Prejudice plus power

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Prejudice plus power, also known as R = P + P, is a stipulative definition of racism used in the United States. [1] Patricia Bidol-Padva first proposed this definition in a 1970 book, where she defined racism as "prejudice plus institutional power." [2] According to this definition, two elements are required in order for racism to exist: racial prejudice, and social power to codify and enforce this prejudice into an entire society. [3] [4] Adherents write that while all people can be racially prejudiced, minorities are powerless and therefore only white people have the power to be racist. [5] This definition is supported by the argument that power is responsible for the process of racialization and that social power is distributed in a zero-sum game. [6] [7] This view is commonly shared by social liberals and progressives. [8] [9] It also been used to define other forms of discrimination such as sexism, homophobia, and ableism. [10]

Contents

Use as a definition

The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (The People's Institute) has used this definition and affirmed that racism stemmed not just from individual prejudices but from institutional systems of power, such as wealth and privilege. [11] [12] In the context of this definition, The People's Institute maintained that the effects of systematic oppression have negatively impacted various communities, with impoverishment being a concern. It affirmed that prejudice is not the sole cause of racism and that since it is based institutionally and not individually, changing or removing these structures could then offset the effects of racism. [13] The use of this definition intended to place emphasis on looking at racism in terms of community and not the individual. [11]

Criticism

Prejudice plus power has been criticized for taking a reductionist approach to racism, [14] and for downplaying racism committed by non-white people by replacing the word racism with the less negatively perceived word, prejudice. [15] This view is often shared by many social conservatives. [16] Some anti-racists argue that the stipulative definition will make dismantling anti-blackness more challenging due to the implication that only white people can commit racism. [17] The definition also conflicts with critical race theory, through which racial prejudice describes two of the four levels of racism; internalized racism, and interpersonal racism. Internalized racism refers to racial prejudice that is internalized through socialization, while interpersonal racism refers to expressions of racial prejudice between individuals. [18] Prejudice plus power attempts to separate forms of racial prejudice from the word racism, which is to be reserved for institutional racism. [19] Critics point out that an individual can not be institutionally racist, because institutional racism (sometimes referred to as systemic racism) only refers to institutions and systems, hence the name. [20]

The reaction of students to this definition tends to be mixed, with some thinking that it makes sense, and others perceiving it as a form of cognitive dissonance. [21] In 2004, Beverly Tatum wrote that many of her white students find it difficult to relate to this definition on a personal level, because they do not perceive themselves either as prejudiced or as having power. [4]

The definition has been criticized for relying on the assumption that race operates within a black–white binary and that power is a zero-sum game, [22] and for not accounting for the lack of uniformity in prejudicial attitudes. [23] Critics have also noted that this definition is belied by the fact that except in absolutist regimes, minorities, however disadvantaged they may be, are not powerless, because power is organized into multiple levels. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

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White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

Racial color blindness refers to the belief that a person's race or ethnicity should not influence their legal or social treatment in society.

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Critical race theory (CRT) is an interdisciplinary academic field focused on the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and media. CRT also considers racism to be systemic in various laws and rules, and not only based on individuals' prejudices. The word critical in the name is an academic reference to critical theory rather than criticizing or blaming individuals.

Ambalavaner Sivanandan, commonly referred to as A. Sivanandan or "Siva", was a Sri Lankan Tamil and British novelist, activist and writer, emeritus director of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), a London-based independent educational charity. His first novel, When Memory Dies, won the 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category for Europe and South Asia. He left Sri Lanka after the 1958 riots.

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Symbolic racism is a coherent belief system that reflects an underlying one-dimensional prejudice towards a racialized ethnicity. These beliefs include the stereotype that black people are morally inferior to white people, and that black people violate traditional White American values such as hard work and independence. However, symbolic racism is more of a general term than it is one specifically related to prejudice towards black people. These beliefs may cause the subject to discriminate against black people and to justify this discrimination. Some people do not view symbolic racism as prejudice since it is not linked directly to race but is indirectly linked through social and political issues.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-racism</span> Beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism

Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions which are intended to create equal opportunities for all people on both an individual and a systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged in by the acknowledgment of personal privileges, confronting acts as well as systems of racial discrimination and/or working to change personal racial biases. Major contemporary anti-racism efforts include the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and workplace anti-racism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural racism</span> Alleged type of racism that discriminates people for being culturally different

Cultural racism, sometimes called neo-racism, new racism, postmodern racism, or differentialist racism, is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior to others or in more extreme cases that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not co-exist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific racism, which refers to prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences between ethnic or racial groups.

Xenoracism is a form of prejudice that resembles racism but is exhibited by members of a racial group towards other members of it, or it is exhibited towards members of an otherwise mostly indistinguishable racial group which may have no phenotypical differences but is perceived as being alien, foreign, other, or culturally inferior.

In critical race theory, the black–white binary is a paradigm through which racial history is presented as a linear story between White and Black Americans. This binary has largely defined how civil rights legislation is approached in the United States, as African Americans led most of the major racial justice movements that informed civil rights era reformation. The paradigm conceptualizes Black and White people as the two predominant racial groups, viewing all racism accordant to anti-blackness, and the Black–White relation as central to racial analysis. According to critical race scholars, the binary acts to govern racial classifications and describe how race is understood and approached politically and socially throughout American history. The black-white binary is a product of white socialization and reduces race relations to an oppressor/oppressed dichotomy.

References

  1. ↑ Gil De Lamadrid, Daniel (January 2022). "The Whiteness of Prejudice Plus Power". Academia.
  2. ↑ Sivanandan, Ambalavaner (1990). Communities of Resistance: Writings on Black Struggles for Socialism. Verso. p. 99. ISBN   9780860915140.
  3. ↑ Barndt, Joseph R. (1991). Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America . Augsburg Books. pp.  28–29. ISBN   9780806625768.
  4. 1 2 Tatum, Beverly (2004). Rothenberg, Paula (ed.). Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study. Macmillan. p. 127. ISBN   9780716755159.
  5. ↑ Rosado, Caleb. "The Undergirding Factor is POWER Toward an Understanding of Prejudice and Racism". EdChange.
  6. ↑ Fiske, Susan (2011). Dowding, Keith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Power. SAGE Publications. p. 549. ISBN   9781412927482.
  7. ↑ Winant, Howard (1998). "Racism today: continuity and change in the post-civil rights era". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 21 (4): 755–766. doi:10.1080/014198798329856.
  8. ↑ Fiske, Susan (2011). Dowding, Keith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Power. SAGE Publications. p. 549. ISBN   9781412927482.
  9. ↑ Winant, Howard (1998). "Racism today: continuity and change in the post-civil rights era". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 21 (4): 755–766. doi:10.1080/014198798329856.
  10. ↑ https://thurstontogether.org/Portals/0/Isms.pdf
  11. 1 2 Shapiro, Ilana (2002). Training for racial equity and inclusion: A guide to selected programs. Queenstown, Maryland: The Aspen Institute. p. 10.
  12. ↑ Libers, Abigail (October 1, 2020). "How to Unlearn Racism". Scientific American. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  13. ↑ Cramer, David N.; McElveen, Joy Smith (2003). "Undoing Racism in Social Work Practice". Race, Gender & Class. 10 (2): 41–57. ISSN   1082-8354. JSTOR   41675072.
  14. ↑ Short, Geoffrey (1991). "Combatting Anti-Semitism: A Dilemma for Anti-Racist Education". British Journal of Educational Studies. 39: 33–44. doi:10.1080/00071005.1991.9973870.
  15. ↑ Henry, Sven (June 16, 2017). "Racism Does Not Equal Prejudice + Power". Aero.
  16. ↑ Henry, Sven (June 16, 2017). "Racism Does Not Equal Prejudice + Power". Aero.
  17. ↑ Gassam Asare, Janice. "How Communities Of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness". Forbes.
  18. ↑ Speight, Suzette (2007). "Internalized Racism: One More Piece of the Puzzle". The Counseling Psychologist. 35 (1): 126–134. doi:10.1177/0011000006295119. S2CID   145097491.
  19. ↑ Sivanandan, Ambalavaner (1990). Communities of Resistance: Writings on Black Struggles for Socialism. Verso. p. 99. ISBN   9780860915140.
  20. ↑ Macpherson, William (1999). "The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry" (PDF). United Kingdom Home Department: 48.
  21. ↑ Hoyt, C. (October 9, 2012). "The Pedagogy of the Meaning of Racism: Reconciling a Discordant Discourse" (PDF). Social Work. 57 (3): 225–234. doi:10.1093/sw/sws009. PMID   23252314. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016.
  22. ↑ Gil De Lamadrid, Daniel (January 2022). "The Whiteness of Prejudice Plus Power". Academia.
  23. ↑ Bolaffi, Guido (2003). Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture. SAGE. p. 228. ISBN   9780761969006.
  24. ↑ Song, Miri (March 2014). "Challenging a culture of racial equivalence". The British Journal of Sociology. 65 (1): 107–129. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12054. PMID   24697716.
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