What question did this study set out to answer?

The article aims to explore various forms of discrimination, arguing against a totalizing view of racism that oversimplifies social dynamics.

April 4, 2026Open Access

How racism works - and how it doesn't work. Why a totalizing understanding of racism is insufficient for theory and research

Key Points

The article aims to explore various forms of discrimination, arguing against a totalizing view of racism that oversimplifies social dynamics.
Differentiated discussion of racism and discrimination
Critical analysis of societal structures
Examination of the relationship between racism and economic inequalities
Totalizing views of racism do not capture the complexity of social relations
Radical critiques may reflect broader social transformations
Racism may no longer serve as a primary basis for legitimizing inequalities

Abstract

This article calls for a differentiated discussion of different forms of discrimination and racism. The reason for this is that a totalizing understanding of racism, which claims a comprehensive racist structuring of society, fails to recognize the complexity and contradictory nature of social conditions and relations. In connection with this, the question must be raised whether a critique of racism that claims for itself the position of a radical critique of contemporary societies is more appropriately to be understood as an expression of a social transformation in which racism is no longer suitable as an ideological basis for the production and legitimation of economic inequalities and political power relations. (DIPF/Orig.)

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