Scapegoating
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The targeting of a scapegoated individual
or group as the constructed enemy plays out in the political and social
arena, often reflecting real social, political, ideological, cultural,
or economic power struggles.46
Hannah Arendt, in discussing the rise of
antisemitism, suggested that "an ideology which has to persuade
and mobilize people cannot choose its victim arbitrarily." Arendt
argued against the idea of the scapegoat in mass society as wholly unconnected
to the historic political, social, and economic context in which they
became "the victim of modern terror;" even though scapegoats
are clearly "chosen regardless of what they may or may not have
done." It is therefore imperative to study what is happening in
a society when scapegoating's patent falsehoods and forgeries are believed
by large numbers of people.47 "Persecution
of powerless or power-losing groups may not be a very pleasant spectacle,
but it does not spring from human meanness alone," wrote Arendt. "Only
wealth without power or aloofness without a policy are felt to be parasitical,
useless, revolting...."48
An example of structural and contextual influences
on scapegoating is revealed when different ethnic groups move into a
similar social and economic role where they often experience similar
types of scapegoating. Shopkeepers who run small stores in impoverished
communities are scapegoated as parasites whether they are Jews, Arabs,
Asians or any ethnicity other than that of the majority in the neighborhood.
Shopkeepers appear to be absorbing wealth while they have little actual
power. Shopkeepers do not control the economic decisions that resulted
in the high unemployment and lack of resources in the neighborhood, but
they are literally "in the face" of the local residents who
can directly express their anger at the store owner--the relatively weak
yet (incrementally) wealthier next rung up on the economic ladder.49 Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. described this as "the familiar pattern of clientelistic
hostility toward the neighborhood vendor or landlord," noting that
such hostility was a worldwide experience, directed for instance at "the
Indians of East Africa and the Chinese of Southeast Asia." 50 Previous | TOC | Print | Next |
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