Racism: The American Variant

By Tom Kando

Madeleine wrote a fine piece about Eugenics. Eugenics and racism are indeed ugly blemishes on America’s past.

Yes, America did participate in the racist Eurocentric oppression of “the other” of the past 300 years. Yes, America was guided by its belief in “Manifest Destiny.” Yes, America committed genocide against the native Americans. However, I think that America differs in significant ways from the other major perpetrators.


Why? Because this country is arguably the most diverse ethnic society on earth. It is therefore an IMPOSSIBILITY for America to ever emulate not only what Germany did in the 20th century, but also what happened in Japan, Russia and dozens of other countries. While the Holocaust will probably (and hopefully) hold the world record for ever, no country holds a monopoly on pogroms and other forms of genocide. The British invented the concentration camp in South Africa.

But those models do not fit American reality. What we have in America is multiple tribalism. Racism, too, of course, but not the same sort of monolithic racism as in many other places in the past. The largest and most powerful tribe in America is still the white European. It is now actually becoming even more reactionary, precisely because it is losing ground, it is threatened.

Auguste Comte said that “demography is destiny.” In many places, (e.g. in California) non-Hispanic whites are already a mere plurality (the largest group) and no longer a majority. As the browning of America progresses, the white dominance can be expected to decline further.

To be sure, a sociological minority is not always the same thing as a numerical minority. The best example of this was South Africa under Apartheid: 4 million whites controlled 40 million blacks, who were the sociological minority even though they were the numerical majority. So a dominant group whose numbers dwindle can hang on to power and continue to oppress a growing majority. This happened in the former Yugoslavia, where an ever smaller number of Christian Serbs oppressed the growing Muslim population in Bosnia and Kosovo.

But back to America: In a democracy, power relationships eventually tend to reflect demographics. At least, that is the hope.

So, what I am saying is that, yes, racism is part of the fiber of American society, but no, there cannot be genocide or holocaust. Who would exterminate whom? Monolithic Germany had the Jews. Ruanda had the Tutsis. But America has many competing tribes, and not just ethnic ones. The gay-transgender community, public employees, deists, atheists, you name it. We are doomed to co-exist, whether reactionary backlashes such as the Tea Party and the “ birthers” like it or not. leave comment here