Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 44

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analysis of racism. Fanon asserts that even though the Western Bourgeoisie is
‘fundamentally racist’, they often ‘mask this racism by a multiplicity of nuances which
allow it to preserve intact its proclamation of mankind's outstanding dignity.’8
Although racism became explicit and first ‘develop[d] with colonization’ as a
biopolitical means, it is not a static phenomenon, but functions recurrently in diverse
ways depending on the contemporary socio-political needs and prejudices of a
society.9 A case in point is Boer racism.10 In 1910, South Africa became an
autonomous state within British rule, and the Union of South Africa was established
with Afrikaner rulers. However, Afrikaner rulers continued to marginalise native
South Africans by imposing apartheid laws based on skin colour. Hence, ‘Boer
racism was more explicit than that of the British colonies.’11 In this apartheid era,
racism functioned in a more powerful manner, with a façade, as the country’s rules
and regulations masked segregation. With apartheid laws politically implemented,
particularly through influx control means, the risk of death for black colonised people
increased (this will be further discussed below). Referring specifically to political
tensions, Stoler also asserts that racism ‘always appears renewed and new at the
same time’ [original emphasis].12 In this sense, racism is a modern biopolitical
weapon in disguise: thus it can be identified as neo-racism used for corporeal and
psychological murder.
Developing Foucault’s view, Stoler also argues that ‘[r]acism does not merely
arise in moments of crisis, in sporadic cleansings. It is internal to the biopolitical
state, woven into the weft of the social body, threaded through its fabric.’13 Unlike
biopower, which intends above all to discipline individuals, biopolitics aims to ‘[use]
overall mechanisms […], to achieve overall state of equilibration or regularity […],
[by] taking control of life of biological process of man-as-species.’14 Foucault explains
that the objects of biopolitical operations are not individual human beings, but

8

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, trans. Constance Farrington (New York: Grove
Press,1963), 163.
9
Foucault, 2003, 257.
10
th
Boers are the members of Dutch population settled in South Africa in the 17 century. The
decedents of
th
Boers in the 19 century are also called Afrikaners. South Africa became a British colony, creating a
tension between British and Dutch settlers, which led to the Anglo-Boer War (1898-1902).
11
Daryl Glaser, Politics and Society in South Africa: A Critical Introduction (London: Sage
Publications,
2001), 27.
12
Stoler, 1995, 89.
13
Ibid., 69.
14
Foucault, 2003, 246-247.