Difference between revisions of "Foci of categorism"

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''“But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues  
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''“But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.”''
and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.”''
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'''Martin Luther''', “The Jews And Their Lies”
 
'''Martin Luther''', “The Jews And Their Lies”
  

Revision as of 21:50, 26 August 2014

“But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.” Martin Luther, “The Jews And Their Lies”


Prejudice, bigotry and discrimination is typically based on a categorization of people. Within this categorization, a specific category is often targeted. These are the foci of categorism: Categorization foci such as racism (race), sexism (gender) and sexuality (paraphobia, as well as targeting foci such as afrophobia (africans), misogyny (women) and homophobia (homosexuals & bisexuals). While many foci exist, some are more deeply rooted than others. Historically, antisemitism is arguably the most classic focus of them all.

Another classic focus of categorism is “racism”, a word from which words such as “sexism” has been derived.3 The word “racism” entered the English language in 1936 as part of the discourse against National Socialism and the German Third Reich, replacing older words such as racialism.4 One of the works central to establishing the word was the book “Racism”5 by Magnus Hirschfeld, a pioneer in sexology research and minority rights advocacy. The book was published posthumously in a foreign country since Hirschfeld, being a German citizen, died 1935 in exile from nazi persecution.

List of 30 foci

This list is available at page 99 of the thesis. The list is not intended to be conclusive, as there are endless possibilities to categorize people and then be categorist against them based on this categorization.


  • 1. Racism: Based on race, skin-color or ethnicity.
    • 2. Antiromanism: Targeting people who are self-identified Romani, or are seen as Romani/Gypsies by others. Also known as Antiziganism, although this version of the word is more problematic.
    • 3. Orientalism: Targeting “Orientals” - People living in countries categorized as “eastern”, such as Egypt and Japan, defining these very different populations as being one unified category.
    • 4. Occidentalism: Targeting “Occidentals” - People who live in cities, people who are secular and highly educated, as well as people who are born in western countries, defining these three categories as being one unified category.
    • 5. Gingerism: Targeting people with red hair.
    • 6. Afrophobia: Targeting Afro-Americans, Afro-Europeans and other people of African ancestry living in other parts of the world.
  • 7. Sexism: Based on gender. Targeting women to a larger extent than targeting men, as our culture has traditionally regarded women as being “the second sex”.
    • 8. Misogyny: Targeting women.
    • 9. Misandry: Targeting men8.
    • 10. Transphobia: Targeting trans people, or anyone who is not a cis-person.
  • 11. Paraphobia: Targeting sexual minorities9, such as fetishists and sadomasochists.
    • 12. Homophobia: Targeting people for being perceived as homosexual, including self-identified homosexuals and bisexuals.
    • 13. Pedoparanoia: Targeting innocent people through frivolously accusing them of being pedophiles, child-molesters or some kind of unspecified-yet-serious danger to children.
  • 14. Religism: Based on religion, faith or other belief.
    • 15. Antisemitism: Targeting people who are self-identified Jews or are seen as Jewish by others.
    • 16. Antimuslimism: Targeting people who are self-identified Muslims, or are seen as Muslims by others. Also known as Islamophobia, although this version of the word is more problematic.
    • 17. Christianophobia: Targeting people who are self-identified Christians, or are seen as Christians by others.
    • 18. Atheophobia: Targeting people who are self-identified Atheists, or are seen as Atheists by others.
    • 19. Witchparanoia: Targeting people by accusing them of being evil witches with dangerous and destructive supernatural powers. Although this may target anyone, including self-identified15 witches, the most common targets seem to be African children.16
  • 20. Ableism: Based on functionality, usually targeting people who have a specific disability.
  • 21. Ageism: Based on age, often in the form of needlessly and arbitrarily judging people to be “to young” or “too old”.
  • 22. Classism: Based on direct or indirect perception of social class. Direct such as condemning people for their real or perceived social class. “Class” refers to socioeconomic position, social status, or both.
  • 23. Heightism: Targeting people who are longer or shorter than those doing the categorism consider normal.
  • 24. Linguicism: Targeting people who speak a certain language or people who have limited or no skill in a certain language.
  • 25. Intersectional Foci: An intersectional Focus is when the focus is not on a single categorization, but on the combination of two or more categorizations.
    • 26. Racist Sexism: Targeting a combination of race & gender, for example Asian Men or Caucasian women. Racist sexism against black women is sometimes called misogynoir, a word derived from “misogyny” and “noir”.
    • 27. Whore-Stigma or Slut-Shaming.

A combination of sexism and paraphobia, targeting women with accusations of being sex-workers or other supposed sexual transgressions.

    • 28. Transmisogyny: Targeting trans-women with mixed misogyny and misandry.
    • 29. Paraphobic Misandry/Misogyny: Categorism against based on sexuality and gender, Constructing sexuality in men/women as perverted and dirty.
    • 30. Heterosexism & cis-sexism: Sexist and homophobic/transphobic notions of what a “real man” or “real woman is”.