Neo-racism

To confuse neo-racism with earlier forms of racism is, according to Taguieff, a theoretical error that both inhibits our ability to understand contemporary racism and has serious consequences for struggles against racism.

Their premise was that, in addition to other factors such as tightening visa restrictions and increased competition from other countries, an explanation for the decrease in numbers could relate to an increase in neo-racism and rejection by the home student population and the wider community.

Neo-racism is grounded not in biology but in anthropology and ideology. In some circles in Europe, for example, some people invoke the distinctions in religious custom, language, or value system specific to immigrants of African, Middle Eastern, or Asian origin to justify keeping those immigrant communities emotionally, if no physically, separate.

As these assaults gained in political strength and visibility, public discourses revealed unimagined reversals of civil rights “truths,” premised on the logics of neo-liberalism, and denying their role in neo-racisms of the nineties.

In Chapter 3, I explain how territorial racism complements Etienne Balibar's theory of cultural racism, but with one notable qualification: I don't treat anti-immigrant racism as a neo-racism that crystallized in the late 20th century.

The plurality of neo-racisms is problematized as well in shifting the discourse of blame from individuals and attitudes to society and structures.