Name Racist love | ||
Racist love is a term for white people approving of racial minorities, but only under the condition that the minorities behave according to racial stereotypes that make them easy to control.
Origin and concept
The term was coined by Asian American authors Frank Chin and Jeffery Paul Chan in a 1972 article entitled "Racist Love". Chin and Chan differentiate between the terms racist hate and racist love. They distinguish between "unacceptable" stereotypical behavior, which characterizes people of color who cannot be controlled by whites, and "acceptable" stereotypical behavior, which characterizes people of color who can be controlled by whites. Hence, "acceptable" stereotypes form the basis of racist love. Chin and Chan write:
The image of East Asian people in North America is an example of racist love. A 2012 study by the University of Toronto found that East Asians who behave dominantly in the workplace are generally "unwelcome and unwanted by their coworkers" and "at greater risk of being mistreated and harassed in their work environments" compared to white coworkers with identical behaviors. Furthermore, the study found that "East Asians who violated racial stereotypes were the ones targeted for racial harassment; East Asians who 'stayed in their place' did not experience more racial harassment than other employees." Researcher Jennifer Berdahl emphasized: "In general, people don't want dominant co-workers, but they really don't want to work with a dominant East-Asian co-worker."