irrational hatred

Sometimes, when the human being does not find ways to argue his hatred, he invents them.

I am going to try to explain this theory based on two phenomena of a different nature: racism and homophobia.

Racism

Ta-Nehisi Coates explores race relations in the United States in her book

(National Book Award 2015).

The author of it maintains that the term race was created to justify racism.

According to Coates, the concept of racism was invented first and only later was the concept of race invented.

The statements of J. Craig Venter, director of Celera Genomics Corporation, seem to point in that direction.

Speaking to

, he assured that race is a social and not a scientific concept: “The researchers affirm that, although it may seem easy to tell at a glance if a person is Caucasian, African or Asian, the ease disappears when they are verified. internal characteristics and the DNA genome is scanned for signs related to race…”.

The conclusion seems clear: there is only one race: the human.

homophobia

The pejorative French term

(equivalent to fagot, in Spanish) seems to come from the word

(pedophile).

Is accusing homosexuals of pedophiles a way to justify an irrational hatred towards them?

The article

(

) is found on the Repondre aux Preguges website, whose objective is to combat prejudice.

The article explains how Dr. Carole Jenny conducted a study in the United States in which 269 cases of child sexual abuse were reviewed.

In only two, the perpetrator was a gay or lesbian adult.

The text explains that the scientific research carried out on this subject shows two things.

First, that there is no correlation between sexual orientation and pedophilia.

And second, that homosexuals and bisexuals are no more likely to attack children than heterosexuals: "Accusing homosexuals of pedophilia is a recurring homophobic prejudice (...) Members of discriminated minorities are frequently accused of being a threat to the most vulnerable members of the discriminatory majority”.

homophobia and racism

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is the author of the novel

(Pure Men).

The book, which takes place in Senegal, portrays a homophobic and racist society that "accuses" the white man of having brought homosexuality to the African country.

I think that this is an insane accusation because, in my opinion, it is evident that homosexuality has always existed in all times and all places.

I think this book is especially interesting because it reflects a somewhat absurd situation: it is not very clear if homophobia is used here to justify racism… Or if racism is used to justify homophobia.

Perhaps the irrational hatreds described in this text are only the reflection of the fear of the unknown and the different.

Some good tools to combat these fears are education and culture.

Miguel Forcat Luque

is an economist from the Complutense University of Madrid and an official of the European Commission.

The article does not necessarily reflect the point of view of the institution for which he works.

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