The startling effect of the word race: a glance at racism in Turkey through the eyes of young men who support gender equality.

This paper focuses on the widely ignored racism and racialization in Turkey through the eyes of young men who self-identify as feminist, pro-feminist, or gender-egalitarian. It draws on in-depth interviews with 39 cisgender university students and graduates, aged between 18 and 24, from the ethnoreligious majority (Sunni Muslim Turkish) and minority (Kurdish, Alevi, and Alawite) families. It examines how young men who support gender equality frame, experience, and perpetuate racism. Informed by critical race theory, I argue that rejecting race as a meaningful category and failing to acknowledge racism's systemic characteristics helps the participants from the majority trivialize or justify their racist attitudes. The startling effect of the word race also influences minority participants, hindering them from reflecting on racialization and racism experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]