv.com/comunitat-valenciana/2014/02/21/calvario-valenciano-judios/1082584.html
Acoso y expulsión medieval

http://www.levante-emv.com/valencia/2013/10/16/nobles-acataron-expulsion-moriscos-rentables/1041899.html

http://www.levante-emv.com/mercantil-valenciano/2013/05/13/cuentas-moriscos/997534.html

http://www.levante-emv.com/comunitat-valenciana/2014/02/19/moriscos-reclaman-derecho-nacionalidad-espanola/1081375.html?utm_medium=rss

http://www.levante-emv.com/comunitat-valenciana/2011/05/08/invisible-blaverismo/805087.html