Racismo moderno y postmoderno en Europa

Enfoque dialógico y pedagogías antirracistas

Abstract

This article raises the subject of the increase in racism in present-day Europe and the
challenges that this fact poses for education and educators. The author distinguishes betweeen
two types of racism: an old one, modern racism, and another more recent one, postmodern
racism. The first is based on arguments of inequality and the existence of superior and inferior
races and ethnic groups. The second maintains that ethnic groups and races are neither superior
nor inferior; they are just different. It places the emphasis on the impossibility of an egalitarian
dialogue between different races and ethnic groups for establishing common rules for living side
by side. Despite the fact that in Europe there is an anti-racist educational tradition, educators
often do not have the intellectual and educational instruments for combating this form of
racism. Flecha suggests that educators have attempted to combat racism by developing antiracist
teaching sciences which use the relativist focus defended by contemporary thinkers such as
Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. The author argues that this focus implies a challenge for
modern racism but that it does in fact stimulate postmodern racism. Starting from the work
done by dialogic theorists like Paulo Freire and Jürgen Habermas, Fecha suggests instead that
educators use the dialogic approach, which places the emphasis on the need for equality of rights
for all individuals, in order to be able to develop effective anti-racist teaching sciences which can
combat both forms of racism simultaneously.