Race, Class, and Power by Leo Kuper

Race, Class, and Power by Leo Kuper

Author:Leo Kuper [Kuper, Leo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Ethnic Studies, General
ISBN: 9780202308005
Google: 2tcFnwEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 318644
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-01-15T01:49:23+00:00


4.

My conclusions, then, are that the collective processes of racial organization and confrontation may well be ineffective; also, they increase the probability of extreme violence, whereas I am here inquiring into the possibility of a peaceful transformation of white settler societies. Of course, this puts the problem in too stark a form. It might be approached more realistically in terms of the degree of violence or in terms of policies that might diminish the violence of political change. There are likely to be most complex relations between violence and non-violence, between revolutionary challenge and reactionary response and between parties of racial radicalism, emphasizing the collective processes, and parties of integrative moderation, concerned with the individuating processes. Democratic changes may progressively emerge from these complex interactions.

Regarding the possibly liberalizing consequences of the individuating processes, a crucial difficulty lies in the discontinuity between these ongoing social processes, promoting new interracial solidarities, and a political system under racially exclusive domination, promoting repressive, racist counteraction. Formidable barriers insulate the political institutions against liberal interracial influences. By these conclusions, I do not mean to imply that the individuating processes are without significance, even in the racially extreme Republic of South Africa, or that the racial groups are polarized. On the contrary, I tend to assume that the total polarization of groups in a society is a rare phenomenon. Groups appear to be polarized in revolutionary ideology, which sweeps aside the mediating structures and the individuating processes. They appear to be polarized, at times, in academic analysis, since we seem inclined towards dualisms and dichotomies. Probably extreme polarization is most nearly attained in the course of, and through the process of, the struggle itself. Where the struggle has finally taken the form of racial or ethnic civil war, in our preoccupation with the predominant and overriding forces we tend to overlook harmonious relations that might have been the basis for other developments. Yet these inter-ethnic and interracial relations may be appreciable, even in societies where there is extreme ethnic and racial discord. I am sure that they are also appreciable and significant in South Africa, in consequence of a long history of contact and of interaction in schools and churches and in industry and commerce.

I have examined the individuating processes in terms of the obstacles to their being politically effective, arising in particular from the constitutional structure of the society. It may be more constructive to approach these processes from a different point of view and to consider the means by which they may be rendered politically effective for change from racial domination to democratic participation. I assumed from the outset — and this assumption should certainly be qualified by reference to a relatively immediate period of time — that internal social processes would not be sufficient in and of themselves to transform the political structure of South African society. In distinguishing processes of change in colonial and white settler societies, I emphasized the role of the metropolitan power in the colonies and the absence of a mediating third party in the independent white settler societies.



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