Several people have asked here, why racism and what may be its
geography? From the London bombs to ethnic cleansing in the Balkans
to Nazi Germany to the Stephen Lawrence tragedy in SE London, much
racism seems to be based on fear, that is mainly an economic fear
that "they" are taking "our" jobs, homes shops, etc etc. This fear
seems to be based on the "lump of labour" fallacy, that at any one
time there are only so many jobs to go around, and that if you send
more people into an area, whatever jobs they get means less
employment for the others. In fact one can prove economically that an
influx of people means more demand, at least for food and shelter,
and if they work, more economic production as well, which should
raise econ activity and hence produce more jobs. But for an
indigenous population living in an area of economic depression, or
when unemployment is high, it may be hard to convince them of this
fact. Hence in the Stephen Lawrence enquiry the concept of "holding
the line" was seen to be held by some S London white people, of
keeping the black population of Lewisham etc from buying property
outside the "line" which was the South Circular here. Likewise the
Nazis in 1930s Germany rose to power because a) the country was
impoverished, after the reparations, loss of colonies etc of WW I,
and b) there was a group that could be scapegoated, the Jews. Serbia
fears for its source of raw materials in Kosovo, and a possible
irridentism by the Albanians there to Albania. Likewise in Turkey
there is fear of secession by the Kurds, in Israel by the
Palestinians, in Indonesia that secession by the E Timorese will
lead to more seceesions etc.
On these grounds one might expect NF votes, using these as a
surrogate for racist attitudes, to be concentrated in five ways
1) In areas of industrial decline, high unemployment, of poverty.
Because these areas, of cheap housing, are where immigrants also tend
to arrive, it is all too easy to see these migrants as being
associated with, and even causing, these econ conditions!
2) In times of raised unemployment generally
3) In classes most affected by job losses; in the UK this would be
among manual workers, especially in declining industries like docks,
heavy engineering.
4) In areas at or close to areas of high immigration
5) At times when immigration is high or well publicised
I suspect that it is no coincidence that the London bombs began when
Britain began giving shelter to Kosovan refugees. Sadly, immigrants
make an easily scapegoatable group. And although unemployement is
"low" in Britain now, well low by recent years standards, there is a
lot of low paid work, the rich/poor poverty gap is still wide, and
the ingredients of (2) above are effectively still there. On a wider
note, it would be interesting to see if other "isms" of
discrimmination, like sexism and ageism, also rise when conditions 1
- 5 above occur. Do countries with both a thriving economy and a low
rich/poor gap, and with substantial racial minorities, experiencxe
low levels of racism?


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