Race traitor

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Race traitor is a phrase that describes someone who is perceived to have betrayed their own race, primarily by other members of their race or ethnic group. People can be accused of betraying their race for many socio-political reasons, including miscegenation, cultural assimilation, internalized racism, supporting the interests of other racial groups, and neglecting the interests and welfare of their own racial group. Among racial minorities, the term "race traitor" is sometimes used to describe someone in a position of power that abandons or minimizes their racial identity in order to escape racial discrimination. Although derogatory, the phrase has been reclaimed by some left-wing activists seeking to abolish the concept of whiteness, notably including the political journal of the same name.

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African Americans

Perceptions and accusations of racial betrayal among African Americans largely operate within the bounds of the hierarchical identities constructed during the period of American chattel slavery. Those perceived to be race traitors are dubbed house negros, mammies, Uncle Toms, and Aunt Jemimas. Black conservatives are the main targets of these assertions, with politicians such as Clarence Thomas and Tim Scott accused of being race traitors working for anti-black causes against their own interests. [1] [2] Additionally, African Americans perceived to "act white" are subject to criticism and accusations of betraying their race.

Conservative black nationalist movements such as Hoteps and the Nation of Islam often emphasize strict adherence to traditional religious and cultural aspects of black identity, including strong family structures and patriarchal gender roles. [3] [4] Any perceived deviance from these norms can be seen as a betrayal. When asked about the assassination of Malcolm X after his departure from the Nation of Islam, minister Louis Farrakhan stated: [5]

Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the hell business is it of yours? A nation has to be able to deal with traitors and cutthroats and turncoats.

Jews

Though each distinct and with cultural nuance, Jewish culture has several religious and cultural terms to describe someone seen as a race traitor. The broadest term is self hating Jew, used to describe a Jew who holds antisemitic or anti-Zionist sentiments. The Yiddish term a shande far de goyim ("a shame in front of the goyim") and the more serious [6] [7] Hebrew term chillul Hashem ("a desecration of the name [of God]") are both sayings used to indicate that a Jew has behaved shamefully in front of non-Jews, and possibly fuelled antisemitic stereotypes doing so. [6] Kapo, a slang term for a Jewish prisoner of Nazi concentration camps who was allowed certain privileges in exchange for supervising slave labor, has been described as "the worst insult a Jew can give another Jew", [8] and "accuses Jews today of actively betraying their fellow Jews by working for their oppressors." [8]

In addition to bolstering antisemitism, Jews have been accused as betraying their community by propagating right-wing politics, [9] [10] desecrating religious law, [7] and assimilating into non-Jewish culture. A Jew who marries a non-Jew or converts out of Judaism is sometimes mourned as dead, [11] and intermarriage has been described by an Israeli minister as a "second Holocaust". [12] Because of the history of Christian antisemitism, there is often a greater stigma surrounding Jews who choose to convert to Christianity, [13] [14] while other conversions or a lack of religious affiliation are not considered taboo. Professor Stuart Charmé wrote that "[T]o embrace the radioactive core of goyishness—Jesus—violates the final taboo of Jewishness.[...] Belief in Jesus as messiah is not simply a heretical Jewish belief, as it may have been in the first century, it has become the equivalent to an act of ethno-cultural suicide." [15] : 28 

Whites

Historically, people have been dubbed white traitors for opposing slavery, [16] supporting civil rights movements, [17] or having any association with blackness. [16] Some white people in interracial relationships have been accused of being race traitors, prominently including Prince Harry for his marriage to Meghan of Sussex. [18]

The term has been used by the Ku Klux Klan to describe political opponents. [19] [20] It has also been reclaimed by activists, including Noel Ignatiev, John Garvey, and Mab Segrest.

See also

Related Research Articles

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghetto</span> Neighborhood inhabited by a minority group, usually when poor

A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of such restricted areas have been found across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people.

<i>Goy</i> Word meaning non-Jew

In modern Hebrew and Yiddish, goy is a term for a gentile, a non-Jew. Through Yiddish, the word has been adopted into English also to mean "gentile", sometimes in a pejorative sense. As a word principally used by Jews to describe non-Jews, it is a term for the ethnic out-group.

Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their race, ancestry, ethnic or national origin, and/or skin color and hair texture. Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain group. Governments can discriminate explicitly in law, for example through policies of racial segregation, disparate enforcement of laws, or disproportionate allocation of resources. Some jurisdictions have anti-discrimination laws which prohibit the government or individuals from being discriminated based on race in various circumstances. Some institutions and laws use affirmative action to attempt to overcome or compensate for the effects of racial discrimination. In some cases, this is simply enhanced recruitment of members of underrepresented groups; in other cases, there are firm racial quotas. Opponents of strong remedies like quotas characterize them as reverse discrimination, where members of a dominant or majority group are discriminated against.

The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also called the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization actively controls international banks, and through them governments, to conspire against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.

White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a race and seeks to develop and maintain a white racial and national identity. Many of its proponents identify with the concept of a white ethnostate.

Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people should have supreme authority over all others. The supposed superior people can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nationality, culture, generation or belong to any other part of a particular population.

In the United States, acting white is a pejorative term, usually applied to Black people, which refers to a person's perceived betrayal of their culture by assuming the social expectations of white society. The term is controversial, and its precise meaning is hard to define; some usage focuses on success in education. It is theorized that some students in racial minority groups are discouraged from achieving in school by the negative prejudices of ethnic peers; such a view has been expressed in articles in The New York Times, Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal—and by public figures and academics across the political spectrum.

Racial polarization is the process whereby a population of individuals with different ancestry is divided into separate and distinct racial groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial antisemitism</span> Prejudice and discrimination against Jews based on race or ethnicity

Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews based on a belief or assertion that Jews constitute a distinct race that has inherent traits or characteristics that appear in some way abhorrent or inherently inferior or otherwise different from the traits or characteristics of the rest of a society. The abhorrence may find expression in the form of discrimination, stereotypes or caricatures. Racial antisemitism may present Jews, as a group, as a threat in some way to the values or safety of a society. Racial antisemitism can seem deeper-rooted than religious antisemitism, because for religious antisemites conversion of Jews remains an option and once converted the "Jew" is gone. In the context of racial antisemitism Jews cannot get rid of their Jewishness.

This is a list of topics related to racism:

Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which a presumed superior race are consistently ranked above other races. These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interracial marriage in the United States</span>

Interracial marriage has been legal throughout the United States since at least the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia (1967) that held that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court opinion that "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State." Interracial marriages have been formally protected by federal statute through the Respect for Marriage Act since 2022.

African Americans and Jewish Americans have interacted throughout much of the history of the United States. This relationship has included widely publicized cooperation and conflict, and—since the 1970s—it has been an area of significant academic research. Cooperation during the Civil Rights Movement was strategic and significant, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbolic ethnicity</span>

In sociology, symbolic ethnicity is a nostalgic allegiance to, love for, and pride in a cultural tradition that can be felt and lived without having to be incorporated to the person's everyday behavior; as such, a symbolic ethnic identity usually is composed of images from mass communications media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural racism</span> Alleged type of racism that discriminates people for being culturally different

Cultural racism is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior to others or in more extreme cases that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not co-exist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific racism, which refers to prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences between ethnic or racial groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race and sexuality</span> Intercultural and interracial sexuality

Concepts of race and sexuality have interacted in various ways in different historical contexts. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is understood by scientists to be a social construct rather than a biological reality. Human sexuality involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors.

Banana, coconut, and Twinkie are pejorative terms for Asian Americans who are perceived to have been assimilated and acculturated into mainstream American culture. In Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, coconut is similarly used against people of color to imply a betrayal of their Aboriginal or other non-white ethnic identity. The terms derive from a perception that a person is "yellow [or brown] on the outside, white on the inside", or is "acting white".

Jews of color is a neologism, primarily used in North America, that describes Jews from non-white racial and ethnic backgrounds, whether mixed-race, adopted, Jews by conversion, or part of national or geographic populations that are non-white. It is often used to identify Jews who are racially non-white, whose family origins are originally in African, Asian or Latin American countries, and to acknowledge a common experience for Jews who belong to racial, national, or geographic groups beyond white and Ashkenazi.

References

  1. ↑ Goff, Keli (25 June 2013). "Clarence Thomas: Race Traitor?".
  2. ↑ Harper, Tyler Austin (28 June 2023). "Progressive paternalism".
  3. ↑ "Brief history on origin of the Nation of Islam". 14 August 2013. We are taught cleanliness inwardly and outwardly with the practice of good manners and respect to one and all. We are taught that the family is the back bone of society and that our children must be reared to reflect the highest morals and training to perfect our society. We are trained to eat and to prepare the best of foods for the longevity of life, without the use of alcohol, smoking and substance abuse which endangers the ethics of healthy living. We are taught to respect and protect our women who are the mothers of civilization. Our women are taught a dress code of modesty that will lead to the practice of high morality. We are trained to be an exemplary community expressing the highest spiritual goals for the reform of ourselves and others based on wisdom, knowledge and beauty.
  4. ↑ Young, Damon (5 March 2016). "Hotep, Explained". an arrogant adherence to respectability politics [...] sexism and homophobia that vacillate from "thinly veiled" to "If being gay is natural, how come there ain't any gay elephants?" [...] unbowed and uncompromising support for any black man accused of any wrongdoing, even if said man's guilt is clear
  5. ↑ Wartofsky, Alona. "'Brother Minister: The Martyrdom of Malcolm X'". The Washington Post .
  6. 1 2 "Before Madoff, or the Goyim, a Shande". 19 August 2009.
  7. 1 2 Walk, David. "That's a Chillul Hashem!!".
  8. 1 2 "What is a 'Kapo'? - The worst insult a Jew can give another Jew".
  9. ↑ "Classically Abby is a Shande Far Di Goyim".
  10. ↑ Liebman, Lisa (19 October 2020). "How Bad Was The Trial of the Chicago 7's Judge Julius Hoffman, Really?". "You are a shande far die goyim" — an embarrassment to the Jews — said political activist Abbie Hoffman in Yiddish to Judge Julius Hoffman, the man presiding over his infamous trial.
  11. ↑ "Sitting Shiva for intermarriage". 8 December 2022.
  12. ↑ "Israeli minister says US Jews marrying non-Jews is "like a second Holocaust"". 10 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "Beyneynu addresses serious spike in Jewish conversions to Christianity". For 72 years Israeli society – religious and secular, right wing and left, have argued about the meaning of Jewish identity, but we always drew the line when it came to accepting Christianity.
  14. ↑ "Jews assail 'Christian rabbi' who appeared with Pence, and so does his own movement". NBC News . 30 October 2018. the group[...] believes that Jesus is the son of God — a belief that is anathema to the vast majority of the world's Jews.[...] in their eyes he's not even a real Jew, let alone a rabbi.
  15. ↑ Charmé, Stuart L. (1987). "Heretics, infidels and apostates: Menace, problem or symptom?". Judaism. 36: 17–33.
  16. 1 2 "White Southern Responses to Black Emancipation". PBS .
  17. ↑ "Hume's 1964 'Irish Times' articles helped redefine nationalist attitudes to North". The Irish Times .
  18. ↑ "Far-right student locked up for 'abhorrent' post branding Harry a 'race traitor'". 18 June 2019.
  19. ↑ "White Southern Responses to Black Emancipation". PBS . The Klan is also directed against whites, in some ways. White Southern Republicans are also victims of the Klan. Northerner carpetbaggers -- as they call them -- who come down, become victims of the Klan... Part of the appeal is: Okay, if there is going to be a race war, so to speak, or race violence, then all whites must unite. Those whites who have been with the Republicans are traitors. They're traitors to the race. They're traitors to the region.
  20. ↑ Daly, Michael (15 July 2023). "Tennessee Arrests Klan Leader on Same Day It Honors 1st Grand Wizard". The Daily Beast. "You have been paid another social visit by the Old Glory Knights of the Ku Klux Klan," the photos show that the flyers read "We have a dark history here and because of you a bright future. BE WARNED race traitors, mixed breeds, communist homosexuals and other walks of Godless degeneracy. The Klan is back and here to stay, so you'd better make amends or stay away."
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