The Force of Prejudice: On Racism and Its Doubles (Contradictions (Minneapolis, Minn.), 13.)

Can humanity escape segregating behavior or master the tendency to exclusion? Where does the force of prejudice come from? How might one conceive the philosophical foundations of an effective antiracism? Pursuing these questions, Pierre-André Taguieff puts forward a powerful thesis: that racism has evolved from an argument about races, naturalizing inequality between "biologically" defined groups on the basis of fear of the other, to an argument about cultures, naturalizing historical differences and justifying exclusion. Correspondingly, he shows how antiracism must adopt the strategy that fits the variety of racism it opposes. Looking at racial and racist theories one by one and then at their antiracist counterparts, Taguieff traces an intellectual genealogy of differentialist and inegalitarian ways of thinking. Already viewed as an essential work of reference in France, The Force of Prejudice is an invaluable tool for identifying and understanding both racism and its antidote in our day. Pierre-André Taguieff, philosopher and historian of political ideas, is director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France. Hassan Melehy is assistant professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Connecticut. Contents......Page 8 Translator's Preface......Page 10 Introduction: Doubts about Antiracism......Page 14 Part I: CRITIQUE OF ANTIRACIST REASON......Page 30 1. Heterophobia, Heterophilia: The Definitional Antinomy......Page 32 2. "Racism": Ordinary Uses and Scholarly Uses, from the Word to the Notion......Page 44 3. Births, Functionings, and Avatars of the Word Racism......Page 94 4. An Ideal Type: "Racism" as an Ideological Construction......Page 123 Part II: GENEALOGY OF THE DOGMATIC CRITIQUE OF PREJUDICES......Page 152 5. The Theories of Prejudice and the Meanings of Racism......Page 154 6. Antiracism and Antiprejudice Ideology......Page 193 Part III: RACISMS AND ANTIRACISMS: PARADOXES, ANALYSES, MODELS, THEORY......Page 208 7. On Racism: Models, Ideal Types, Variations, Paradoxes......Page 210 8. The Specter of Métissage: The Mixophobic Hypothesis......Page 226 9. On Antiracism: Ideal Type, Ideological Corruption, Perverse Effects......Page 243 10. Elements of a Theory of Ideological Debate......Page 272 Part IV: BEYOND RACISM......Page 292 11. Pessimism: Philanthropy in Spite of Humanity......Page 294 12. Ethics: The Infinite of the Law above the Law?......Page 300 13. Republican Metapolitics: Universalism or Barbarism? Universalism without Barbarism?......Page 316 Notes......Page 330 B......Page 418 E......Page 419 L......Page 420 P......Page 421 R......Page 422 W......Page 423 Pierre-Andr Taguieff puts forward a powerful thesis: that racism has evolved from an argument about races, naturalizing inequality between "biologically" defined groups on the basis of fear of the other, to an argument about cultures, naturalizing historical differences and justifying exclusion. Correspondingly, Taguieff shows how antiracism must adopt the strategy that fits the variety of racism it opposes. Already viewed as an essential work of reference in France, The Force of Prejudice is an invaluable tool for identifying and understanding both racism and its antidote in our day