Anti-Kurdish racism: On the plurality of racisms

We can currently observe the emergence of a new form of anti-racism: on the one hand, it attempts to combat racism through the state and, on the other hand, it is characterized by the fact that the most diverse discriminated groups claim their “own” racism. The “Anti-Kurdish Racism Information Center” has recently been launched by Civan Akbulut, a member of the Essen Editorial Board. This is a reporting center for attacks against Kurds, but in order to be able to operate as such, it must provide a definition of the term. And that’s what she does. The following can be read on the website: »Anti-Kurdish racism is characterized by systematic discrimination, hostility or violence against people of Kurdish origin. It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, from structural oppression and political marginalization to social stigmatization and cultural negation. It is based on historically grown prejudices as well as politically and socially constructed enemy images that devalue and delegitimize Kurdish identities.

Manifestations instead of causes

What is striking here is that if you replace the word “Kurdish” in this representation with any other population group, this definition can also be applied to them. So we haven’t gained a concept of anti-Kurdish racism here, but – if at all – a very broad description of any form of discrimination. The proposed definition also provides no information about racism in general.

The “Information Center” mentions this in the first sentence of its definition Features of anti-Kurdish racism and ends with the fact that it is directed against people of a certain origin – in this case Kurds. The second sentence describes his Manifestationwhich includes structural, political, social and cultural aspects. The third sentence should Caused of anti-Kurdish racism, namely historical prejudices and political-social enemy images, and ends with an assumed devaluation of identities. What is striking about the entire definition is that the terms appear blurred, everything seems to belong together somehow, but the specific meaning remains unclear in the end. You can neither get to the causes by logically deriving from the characteristics nor the other way around. We also don’t learn anything about how the historical prejudices came about in the first place. In this respect, it must be noted that what the “Information Center” presents as the causes of anti-Kurdish racism are in reality at most its manifestations.

In fact, the whole scheme of Characteristics, manifestation and causes Methodologically, this does not lead to any other practice than addressing a left-liberal public. And that’s exactly what the “Information Center” website confirms to us: “We are going public with the mission to raise awareness of anti-Kurdish racism in Germany and to give those affected a voice.” To this end, those affected by anti-Kurdish racism should Report incidents to the office, which will be anonymized, summarized and published in an annual report. The question can now be asked: How exactly do you want to give those affected a voice through this approach? The anonymized, summarized “voice” is nothing but abstract statistics; a mere file corpse.

Will the fight against racism from now on only be carried out by publishing supposedly “pure facts” in the sense of a positivist approach to “the public”? In reality, there is neither a homogeneous public nor a homogeneous Kurdish identity. The real addressee of such surveys, such as those carried out by the “Anti-Kurdish Racism Information Center,” is the state.

State construction of sacrifice

But producing an anti-fascist sensitivity in society through the state will not work. The bourgeois public does not become more anti-fascist simply by listing and scandalizing racist attacks. “Raising awareness” here means little more than demanding compassion; the anti-racism advocated is a moral one that has given up the question of materialistic causal relationships. There is also a real danger here, because such anti-racism actually reproduces the concept of “race”. We are dealing with an anti-racism of “policing” in the sense of Michel Foucault: the police create visibility, identify, group, store data, standardize, control and monitor. This anti-racist practice constructs the imaginary identity of the affected group as a subject – from the statistical incidents that meet the definition of racism. The imaginary identity that is constructed is an identity as a victim. The real history of this group, however, is blurred and leveled.

We are currently witnessing the emergence of a seemingly endless array of different forms of racism. If the practice of reporting points for racism becomes established, anti-racism will simply mean that statistical incidents are used to highlight which social group is currently suffering the most from racism, in order to then construct a false urgency, hierarchy and prioritization. It would be correct to link statistical trends to the development of the dynamic balance of power within society.

Generalizations of empirical findings, on the other hand, often present themselves as prophecies that, as it were, play an endless game. Such positivist anti-racism does not end with the abolition of racism, but – ironically – only when all the groups that once topped the empirical list of threatened and affected have been gradually massacred.

At the same time, the “prejudices” between those affected by racism are increasing. Be it the migrants’ prejudices about the new refugees or the ever-increasing fragmentation and splintering of anti-racist groups, which are now increasingly organizing themselves around the signifiers of skin color or nation and distinguishing themselves from one another. This means that anti-racism is currently becoming neo-racism: it is articulated in national and cultural categories and reproduces the supposed harmfulness – assumed by racism – of blurring boundaries and the incompatibility of lifestyles and traditions. A common fight against racism is becoming more distant.

The principle of all critical theories also applies here: the dominated always reproduce domination through submission. It is no coincidence that the debates about the specific racism of different groups of people are reminiscent of the debates about how many “races” there are. If we now also base our anti-racism on origin and skin color, we set these categories as eternal and stable. In doing so, we deprive ourselves of the possibility of political change and emancipation. Racism as a social relationshipthat is reproduced and secured through institutions, ideological forms and other material forces, ultimately becomes invisible in these categories.

Who is allowed to speak?

Another expression of this problem is the highly controversial question in contemporary anti-racist struggles as to who is actually allowed to speak on the subject of racism. Contrary to the position taken by many anti-racists, subjective experience, being affected by (specific) racism, is not a final criterion for the production of analytical, emancipatory knowledge. And even less is one’s own concern a criterion for participation in the fight against racism. Radical subjectivism would mean the end of solidarity.

The categories of (imaginary) origin and tradition that representatives of plural anti-racism refer to are constructs of power. Frantz Fanon already warned us in the anti-colonial work “Black Skin, White Masks” that anti-racist struggles should under no circumstances derive the “original calling” of liberation “from the past of the people.” Anti-racism aims to eliminate racism, not to construct it through statistical incidents. His goal is to make himself superfluous. Anti-racism must first be established politically, just as it is necessary to develop new forms of struggle for life and solidarity – before and against every (national) identity. This is class struggle: the detachment from the domineering past through the liberating opening of the present.

The bourgeois public does not become more anti-fascist simply by listing and scandalizing racist attacks.

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