Race facilitates rule. If race did not exist, the powers-that-be would have had to invent it, for an ordered, hierarchical society requires an Other, preferably physically distinct from Us. The Other serves many purposes, sometimes providing a disposable work force. In the 16th century, the Catholic Church in cahoots with the Spanish throne defended the enslavement of Native Americans by denying… return to article
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Reader Comments (47)Page 1 of 1 pages“Only in the movies does badass bullying expose conspiracies rather than recruit new conspirators to the cause. . . .laws of yesteryear were not the freak consequences of unenlightened times—they were the ordinary outcomes of those in power protecting their self-interest through . . .”
Makes you realize there is no such thing as race, just ordinary human beings crossing the lines and the ensuing psychological miasma of denial, all of it a waste of time, compounding the ‘genocidal’ reality below.
Love your neighbor.
Posted by SGB Hubert on May 11, 2005 at 1:21 PM The basis for slavery is not historically race. There were plenty of white slaves in the South, particularly the Carolinas. Rome had slaves from all over. As did many cultures throughout time. . .
Race is not only poorly defined, but it is useless in todays society. Blacks that are lucky enough to live in the US should be grateful that they ended up here. Not to mention that with the melting pot influence of the US, many (most?) of todays “blacks” are really largely white (and Indian as well).
While class is also amorphous, it a much better indicator for deciding who needs societys help, now (with the expectation that those that are helped today very well be helping others in the future, as their situations improve). Race based aid is both counterproductive and foolish.
Posted by Paul on May 11, 2005 at 3:00 PM From its inception, the USA has always been a racist oligarchy, never a true democracy. The ruling class dramatically emphasized this by rendering the ballots of many African-Americans null and void during the 2000 presidential race, and felt no shame in allowing Mr. Bush to steal the White House. However, no matter how hard corrupt rulers work to bury or hide the truth, it always emerges, often in an even more powerful form. For more than a decade courageous African-American scholars and activists have been working inside the United Nations to establish Human Rights and secure Reparations for all slave descendants in the Western Hemisphere. In many interventions before diverse bodies, including the Human Rights Commission, they have documented in detail how the U.S. government’s long-term practices of ethnocide and forced assimilation blatantly violate U.N. Covenants, including Article 27 of the International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights. Although the Bush Administration and the American ruling class consider themselves above both the U.S. Constitution and international law, no ruling elite can indefinitely avoid reaping what it has sown. That is why the wicked slavemaster Thomas Jefferson wrote the following words in his Memoirs: “I tremble for my countrymen when I reflect that God is just.”
Sincerely,
Malik Al-Arkam
www.AllForReparations.org
Posted by Malik Al-Arkam on May 11, 2005 at 4:41 PM Thanks, Paul, for your comments.
Yup, them there negra’s betta’ learn them places. Because I was born inta power, I needs ta stays in power. Dodn’t matter I’m dumb as rocks. Because if you work hard like me… wait, I never worked a day in my life. And Im as dumb as a rock. Paul, what the hell’s goin’ on here?
(gulps shot of whiskey)
Ahh, now that’s better. As I was sayin, because them there blackies was born poor, they shoulds stay poor. Hell, ain’t they been free for damn near 100 years now? Ain’t no racism anymore! As long as them darkies thinks like i Dick wants them to think, then they be hired anytime! I hired Condi, didn’t I? Dammit! Dese liberals with their equality and thinkin’ and stuff, they keep gettin me all mixed up!(Pause)
wait, is this camera on? Daddy, save me! I made some harmless comments about African-Americans and now these liberals are tryin’s ta’ hurts me! Daddy! (sobbing) DADDY! I gotta tee time at 3pm today! I can’t do another press conference! Aren’t we killin’ enough of them Arabs for these damn liberals ta see we mean business? DADDY!
Posted by george w. on May 11, 2005 at 5:15 PM Race is biological fiction. The conscept of race was invented in the 1500’s for economic reasons primarily. It is useful for the rulers to use race, especially as a means of artificially dividing the masses, whose only strength is their unity. However, as the ruling class in the U.S itself becomes less WASPy and as the upper layers of the petty bourgeoisie do as well, overt racism is less useful as a divide-and-conquer tool. The anti-Arab racism of today is really fruitless, except in whipping up support for wars in the Middle East. I think anti-Latino racism is the wave of the future. Latino immigrants can be scapegoated for all the ills of society,
Reparations are simply a stupid idea because let’s not forget that there were black slave owners (usually light-skinned). Many of the slaves brought to the Americas were slaves in Africa already. And what about all the mixing that has taken place over the centuries?
I think there’s an obsession with race. The class struggle is the only way that racism can be defeated. A victorious working class revolution would require the unity of workers of all races and nations.
Posted by Maximillian Al-Dakari on May 11, 2005 at 5:17 PM “the wicked slavemaster Thomas Jefferso”
Or could it be he just lived in a different time, with different morays? Is it really fair, just or reasonable to judge people who lived 200 years ago by our contemporary standards?
Lets face it. The US, while **far** from perfect (since it is made up of imperfect folks like you and me) is still far and away the best country in the world. One tiny but significant example: handicapped rights. No other country comes anywhere even distantly close to the accomadations here in the US.
Posted by howFunny on May 11, 2005 at 5:37 PM Yes, howFunny, how funny indeed.
You wrote:
“Lets face it. The US, while **far** from perfect (since it is made up of imperfect folks like you and me) is still far and away the best country in the world. One tiny but significant example: handicapped rights. No other country comes anywhere even distantly close to the accomadations here in the US.”Far & away best country in the world? Sorry, not even close.
No one comes close to accomadations for the handicapped? Again, not even close.
You might start your ‘real’ research by looking at a few international surveys, and then see where the USA really ranks in most categories.
I happen to live in the ‘far & away best country in the world’. And I don’t live in the USA.
Posted by FrankFrink on May 11, 2005 at 9:45 PM I hope there are no Canadians writing on this comments page. There is no such thing as the ‘far & away best country in the world’, except maybe the Vatican, but that’s more like a city state. FrankFrink does stink. Also, what was the point of that article? Someone please tell me.
Posted by poopooface on May 11, 2005 at 10:58 PM Kurt V.‘s terse apathy gives me chills down my spine (I’m not sure if they are good or bad though).
Posted by poopooface on May 12, 2005 at 1:01 AM Should one be interested in examples of submersed racism, check out the boards on the article ‘The Cruelest Cuts’ (http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2092/). For those of a mind that notions of condescension, social-Darwinism, and zero understanding of socio-economic conditioning are the sole province of right-wing cranks such as the White Knights of The Golden Libertarian Ayrian Confusion, think again. It is alive and well and living within our midst.
Maybe that should be the point KV.
—-Hempshackle
Posted by B Q Hempshackle on May 12, 2005 at 3:47 AM Damn Paul,you really don’t have a clue about anything,do you?
Posted by mike on May 12, 2005 at 4:12 AM Can anyone envision a just world? Can anyone undertake a movement that will be the genesis of a sea change? Can all people finally be rid of the tyranny of white privilege or white supremacy? Can things be changed? Yes - I believe they can. Why? Because the greatest movement ever, for a just world, is underway and unstoppable.
Slavery in the Americas was the greatest injustice in modern time, and its effects are SO MUCH with us today. I belong to a group of white Americans who support the movement for reparations. When the world is caused to consider ways and means of giving justice to Afrodescendants throughout the entire region of the Americas and slavery diaspora, the concept of human rights for everyone, everywhere will begin to be a reality.
I want a just world. I know it doesn’t exist now, but it can exist in the future, and will exist when we are able to envision it and bring things to pass in order to create it. Reparations for Afrodescendants is the most revolutionary and world changing idea, and it does have life. www.reparationsthecure.org
Also visit www.AllForReparations.org in order to see the reparations movement in its truly international light.
Posted by Ida on May 12, 2005 at 11:35 AM Race is indeed a meaningless concept and it is a social construction as others here have pointed out. In the days of the Roman Empire there were slaves from all over the world. They were slaves because they had been conquered, not because they were a paricular colour. The modern concept of race was an invention that coincided with the growth of a particualr form of imperialism, which was able to marshall modern ‘science’ or rather, the arguments provided by the servants of the establishment of the time, to justify the extraction of surplus value from people via this method, on the basis that the people themselves were not really human beings.
Saying this however, does not alter the fact that the concept of ‘race’ as a classificaiton method applied to people has a very strong hold on the imaginations of many people. It should be understood as a proxy for dealing with issues of fear and anxiety promoted by comeptition over scace resources, and as a way by which the powerful ensure that their power may be maintained by directing fear rage and anxiety onto the ‘other’. It truly is dpressing how much space and time is given to such a meaningless concept, but the reason is of course that its meaning is continually being socially constructed and reconstructed to ensure that a focus for social conflict and anxiety is readily available and able to be deployed against the socially weak and powerless.
Posted by Jane Doe on May 14, 2005 at 5:30 AM Race is real and relevant. The races are a real as breeds of animals. A schnauzer isn’t a beagel.
Humans, as modern as their technology is, are bioligically unchanged in 200,000 years. We all are born, in varying degrees, with the primative, vestigial instinct for tribalism. This instinct manifests itself throughout our culture: nationalism, regionalism, religion, fraternalism, sports fans, loyalty to your school, and racism. It’s amusing how many ways humans devise to employ “the enemy camp” mentality.
The bottom line is that ALL humans are racists. We all fear and suspect those different from us. If you can’t admit that, you are lying to yourself.
The question becomes, can you overcome your primative instincts with your intellect. JMHO.
Posted by Lefty on May 14, 2005 at 2:56 PM “When once the Primal Simplicity diversified,
Different Names appeared.
Are there not enough names now?”
Posted by gate keeper on May 14, 2005 at 3:13 PM Ida,
Just curious—what are your plans to bring justice to the currently held slaves in the Islamic world? Why is slavery that ended 140 years ago more important than slavery that exists today?
Posted by BC on May 16, 2005 at 8:33 PM BC
You do not get it. Substituted for the chains of 140 years ago are the economic shackles and iron bars imposed by an insidious domination just as rooted in racism any that preceded in our history. It is a problem we share right here and it needs to be addressed.
As regards the issues of oppression within Islam, how about a skip down the lane in Crawford, Texas, holding hands with a Saudi Prince? We are all becoming slaves to oil.
Posted by AD on May 17, 2005 at 4:53 AM According to the Boston Globe, a rich Saudi company called SABIC - which happens to be the leading maker of the cancer-causing gasoline additive MTBE – pai d lobbyists more than $1.5 million in an attempt to gain protection from lawsuits stemming from the damage caused by the dangerous chemical.
They got what they paid for - the House of Representatives recently passed an energy bill which shielded the company from all lawsuits stemming from MTBE contamination of drinking water. (Surprise, surprise - the measure had strong support from House leader Tom DeLay.)
In low doses, MTBE makes water undrinkable; in higher doses, it causes cancer. The toxin has been detected “in 1,861 water systems in 29 states, serving 45 million Americans. This is up from about 1,500 systems in 19 states in November 2003.”
It’s a sad, sad day when Congress acts to protect Saudi wallets over the health of American citizens.
Posted by passing it along on May 17, 2005 at 5:01 AM Every Dog has his day…times will change. If only people would think about how they would feel if they were in someone else’s shoes.
Posted by Jonathan on May 17, 2005 at 12:50 PM According to the Boston Globe, a rich Saudi company called SABIC - which happens to be the leading maker of the cancer-causing gasoline additive MTBE – pai d lobbyists more than $1.5 million in an attempt to gain protection from lawsuits stemming from the damage caused by the dangerous chemical.
They got what they paid for - the House of Representatives recently passed an energy bill which shielded the company from all lawsuits stemming from MTBE contamination of drinking water. (Surprise, surprise - the measure had strong support from House leader Tom DeLay.)
In low doses, MTBE makes water undrinkable; in higher doses, it causes cancer. The toxin has been detected “in 1,861 water systems in 29 states, serving 45 million Americans. This is up from about 1,500 systems in 19 states in November 2003.”
It’s a sad, sad day when Congress acts to protect Saudi wallets over the health of American citizens.
Posted by passing it along on May 17, 2005 at 12:01
The situation is a little more complicated than what you have described. The government required refiners to use MTBE. Read this from the EPA website:
“MTBE has been used in U.S. gasoline at low levels since 1979 to replace lead as an octane enhancer (helps prevent the engine from “knocking”). Since 1992, MTBE has been used at higher concentrations in some gasoline to fulfill the oxygenate requirements set by Congress in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. (A few cities, such as Denver, used oxygenates (MTBE) at higher concentrations during the wintertime in the late 1980’s.)”
The logic in the refiners request has been why should we be liable for lawsuits for using an additive the Clean Air Act required us to use. Or maybe we should just go back and spew lead from car exhaust the way we used to
Posted by Campesino on May 19, 2005 at 6:26 PM The ground water contamination generally results from poorly maintained holding tanks and spills resulting from improper handling. These problems have nothing to do with government mandates. They are the result of negligence and for that we ought to have the right to sue for damages. Where’s the complication in that?
Posted by passing it along on May 20, 2005 at 3:57 AM The ‘Dred Scott Decision’ comes to mind. On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court refused to claim jurisdiction in the Dred Scott case. Holding that as slave, he was a citizen neither of Missouri nor the United States, and therefore could not sue in federal court.
Do you not see a pattern developing in tort reform?
Posted by passing it along on May 20, 2005 at 4:31 AM There is no need to return to tetraethyl lead. Other octane boosters exist. The advantage of tetraethyl lead was that it allowed auto manufacturers to use lower quality materials in the production of engines. It’s all about the money. I submit the following:
“Tetraethyl lead was originally designed as an octane enhancer, but it was soon discovered that the metallic oxides which result from combustion form a protective coating on valves which prevent microwelding of the valve seat to the valve face under high temperature operation. This welding of the two hot pieces of metal causes the removal of the softer seat metal and subsequent recession of the valve into the cylinder head. Wear debris then contributes to valve stem and valve guide wear. Valve recession causes poor sealing of the compression gases, which means loss of power and fuel economy, poor idle and driveability, and the eventual need for cylinder head replacement.”
After 1980 manufacturers began using better quality components. As a result, in addition to the elimination of valve recession, it has allowed for extended engine life in general. Good for consumers, but it kind of puts a dent in the old strategy of planned obsolescence.
Posted by passing it along on May 20, 2005 at 9:33 AM I found it interesting that you left out half the story - as to how MTBE happens to be around at all. The whole tone of the situation changes if you know it was only around because the government insisted on it.
Posted by Campesino on May 20, 2005 at 7:39 PM Does not absolve a corporation of its responsibility for negligence, nor, should it be reason to deny the public the right to seek redress for damages through the courts.
Posted by passing it along on May 20, 2005 at 11:29 PM “I found it interesting that you left out half the story - as to how MTBE happens to be around at all. The whole tone of the situation changes if you know it was only around because the government insisted on it.”
Posted by Campesino on May 20, 2005 at 2:39 PM
Really? You find that interesting? Let me tell you something Mr. “all government is bad” Camposino. When the government insists on the use of a specific product or service it’s because some corrupt politician or agency head (read: scum bag Republican) is taking kickback from the corrupt corporation that provides the product or service. Like Halliburton for example.
Posted by Lefty on May 22, 2005 at 5:06 PM What’s amazes me is how much energy is used for hate in this “Christian” country. It is an obsession with many (many conservatives). There have been theories of race both religious and scientific all shown to be wrong only to have another racial fiction take its place. Its clear hate is the driving force. I’m don’t think anything can be done to gave the right wing a conscience. I grew up thinking this was the greatest nation of earth but its not, in fact its a poor example compared to Canada.
I wanted to comment on the writer who said “Race is real and relevant. The races are a real as breeds of animals. A schnauzer isn’t a beagle.” This is what the right wing considers sound logic thinking. Well at least I can have a good laugh, that conservatives can believe in something they can’t (reasonable) define.
I have to go now because my schnauzer is drinking from the “beagle only” bowl I may have to send the nation guard in.
Posted by Tony on May 28, 2005 at 1:06 AM I’m 1/32 “black.” does that mean I will get 1/32 of the amount a “full-blooded” african-american will receive if reparations are enacted? Or does my “whiteness” and the percieved privelage accompanying my “race” automatically preclude me from injustice and therefore cause forfeiture of my genetically-defined entitlement?
Posted by half-breed on Jun 1, 2005 at 11:00 PM What we need is another couple of generations of racial deconstruction. That would complicate the racial-identity paradign very nicely. Bring on the “mixed” blood babies (I hate that term, as if an interspecies mating had occured, but you get the idea).
I’m fortunate enough to have married into a family in which EuroAms have fallen in love with and borne children with African-, Mexican-, Korean-, Vietnamese-, and Thai-descended people. FYI, my wife’s is a big family. I can’t imagine where enough wealth would ever come from to monetarily compensate all the descendants of African slaves in the Western Hemisphere, but in our family it’s irrelevant because if one of our cousins needs a safety net or a hug, an interest-free loan or respectful affection, babysitting or a place to crash for the Christmas holidays, they don’t have to worry. It’s not necessary for any of us to convince strangers to give us anything or try to make up for racially-based crimes and discriminations.
I bounce my Euro-African baby cousin on my knee and chat with her differently-colored parents (my cousins by marriage as well), and all that sociological head-bashing goes right out the door.
It’s because we identify with each other, of course. The feeling of connectedness among us is more important than the categories and status-markers handed down by history.
Obviously it’s not perfectly harmonious, how could it be? People fight, dis each other, divorce, happens in every family and it may well be true that any acrimony between divergently descended family members might become more rancorous if “history” were to creep into the fight. But by and large, in daily practice, the race issue is just another aspect that has to be negotiated and ultimately lived with by the couples themselves, if they’re to make a successful go at living together. The point is, they do live together. In spite of race? Because of it? Debatable…
Who’d have thought the descendant of both indentured servants and non-slave-owning po’ whites from the Ozarks would find himself related to so many different human “breeds”.
I was being facetious. Of course millions of people are so related. Pink or brown, time to break with an ignoble past, and that includes breaking with reptile-brained reactions to differences in skin-melanin content or epicanthic eyelid folds. Such a tedious, insolubly problematic focus.
I suppose if we were decended from dogs instead of apes we’d out-group based on scent…
Posted by Kuya on Jun 2, 2005 at 5:19 AM Have you ever been working on solving a problem for a long long time, tried many different approaches, many different ideas, placed all the pieces together and arranged them just so so, and nothing works, and then you just come to the conclusion that the only real chance of finding anyway to solve it is to start all over again from the beginning? Start with nothing and work your way from there? Hopefully with the benefit of having all that knowledge of what you had already tried as a guide for the new solution?
I am beginning to see this as a new beginning rather than an end. The current puzzle has to many pieces that don’t fit and by starting over with a new simpler puzzle the chances of successfully completing the picture will be greatly enhanced for those that remain to play.
Posted by MaxCat on Jun 8, 2005 at 2:52 PM “Race is real and relevant. The races are a real as breeds of animals. A schnauzer isn’t a beagel.”
Tell that to the male Schnauzer if the Beagle is female and in season. All the Schnauzer will be interested in is that the beagle is a bitch and smells pretty damn fine! Like humans, domestic dogs are genetically almost 100% similar and can interbreed succesfully (size and weight considerations excepted - Irish Wolfhound/Yorkshire Terrier might be a problem).
I agree that humans have a tendency to fear “the other”, but that fear is socially created not innate.
Posted by Mickey on Jun 8, 2005 at 4:23 PM God created man. I guess the part about how He created different men got left out or maybe came up missing after Constantine got through with the bible.
Race is a concept and if you think it isn’t then “Man is intelligent” is an Oxymoron (at least as far as it applies racist thoughts and beliefs it is)-!-(Of course there are may other things that would also apply to as far as mankind goes).
Posted by MaxCat on Jun 9, 2005 at 3:02 PM “Race is a concept.” No it’s a reality. Races in homo sapiens are what are called sub species in other genera Like with all sub species interbreeding is possible, the differences are only superficial. The biological differences that is, the cultural differences are astounding. A beagle in heat might as well be a schnauzer to a schnauzer, but a black man’s wolf whistle at a white woman has caused torturous death. Race is the biggest reality in the world, as a concept it’s trivial.
Posted by larry jones on Jun 9, 2005 at 5:24 PM Tony said:
“I wanted to comment on the writer who said “Race is real and relevant. The races are a real as breeds of animals. A schnauzer isn’t a beagle.” This is what the right wing considers sound logic thinking. Well at least I can have a good laugh, that conservatives can believe in something they can’t (reasonable) define.
I have to go now because my schnauzer is drinking from the “beagle only” bowl I may have to send the nation guard in.”Dude, you’re too funny. But the part about me (the one who originated that analogy) being conservative . . . them’s fightin’ words Tony.
They call me Lefty.
Posted by Lefty on Jun 10, 2005 at 7:15 PM Mickey said:
““Race is real and relevant. The races are a real as breeds of animals. A schnauzer isn’t a beagel.”
Tell that to the male Schnauzer if the Beagle is female and in season. All the Schnauzer will be interested in is that the beagle is a bitch and smells pretty damn fine! Like humans, domestic dogs are genetically almost 100% similar and can interbreed succesfully (size and weight considerations excepted - Irish Wolfhound/Yorkshire Terrier might be a problem).
I agree that humans have a tendency to fear “the other”, but that fear is socially created not innate.”Mickey, the fear and hate that human races have for each other is not created by society. JMHO. It is the manifestation of a primative, genetic, vestigial instinct for tribalism, probably a survival instinct which evolved over the millenia. Again, JMHO. Those who lacked the instinct to confine themselves to the protection of their own kind were killed off. And it seems, given their bloody history, that this vestigial trait, obsolete and non-productive in an age of relative law and order, that the genetics of white Europeans have left them with the strongest urge to continue to confine themselves . . . agaisnt the enemy camp.
Posted by Lefty on Jun 10, 2005 at 7:27 PM Lefty, you’re weird… On race! You can’t be very much of a Marxist if you put a heavy emphasis on this!
There MIGHT be some kind of “primitive” instinct to fear others of our own species which look different from us. For instance, I understand that albino animals of all species generally tend to get rejected; and with wolves, I think it is the case that a dark-coloured one in a lighter pack will be looked at funny; whereas a white one in a likewise darker pack might be pushed to the sidelines… unless he lives in the frozen North where it’s an advantage to be a white wolf! Then he/she might quite easily attract a mate, followers, whatever.
However, humans aren’t dimwitted wolves; and anyway, these distinctions are generally made in rather homogenous populations… Ie, if you get a band of runaway dogs of all different breeds, they will ALL instinctively gang up to form a pack - and terrorise the neighbourhood!! If dogs don’t have other dogs to “pack” with, they pal up with us humans, another social animal. Don’t we just love ‘em? I do!! Beautiful creatures.
But you can’t REALLY compare “races” of humans to breeds of Dog; dogs have 72 chromosomes, for one thing, and therefore a far higher degree of variation.
Anyway, it’s long been a scientific cliche that there are LESS genetic differences between individuals from ALL “breeds” of human - than there are in one single troop of chimpanzees! Usually!
This suggests something that you seem to be aware of - that we ALL have a common, very small, band of human ancestors (all humans in existence TODAY - there HAVE been all sorts of other races/subspecies, and some pretty amazing anomalies get found - didn’t I tell you I was an X-filer??) which was obviously all that was left of whatever races preceded us… and that we started to breed and spread out from this particular stock, a couple of hundred thousand years ago. Or less.
We have a VERY small gene pool, though, compared to most other species!
“Seven Daughters of Eve”, anybody??
I don’t know about “the genetics of white Europeans”. You’re giving ‘em a bloody EXCUSE, Lefty!!
Because, well, one of the things that tends to occupy a corner of my mind not infrequently, is how EVIL the British were to the Irish, (both WHITE, note, though the English LOVED making caricatures at the time, which morphed the features of Irish and black slaves (that’s what they’ve got in common, I kid you not…) and working in apes for good measure…) and how they practically WILFULLY killed them off, by starving them by taking advantage of the potato famine and shipping grain out of Ireland. Which was just the logical end of all the anti-Catholic religious discrimination the Protestant English practised since they arrived in the country.
Religion is “genetically hard-wired”, now, is it?
I think the couple of people on this blog are nearest the mark, who were saying it is all due to this kind of imperialist society needing to discriminate between an Us and an Other. The Romans did it by their murderous Games.
Posted by Liz on Jun 14, 2005 at 6:50 AM “Lefty, you’re weird… On race! You can’t be very much of a Marxist if you put a heavy emphasis on this!”
Yeah Lefty, what kind of a Marxist are if you don’t elevate class theory over racial reality? In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there’s : slavery, civil war, jim crow, kkk, institutional discrimination, more black prisioners than college students. I hate to denigrate a beautiful theory with crass reality, but the US has a racial problem.
Posted by Larry Jones on Jun 14, 2005 at 2:57 PM Perhaps more relevant is the driving force of persistent racial stereotypes and the role they play in both public perception and the subsequent creation of government policy….
“There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.”
- President (Mexico) Vicente Fox to a group of Texas businessmen (using the Spanish language) and partly in response to the Bush adminstration’s recent immigration refrom measures.
Mexico City’s archbishop, defending Fox: “It’s a fact!”
Jesse Jackson: “It’s a fact that there are far more poor whites [ in the U.S.] than there are blacks.”
State Department official: “President Bush’s commitment to immigration reform that is rational, legal, common sense, decent and compassionate is well-documented.”
And meanwhile, as the pot calling the kettle black grabs the headlines….
Slavery does in fact exist in the United States:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/moderndayslavery/content/moderndayslavery/
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jun 20, 2005 at 7:26 PM Another relevant case in point:
http://www.mediamatters.org/items/200506200002
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jun 20, 2005 at 8:05 PM “Yeah Lefty, what kind of a Marxist are if you don’t elevate class theory over racial reality? In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there’s : slavery, civil war, jim crow, kkk, institutional discrimination, more black prisioners than college students. I hate to denigrate a beautiful theory with crass reality, but the US has a racial problem.” Posted by Larry Jones on June 14, 2005 at 9:57 AM
Wow! This paragraph is loaded! First, just because I think that socialism has a place in an otherwise capitalist system doesn’t make me a Marxist, and I don’t think I’ve written anything to lead one to believe I am. I’m not sure what you mean by “elevating class theory over racial reality.” Yes the U.S. has racial problems. Guess what, the whole world has racial problems. To be clear, I’m not equating racism with tribalism. Racism is one small horrible manifestation of the tribalistic instinct. Class warfare is no different that racism in terms of the underlying instinct that drives humans to behave that way. In my mind you haven’t denigrated my theory, you’ve bolstered it.
Posted by Lefty on Jun 23, 2005 at 2:28 AM Screw your theory. I wasn’t referencing it to begin with. While we’re at it lets screw the big, fat ego that assumes I was.
Posted by larry jones on Jun 23, 2005 at 9:15 PM Big, fat ego? Oh! Well, whose theory were you denigrating, Larry?
Posted by Lefty on Jun 24, 2005 at 4:58 PM Michelle Maulkin is just another hack “cashing in,” same as Edward Klein. In 2000, as a columnist for the Seattle Times, she wrote: “What happened to Japanese American internees was abhorrent and wrong.”
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jun 25, 2005 at 5:30 PM “Compounding their subjectivity was their demonization of her as Other, a strategy that conveniently masked the worst impulses of Us.”
A/K/A tribalism, Larry?
Posted by Lefty on Jun 26, 2005 at 3:24 PM Oops! I meant to write “cashing out” previously, and not “cashing in” although cashing in applies at least in regards to these authors taking advantage of the pendulum swing, mentioned in the article above, decidedly for the sake of their own personal gain.
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jun 26, 2005 at 5:39 PM Someone here wrote: “Race is biological fiction”
That’s interesting because the FDA has just announced approval of BiDil and still refers to it as a drug for black patients, presumably because of clinical trials that involved only “those identifying themselves as blacks.”
BiDil was first rejected by the FDA based on trials including participants of all races and that showed little effectiveness—although the study did provide some indication of having a more positive response among those identifying themselves as black and thus became the basis for the follow up study.
So for now at least, the drug is being marketed as race specific despite those experts that have questioned the earlier study and are hopeful that further testing will show a marked effectiveness for all patients diagnosed with heart failure. Note: two of the nine member FDA panel recommended that BiDil not be marketed as being for black patients only.
The FDA handling of BiDil then, has brought both criticism and praise among minority health organizations and I think I was personally motivated the most by a local editorial writer for her inclusionary mention of the forty year Tuskegee syphilis study and that FDA approval for BiDil comes ”...in the shadow of that experiment (which ended in 1972) and the governments decision to alter a report to downplay this country’s pervasive racial and ethnic disparities in health care…”
Indeed. Health care disparities are well documented and yet Bush’s then cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson true to form issued a report painting a rosy picture for the administration.
Get to know Mike Leavitt, Bush’s new HHS Secretary.
Posted by Tim Christopher on Jun 26, 2005 at 9:31 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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