Some philosophers may have asserted that man is a wolf to man, and others that man is full of love for man: each side has expressed half the truth. More seriously, this reaction, based on fear and competition, is not only delusional, it has a function: it was and, in a sense, remains vital for the human species. To survive, man has often had to defend his integrity and his property, and, on occasion, appropriate those of others, movable and immovable property, food, raw materials, territories, women, real or imaginary property, religious, cultural and symbolic. So that he is both aggressor and attacked, terrifying and terrified. Because, since everyone does the same, we no longer know where this infernal circle of defense and aggression begins. It’s part of our history and our memory collective. This terrified and aggressive denial of others is exactly racism. But racism is a discursive elaboration, a justification of these simple emotions. It seemed to me necessary to distinguish these two levels and to name them differently. Otherwise, no one would admit their racism, with which we must nevertheless deal to better exorcise racism. No need to suspect and accuse everyone are we all racists? No, but we are all exposed to racism. Racism comes to be grafted onto this common background and stands out according to the cultural tradition of each person, and the occasional victim he encounters. It is society, our language, our literature, which complacently offers us molds, ready-made compartments in which to store our emotions. Worried, in spite of ourselves, in front of a man with Asian features, we spontaneously draw on the negative figures of Chinese or Japanese offered to us by literature or cinema. Like for Jews or Arabs, or even for women. Are we confused in front of a woman? The stereotypes of the bitch, the vamp, or even the witch, are immediately available to us. This situational, cultural aspect of racism does not make it less dangerous, because we experience it, all (or almost all), from our first sip of milk, we swallow it with our first sandwiches, at school and in the street. , in family prejudices, in books, films, and even in religions. But if racism is social and cultural, it is a
animal data. The racist discourse has evolved. Henceforth it is not “race” in the biological sense that the racist protects, but his culture and his values that he believes in danger. The other, by its strangeness, is frightening. Since it is impossible to know, the other must disappear, either by excluding and demonizing it, or on the contrary by assimilating it.
The reality of racism is therefore more complex than it seems. If racism results from certain social phenomena, such as crises, poverty or war, this is not enough to explain how it is formed. A phenomenon inherent in human nature, racism is a belief that assimilates certain behaviors and values to a social group. Racists thus think that all Jews are miserly and that all blacks are lazy. In social psychology, studies of these social stereotypes show that they are so entrenched in society that they influence all individuals, even the least racist. One way or another, no one escapes discrimination.