Racism as a technology of power

The objective of the course is to analyse a phenomenon of racism as a social-political mechanism of creating power hierarchies and unbridgeable group divisions that legitimise and support them. During the class we will adopt a notion of power understood not only as a prerogative of political institutions but also as a productive force defining social actors and their identities. We will be interested in both cultural dimension of racist imaginary and the economic realities that lie at its roots. In this context we will problematize the very category of 'race', analyse its genealogy and discuss its links with concepts of 'biology', 'culture', 'ethnicity', 'class' or 'religion'. We will also show how the construction of 'racial' hierarchies is always intertwined and conditioned by the issues of sexuality and gender. While looking for a general understanding of racism we will pay attention to historical and contemporary diversity of forms that it has taken in different social and cultural settings. We will particularly focus on anti-Semitism and colour-coded racism and will also discuss anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant racism that has become prevalent in present-day Europe.