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5. The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia

Between Propaganda and Race Science
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The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia
This chapter is in the book The Politics of Disability in Interwar and Socialist Czechoslovakia
5The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist CzechoslovakiaBetween Propaganda and Race ScienceVictoria ShmidtAbstractThe chapter revises the vicissitudes of public policy on national and international levels that turned socialist policy concerning the Roma from an attempt to secure their rights to reproducing the racial assimilation-ism and tough surveillance established during the interwar period. The interrogation between Western, anticommunist and socialist propaganda is seen as a main factor in this shift. Alongside exploring public discourse around the Roma, this chapter pays special attention to how the inter-national agenda of racial science worked in favor of the reproduction of nationalist rhetoric in Czechoslovak anthropology – supplemented by universal codes of nationalist consciousness as part of a more general outlook on the world.Key words: racial assimilationism, war of propaganda, physical anthropol-ogy, neocolonial thinking5.1The political turbulence of postwar policies concerning the RomaThe socialist politics concerning the Roma was not homogeneous in terms of its main pathos and practicalities. During the f irst decade of socialism (1948-1958), not only off icial discourse but also the initiatives of Roma Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disabilit y in Inter war and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregat-ing in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch05
© 2019 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

5The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist CzechoslovakiaBetween Propaganda and Race ScienceVictoria ShmidtAbstractThe chapter revises the vicissitudes of public policy on national and international levels that turned socialist policy concerning the Roma from an attempt to secure their rights to reproducing the racial assimilation-ism and tough surveillance established during the interwar period. The interrogation between Western, anticommunist and socialist propaganda is seen as a main factor in this shift. Alongside exploring public discourse around the Roma, this chapter pays special attention to how the inter-national agenda of racial science worked in favor of the reproduction of nationalist rhetoric in Czechoslovak anthropology – supplemented by universal codes of nationalist consciousness as part of a more general outlook on the world.Key words: racial assimilationism, war of propaganda, physical anthropol-ogy, neocolonial thinking5.1The political turbulence of postwar policies concerning the RomaThe socialist politics concerning the Roma was not homogeneous in terms of its main pathos and practicalities. During the f irst decade of socialism (1948-1958), not only off icial discourse but also the initiatives of Roma Shmidt, Victoria (ed.), The Politics of Disabilit y in Inter war and Socialist Czechoslovakia. Segregat-ing in the Name of the Nation. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019doi: 10.5117/9789463720014/ch05
© 2019 Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Table of Contents 5
  3. List of Figures 8
  4. Acknowledgements 11
  5. List of Archives and Used Abbreviations 13
  6. Introduction. The Politics of Disability: Structure and Agency in Nation Building in Czechoslovakia 15
  7. Part 1. Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the Interwar Period
  8. Introduction 29
  9. 1. Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia 35
  10. 2. The Discourse of Disability 61
  11. 3. Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period 77
  12. Part 2. Postwar Institutionalization of Care for the Disabled: Toward a Universalized Discourse of “Defective Gypsies”
  13. Introduction 105
  14. 4. Special Education in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1989 109
  15. 5. The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia 145
  16. 6. The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s 177
  17. Conclusions 203
  18. Abstracts in German and French 213
  19. Bibliography 215
  20. Index 251
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048544059-011

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Table of Contents 5
  3. List of Figures 8
  4. Acknowledgements 11
  5. List of Archives and Used Abbreviations 13
  6. Introduction. The Politics of Disability: Structure and Agency in Nation Building in Czechoslovakia 15
  7. Part 1. Building the Czechoslovak Nation and Sacralizing Peoples’ Health: The Vicissitudes of Disability Discourse during the Interwar Period
  8. Introduction 29
  9. 1. Establishing National Public Health in Interwar Czechoslovakia 35
  10. 2. The Discourse of Disability 61
  11. 3. Politics Concerning the Roma during the Interwar Period 77
  12. Part 2. Postwar Institutionalization of Care for the Disabled: Toward a Universalized Discourse of “Defective Gypsies”
  13. Introduction 105
  14. 4. Special Education in Czechoslovakia between 1939 and 1989 109
  15. 5. The Intersectionality of Disability and Race in Public and Professional Discourses about the Roma in Socialist Czechoslovakia 145
  16. 6. The Forced Sterilization of Roma Women between the 1970s and the 1980s 177
  17. Conclusions 203
  18. Abstracts in German and French 213
  19. Bibliography 215
  20. Index 251
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