Antisemitism as a Reservoir: Implications for the Sociology of Racism (Brendan McGeever)
| Dates: | 17 November 2022 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Webinar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| How much: | Free |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Brendan McGeever |
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The Labour Party’s bitter antisemitism controversy provides an opportunity to reflect sociologically on the place of antisemitism within the field of racism studies. In this paper I draw on empirical data to conceptualise antisemitism as a reservoir: a deep reservoir of stereotypes and narratives, replenished over time, from which people draw with ease, intentionally or otherwise. This conceptualisation, I argue, enables us to shift the focus from individual antisemites (‘bad apples’) to instead come to terms with the significance of antisemitism as a form of racialisation within political culture.
But this raises new questions: what, if anything, is distinctive about antisemitism as a form of racism? And perhaps more urgently, what are the implications for anti-racist politics? Labour’s antisemitism controversy reveals a deepening divide among the forces that resist racism. Half a century ago, opposition to antisemitism and other racisms were more closely aligned, intellectually and politically. Today these connections are slender, and for many, there has been a parting of ways. This paper explores whether a conception of antisemitism as a reservoir can be part of a broader attempt to forge a multi-directional understanding of racism.
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