Silvia Rodríguez Maeso

History textbooks, racism and the critique of Eurocentrism: beyond rectification or compensation

Abstract This article is based on the theoretical framework developed within a research project on the construction of Eurocentrism and, more specifically, on the analysis of Portuguese history textbooks. We propose that the textbooks’ master narrative constitutes a power-evasive discourse on history, which naturalizes core processes such as colonialism, slavery and racism. Showing the limits of an approach that merely proposes the compensation or rectification of (mis)representations, we argue for the need to unbind the debate on Eurocentrism from a perspective that fails to make problematic the ‘very idea of Europe’. Accordingly, our analysis of Portuguese history textbooks focuses on three core narrative devices: (1) the chronopolitics of representation; (2) the paradigm of the (democratic) national state; and (3) the definitive bond between concepts and historical processes.

A presença ausente do racial: discursos políticos e pedagógicos sobre História, "Portugal" e (pós-)colonialismo

Este artigo analisa como, nos discursos politicos e no contexto educativo portugues, o racial se insere num jogo de in/visibilidades, sendo considerado como resultante da presenca do “outro” da colonia e, logo, naturalmente irrelevante para a formacao do espaco nacional-metropolitano e, de modo geral, para a formacao da nocao de “Europeidade”. A partir desta analise, ilustramos a despolitizacao do racismo via a naturalizacao do colonialismo e a reificacao do “imaginario imigrante”; neste sentido, o racismo e interpretado como algo que sucede aos outros – etnorracialmente marcados – mas que nao diz respeito ao que “nos” somos, um “nos” que, alias, nunca e questionado. O texto esta dividido em tres partes: (i) examinamos a consolidacao da presente ausencia do racial considerando como se tem constituido um ciclo de silencios e consensos sobre o racial na propria acao de combate ao racismo – marcada pelo antirracialismo – de organizacoes globais como a UNESCO. Examinaremos ainda como a dissolucao do racial esta a ser produzida atraves da associacao entre racismo e imigracao no contexto europeu contemporâneo, tanto na politica como na academia; (ii) analisar-se-a o trabalho empirico e os livros didaticos de historia contemporâneos que realizamos em Portugal que mostram como, nos debates sobre a historia e, mais concretamente, sobre o ensino do colonialismo e da escravatura, se tem esvaziado a sua relevância politica e evadido o racial para compreender a chamada escravatura Atlântica dos seculos XV ao XIX; (iii) finalmente, concluimos com uma analise dos contornos daquilo a que denominamos o “consenso (pos-)colonial” em Portugal, inserido num contexto mais amplo de esvaziamento da plausibilidade de um vocabulario que de conta do racial/racismo nas sociedades contemporâneas.

‘Civilising’ the Roma? The depoliticisation of (anti-)racism within the politics of integration

This essay questions the enduring difficulties of addressing racism within the current politics of integration in Europe, with a specific focus on the Portuguese context. The analysis centres on integration initiatives to promote employability among the Portuguese Roma and the ways in which they are rationalised by employment gatekeepers and decision-makers. This rationalisation depoliticises racism by constantly shifting the focus to the presumed characteristics of the ‘other’, re-enacting white-privileged notions of nationhood, Portugueseness and Europeanness. Accordingly, projects based on ‘activation of social competences’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘interculturality’ are implemented as a civilising and disciplinary programme aimed at correcting the presumed deficiencies in ethnically marked populations. The analysis aims to contribute towards a much needed debate on the notion of integration and the re-articulation of the historical legacies of racism in contemporary European democracies.

The semantics of (anti-)racism in the governance of non-Europeanness: an introduction

This special issue presents theoretical discussions and empirical research developed within the international project TOLERACE, The Semantics of (Anti-)Racism and Tolerance in Europe: Public Bodies and Civil Society in Comparative Perspective (2010–13), funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme. In this introduction, we present our approach to the study of (anti-)racism in contemporary Europe as well as the key issues explored in the research, which point to a persistent discomfort about discussing racism and to questions of academic compliance in knowledge production.

The (im)plausibility of racism in Europe: policy frameworks on discrimination and integration

ABSTRACT Rodríguez Maeso and Araújo analyse the reproduction of a dominant understanding of racism in policy discourses of integration and discrimination used by monitoring agencies in Portuguese and European Union (EU) institutional contexts. More specifically, they question the political concern over racism and discrimination vis-à-vis the idea of Europe ‘becoming increasingly diverse’ and the need to gather ‘evidence’ of discrimination. To that end, they examine periodic reports issued by EU monitoring agencies since the 1990s—paying specific attention to reporting on school segregation of Roma pupils in Portugal—and national integration policies and initiatives that, since the 2000s, have targeted mainly Roma and black families and youth. They argue that the dominant discourse of integration and cultural diversity conceives of racism as external to European political culture, and as a ‘factor’ of the ‘conflictive nature’ of social interactions in ethnoracially heterogeneous settings. This paves the way for calls for the ‘strengthening of social cohesion’—on the assumption that policy initiatives need to act on the ‘characteristics’ of so-called ‘vulnerable’ populations—whereas institutional arrangements and everyday practices remain unchallenged.

Eurocentrism, Political Struggles and the Entrenched Will-to-Ignorance: An Introduction

This edited collection is an interdisciplinary production, bringing the work of international scholars and political activists within a wide range of approaches and disciplines, including History, Anthropology, Political Sociology, Philosophy, International Relations, Political Economy and the Sociology of Education. It addresses key contemporary issues in the critique of Eurocentrism and racism, in relation to debates on the production, sedimentation and circulation of (scientific) knowledge, historical narratives and memories in Europe and the Americas. It takes as its crucial starting point the concept of Eurocentrism as grounded in the project of Modernity and, in particular, its specific configuration of colonialism, history and Being which has led to the emergence of race as a key organizing principle in the modern world order from the geopolitical perspective of the creation of Europe/Europeanness, the expression of its hegemony and its contestation.

Bestial traces: race, sexuality, animality

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