Problematising mainstream Spanish antiracism: race, racism and whiteness

ABSTRACT

In Spain, (anti-)racism is of scarce relevance to public debates and, when the topic is broached, it has mainly been discussed in relation to non-EU migration. Besides, its historical link with colonialism generally remains unacknowledged. This article analyses the problematisation of ‘race’ and ‘racism’ in this context, as performed by hegemonic stakeholders (i.e. public servants, NGOs, experts) in the fields of anti-discrimination, Roma inclusion and immigrant integration policies. As the fieldwork materials illustrate, this understanding rejects ‘race’ not only from a scientific-biological perspective but also as a social-political category. Accordingly, racism is depoliticised and theorised in a twofold manner: (1) as a matter of stereotypes, prejudices and lack of information about the ‘Other’; (2) as the aggressive acts of explicitly racist individuals/organisations. The structural, historical and institutional dimensions of racism are addressed either as background context, or they are negated by public policies. By not confronting the uneven power relations (re)produced by racism, this approach reaffirms ‘institutional whiteness’ as the underlying perspective of mainstream Spanish anti-racism.

KEYWORDS:

• Race
• (anti-)racism
• institutional racism
• whiteness
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Mainstream literature cautions against comparing the US and European contexts. However, while the specific histories of Black or Native Americans should not be denied, analogies can also be established with the suffering of the Roma, a transnational European minority that has been historically subjected to structural violence (including enslavement). Similarly, the racialisation of Muslims and non-European migrants through migration and citizenship laws present analogies with the experiences of Asians or Latinos in the US (Möschel, 2014).

2 As a white person, I have not been external to such a power relation during fieldwork.

3 The research project this article is based on includes a strand dedicated to the analysis of Roma inclusion policies: I will specifically focus on them in forthcoming publications.

4 Spain is a decentralised state: regional governments retain significant powers over social policies and frequently draft programmes that complement national strategies. For my analysis, I have privileged the most populated and politically significant ‘autonomous communities’: Madrid, Andalusia and Catalonia.

5 During the interviews, I adopted a ‘neutral’ language so that my interlocutors could feel comfortable. I generally avoided strongly connoted words such as ‘race’ or ‘whiteness’, paying attention to their use of the language. If the conversation led to it, I sometimes asked more direct questions.

6 I have randomly altered the interviewees’ gender and the date of the interview to ensure anonymity

7 A discussion on the invisibilisation of contemporary anti-Roma racism can be found in Powell and van Baar (2019). Specifically for a historical perspective on anti-Roma racism in the Spanish context, see Garcés et al. (2015).

8 Recent accounts of contemporary far-right racist discourses across Europe can be found in Vieten and Poynting (2016) and Creţan and O’brien (2019).

9 For further discussion on Roma spatial segregation, see Marinaro (2017) and Málovics et al. (2017).

Additional information

Funding

This article results from the research project POLITICS – The politics of anti-racism in Europe and Latin America: knowledge production, political decision-making and collective struggles. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Ref.: 725402-POLITICS-ERC-2016-COG).