Language:
English
Year of publication:
2016
Titel der Quelle:
Patterns of Prejudice
Angaben zur Quelle:
50,1 (2016) 38-60
Keywords:
Antisemitism History 19th century
;
Jews Public opinion
;
Chinese Public opinion
;
Immigrants History 19th century
Abstract:
Compares two conspicuous racial phobias in Britain of the early 20th century, Sinophobia and antisemitism, which emerged due to the immigration of both Chinese citizens and Eastern European Jews at this time. The two prejudices were similar in that both Jews and Chinese, representatives of transnational communities, were perceived as a geopolitical, "Asiatic" danger for Britain, and both were portrayed as enjoying an unfair economic advantage over the British workman, either as oppressed ones or as oppressors. A characteristic racist obsession of the time was the "sexual threat" presented by Jews and Chinese, i.e. the fear of miscegenation. Paradoxically, at the same time, some authors blamed Jews for their clannishness and refusal to marry out. With all that, the place of Jews in the racial hierarchy was somewhat higher than that of the Chinese: a conditional "whiteness" was sometimes extended to immigrant Jews, which was not the case with Chinese immigrants. Notes that Sinophobia and antisemitism of the Edwardian epoch increasingly blurred borders between domestic and externally-focused racial prejudice, combining the tropes and imagery of both.
DOI:
10.1080/0031322X.2015.1127646
URL:
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