About:
In this lecture Prof. Benyera explores the meaning and structure of racism, paying attention to the mechanisms that sustain it. Using the decolonial lenses, he argues that racial ontology as a product of capitalism not only structures racism, but also sustains it. Racial ontology as the sustainer and underwriter of racism relies on five institutional and systems into which humanity was forcibly incorporated. These five Euro-North American centric phenomenon which have been efficacious in structuring racism are: (1) the international legal system, (2) the global financial and monetary system, (3) the world capitalist economy, (4) Euro-North American-centric world culture especially the languages, (5) Euro-North American-centric moral order which is dominated by Christian thought. These structures and institutions are enforced by four types of violence: (1), foundational violence, (2), institutive violence, (3), routinising violence (4), and maintenance violence. Racisms deals with its victims in three dormant ways, it either absorbs (assimilates), disciplines, or dispenses.
Speaker:
PROFESSOR EVERISTO BENYERA
Associate Professor of African Politics, Department of Political Science, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
