Scapegoat racism and the sacrificial politics of “security”

Abstract

This article draws on Girard's general account of sacrificial violence to elucidate the race-thinking that structures contemporary discourses on security in Western security states, particularly in Canada and the United States. With attention to the relation between collective group formation (as we see, for example, in resurgent nationalisms of the era of "terror") and to the structures and processes of inclusion/exclusion that define them, my discussion unfolds Girard's figure and analysis of "the scapegoat" within and against contemporary theories of racial violence and group-based persecution. It profiles the specter of race in the assemblages of fear that imbue security discourse, to consider how security "works" to foster and consolidate communities against its "foreign" others, in ways that produce the very race distinctions that they are conditioned on. In doing so, it will elucidate how Girard's work on sacrificial violence is productive for critically elucidating the affective politics of security discourse, including those that organize and inform the biopolitical formations of race distinctions and racial hierarchy in contemporary security states.

Interpreting Perceptions about Coastal Fisheries in Sierra Leone: Scapegoats and Panaceas

“…The scapegoat myth serves to restore a sense of group identity in times of stress [9] (p. 179). Denike [15] (p. 113) reports Girard's theory that scapegoats are selected in order to expiate or quell or manage the inherent impulses to conflict and disorder that exist within all societies. The victims on whom the in-group projects the causes of society's problems must be too weak to retaliate [15].…”

“…Denike [15] (p. 113) reports Girard's theory that scapegoats are selected in order to expiate or quell or manage the inherent impulses to conflict and disorder that exist within all societies. The victims on whom the in-group projects the causes of society's problems must be too weak to retaliate [15]. Mellema [16] says a group may be scapegoated for something they did not do, or even for something that never happened at all, but usually, the event did occur, and the scapegoated group did play some part in it, even if their part may be greatly exaggerated by the scapegoater and they are blamed disproportionately for the harm to which they may have contributed only a marginal amount.…”

“…(5) Scapegoats might retaliate against their tormentors and set up a spiral of vengeance and counter-vengeance [15].…”

Mimetic rivalry in practice: The case of Kosovo

“…2. Following Girard, the mimetic theory of violence has been further developed, for instance, in its relationship with religion (Palaver, 2013;Thomas, 2015), culture (Souillac, 2014), sovereignty (Hamerton-Kelly, 1996), terrorism (Brighi, 2015;Morrow, 2017), storytelling (Hodge, 2011), the physical and political effect on human bodies (Feldman, 1991), individual and systemic sexual violence (Anderson, 2000), the scapegoating practices employed in security discourses (Denike, 2015). 3.…”

Understanding the dynamics of pursuing reconcilitation and peacebuilding in intractable intergroup conflict situations using multi-track diplomacy: A case study of Somalia's diaspora in Denmark

“…The latter thus pay the price of the other group's frustrations and pain. These are some of the forces that motivate racial violence and group-based persecution in lots of societies, rupturing peace in a manner that requires much sacrifice and investments to get things back to normal (Denike, 2015).…”