Right-wing collectivism and racism are part of the same story
Right-wing collectivist opinion-maker Ivar Arpi is famous in public debate in Sweden regarding topics as racism, migration, and identification. This is partly because Arpi has a history of arguing against and exposing racism among radical and more extreme left-wing individuals and organisations as in cases similar to the development against Asian Americans in the USA with left-wing demands for ethnic quotas and discrimination against different groups. At the same time, Arpi has not been arguing against racism on a principle basis but on the basis of political opportunism and selective behaviours.
One recent example is that Arpi made a podcast talk with the racist academic Eric Kaufmann that Arpi also wrote about in 2019 for right-wing daily Svenska Dagbladet. Kaufmann is, among other things, famous for claims that resistance against immigration as in the UK is not primarily based on racism but on “white racial self-interest” as by demands to protect areas where white individuals will be in the majority.
Arpi himself has written a book and articles about that the academic freedom in Sweden is under threat by radical left-wing actors and ideas (cancel culture, trigger warnings, etc.) and Arpi has also presented Kaufmann as a defender of academic freedom. At the same time, Arpi has not criticised similar behaviours coming from right-wing actors and organisations because he has been arguing against (left-wing) racism and in favour of (right-wing) academic freedom while promoting ideas of an academic as Kaufmann.
Thereby, Arpi’s behaviour in the public debate is absurd and contradictory partly because one cannot be against racism and at the same time be in favour of racism or ignore to criticise racism.
Kaufmann's arguments and work have in the UK debate been criticised among others by economist and social-liberal opinion-maker Jonathan Portes, who often is writing about migration. Portes has, among other things, written that Kaufmann is an academic who is promoting that “white racial self-interest” should become a policy.
One proposal from Kaufmann is that white individuals immigrating to the UK should receive “extra points” in a point-based immigration system. Kaufmann is motivating such a proposal that white Brits are more scared for individuals from the Middle East and North Africa. Therefore, Kaufmann argues that immigration from these world areas should be heavily reduced in order for white individuals in the UK to feel less scared and worried.
Arpi has never mentioned nor criticised Kaufmann’s proposal. Instead, Arpi has focused on writing that Kaufmann is just an academic who argues that resistance towards immigration is not based on racism and social phobias but based on “demography” and social changes. Such behaviours by Arpi and Kaufmann have been disproved and criticised by Hynek Pallas and Clara Sandelind by pointing out that racism is still racism regardless of terms such as “white identity politics”.
Pallas, who often is writing about racism, has in 2019 reviewed Kaufmann’s book “Whiteshift. Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities”. According to Pallas, the perception that immigration is threatening Swedish culture was for a long time limited to far-right portals but had since the 2016 refugee crisis become more normalised in several established media partly because many right-wing opinion-makers are repositioning themselves in the debate about migration and identification.
Pallas also wonders if right-wing oriented Swedes that have presented Kaufmann really understand what Kaufmann is proposing? As Pallas writes:
“there is a certain irony that columnists who have shown hatred against both identity-politics and critical race studies, the academic discipline that foremost has dealt with analysing (white) majority groups in interactions with non-whites, are now embracing identity-politics and pretending as if nobody has ever researched white reactions before”.
According to Pallas, the case with critical race studies has been to present that racist reactions occur within majority groups because both skin colour and nationalism play a large role and that racism is historically seen, from transatlantic slave trade to racial segregation, based on power and repression. Thereby, Pallas argues that an important part of Kaufmann’s project is to discredit the research about racism during the last decades with the aim to disconnect racism as a motivational factor among majority groups.
By doing so, Kaufmann is aiming to criticise multi-culture och promote very restrictive immigration because, in his views, immigration is threatening white majorities. Pallas also writes that if we as humans do not want to live in a world where citizenship is provided on ethnocultural grounds and where human rights are being dismantled - it is time to criticise such behaviours among individuals as Kaufmann.
Sandelind has criticised Arpi’s article in SvD by, among other aspects describing that Kaufmann argues that the problem with the current identity-politics struggle is that “white identity” is about to disappear and that it can only be “solved” by heavily reduced immigration and assimilation.
Sandelind writes that Kaufmann, in his reasoning about American nationalism, is arguing for the bizarre argument that white nationalism is not about power because whiteness is only a cultural mark of the American self-image. According to Kaufmann, it is not racist to protect “racial self-interest” which means, as Sandelind puts it, that Kaufmann is legitimising an ideology that actually has killed people through history. Thereby, Kaufmann is actually confirming that racism in America has resulted in non-whites being brutally excluded from the American nation.
Sandelind also writes that it is not a scientific secret that racism or other perceived threats against cultural or national identification lead to negative attitudes toward immigration. It is neither the case that this explaining factors would be more important than, for example, perceived economic threats.
As Sandelind writes it, on one side, different group belongings lead to meaningfulness in life while on the other side such belongings are risking to end up in identity politics, especially when such politics are promoted by majority groups leading to threats against more important aspects as human compassion, solidarity, justice and fundamental respect for everyone’s right to life and freedom.
It is also important to understand that Kaufmann is not alone in promoting modern racist opinions because he is also cooperating with several others, as with nationalist writer David Goodhart, famous for his populist categorisation of people in “anywheres and somewheres” that during 2018 became popular among many right-wing oriented politicians and opinion-makers in Sweden. Both Goodhart and Kaufmann are affiliated with the pro-Brexit and right-wing collectivist think-tank Policy Exchange.
Most people in Europe are not racists in the sense that one daily is thinking in racist terms or fully accepting racism as an idea. However, the case is that a larger number of individuals can be aware or unaware accept and promote racist views and opinions as in discussions about migration and religion. This is also the case as with Ivar Arpi, who, despite writing against racism, has not criticised or ignored racism coming from right-wing political behaviours. This is why it is important to note that opinions among opinion-makers as Arpi (who promotes abolishment of the right to asylum) and Kaufmann would lead to racist and inhumane policies regarding mobility and refugee reception.
The future for Sweden, just as for other EU countries and other countries worldwide, should be to develop policies and systems that will handle global problems and challenges regarding migration on the basis of respecting human rights, dignity and security.
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