The 4 differences between xenophobia and racism

Two types of exclusion that attack those who are perceived as minorities different from us.

In this globalized world, the dynamics of inequality have reached a much larger scale than ever before. Today, it is much easier for larger proportions of a country's population to come into contact with people from other places, or belonging to other ethnicities.

All this means that discrimination based on where you come from or the culture you belong to is expressed in a very visible way. However, to speak properly, it is necessary to understand the forms that this discrimination takes. That is why, in this article, we will look at the differences between xenophobia and xenophobia. the differences between xenophobia and racismtwo types of hostile bias towards people considered "outsiders".

Differences between racism and xenophobia.

Racism and xenophobia are two interrelated phenomena, since in both there is an element of rejection of those who are different, which functions in a logic of identification with the group and exclusion of those who do not fall into this category. identification with the group and exclusion of those who do not fall into this category..

However, they differ in very important aspects that allow us to understand how they are expressed in society; therefore, we must know how to distinguish between xenophobia and racism in order to address these problems by directing our attention to what they really are, without falling into errors resulting from confusion.

Of course, we must bear in mind that these two types of discrimination do not have totally defined limits, and often overlap; therefore, people with xenophobic or racist behavior often treat ethnicities and nationalities as if they were races, and vice versa.

Having said that, let's look at the differences that allow us to distinguish between these two concepts.

1. Racism is based on racialization, xenophobia at the borders.

It is now well known that human races do not exist as Biological entities, but as anthropological and social psychological categories. That is to say that the typical classification of different races that distinguishes between whites, blacks and Mongoloids (sometimes also reserving a separate category for Native Americans) is a mirage from the point of view of biology and genetics, a product of historical dynamics and processes of discrimination.

Thus, those who are the targets of racist attacks, physical or otherwise, are targeted as racialized persons; that is, people who are perceived as belonging to a race, even if this race is a defined concept.even if this race is an arbitrarily defined concept. The definition of race, however, is usually based on physical traits: skin color, eye shape, hair type, etc.

In the case of xenophobia, the boundaries that separate the group to which one belongs and the groups to which others belong are also historical constructs (borders and linguistic boundaries, for example), but these do not have a biological component and do not rely heavily on the aesthetics of people's bodily features. of people's bodily features.

2. Xenophobia appeals to culture

Another difference between xenophobia and racism is that the former focuses its discourse on the preservation of one's own culture: rituals and traditions, religion, language, lifestyle and similar aspects, while racism appeals to entities hypothetically belonging to our biology.

Thus, an unequivocally xenophobic message would be, for example, one that encourages the expelling foreigners because they belong to another religion, while a racist discourse would call for the preservation of racial purity in order not to mix with individuals who are supposedly deeply incompatible with us because they have other psychological and biological traits: different level of intelligence, propensity to aggressiveness, etc.

Thus, xenophobia speaks of cultural elements that are transmitted from generation to generation through education, imitation, and learning, whereas racism speaks of elements that are transmitted genetically through through reproduction, which, according to xenophobes, are innate traits.

3. Racism seeks legitimacy through psychometrics and basic psychology, xenophobia through sociology.

As we have seen, xenophobia differs from racism in that it does not appeal so much to traits studied by basic psychology and biology, but rather to statistics describing cultural dynamics. statistics describing cultural dynamics.

Thus, racism tries to rely on experimental and psychometric studies with relatively small samples, while xenophobia relies on sociological studies. However, it should be borne in mind that the sample size of the studies does not tell us whether a study is valid or not.

4. Racism is less supportive of integration

Neither racism nor xenophobia trusts in the ability of discriminated groups to adapt to societies to which they theoretically "do not belong".

However, from xenophobic perspectives it is not uncommon to believe that in small numbers certain individuals of other ethnicities can come to adopt the customs and ways of thinking of the people considered to be native to that place.The racist view also denies the possibility of these supposedly anecdotal cases of integration, given that a race cannot be changed since it is hypothetically a biological entity linked to the genetics of the individual.

Bibliographical references:

• Garner, S. (2009). Racisms: An Introduction. Sage.
• Rubinstein, H. L., Cohn-Sherbok, D. C., Edelheit, A. J., Rubinstein, W. D. (2002). The Jews in the Modern World, Oxford University Press.