Relationship Between Race And Nation

Introduction

Racism is a worldwide social problem that was developed through prejudice and ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the belief or assumption that your own cultural and/or societal group is the most superior. Some people believe that Caucasians are considered the most superior race because they have used racism and ethnocentrism to mold this belief. In the book "Who Do We Think We Are? Race and Nation in the Modern World," written by Philip Yale Nicholson, he offers a provocative explanation of the force and place of race in modern history, showing that race and nation have a linked history. In his book, he also offered four very significant themes, which provides an insight to why racism still exists in our modern society.

Relationship Between Race And Nation

Nicholson's first theme is extremely important because it explains the origin of racism. Nicholson hypothesize that the leaders of countries use the idea of race in order to create nations. For stronger nations to be formulated, there should be a need for a strong sense of national pride. This sense of patriotism is easier to inspire when one considers the need to belong to a group. However, in order to give a definition of which a group may consist of, we first must decide whom the group excludes. Because skin color is the first thing that appeals to one another, it makes sense that it was chosen as a random basis for discrimination. The exclusions to the group are consequently stigmatized as biologically, mentally, or physically lacking in some way or another and thus inferior to those that fit within the included group. Unfortunately, this systematic way of discrimination on the basis of skin color is the formal creation of racism.

As Nicholson stated, "... Britain... ruled over this empire as both a nation and a race apart. Race and nation were the emotional, political and cultural bond found among those new powers with external colonial or sub-citizen domestic subjects..." (Nicholson, 94). This demonstrates that stronger national identity allows those included within the nation to distinguish themselves as superior to those of other nations.

Nicholson's third theme is the idea of the process of vilification of the victim. This process is described as the "dehumanization or degradation of members of a different race till they have been downgraded to property status." (Ntloedibe, discussion section). Vilification goes so far as to strip the humanity from a population and considers the whole population as a lower race. This process may be accomplished through propaganda, the spreading false information. One example of the process of vilifying the enemy is when people call each other derogatory terms such as "Niggers, Japs, and Chinks." People know that these terms are hurtful and can degrade a person, but sometimes racists will say these words in order to make the victim feel inferior, uncivilized savages.

Nicholson's fourth and final theme is that there is a dialectical relationship between those who are racially vilified and those doing the vilifying. For an individual whom belongs to ...