Re: To the pursed lips brigade

David Heller (daveh@PANIX.COM)
Sat, 22 Jan 1994 14:12:47 -0500

I don't see what was etic about your joke, or even emic for that matter.
using the excuse that we are anthropologists to justify a racist statement
seems wierd. What makes us such wonderfully understanding people?
I've heard some of my favorite racist statements from old time anthropos.
We don't have a monopology on understanding.

As to your other topics, the main thing that I am harping on, is the lack
of understanding the medium, and again, being anthropos doesn't make us
more responsible in using email, or virtual reality, in its very real
consequences. (I know I just contradicted a much earlier post).

Also you say that you and Dan were trying to play w/ the ingroup of Jews
in your jokes, but if you are offending that same ingroup there is
something wrong.

Use of the word nigger even a black context can be seen and is seen by
many as an internalized racism, and not the reclamation that youare
hinting at. The same is doubly true for jews who propogate notions of
wholesale buying jews, or the using the word "goy" which in my 25 year old
life, has almost alwasy been used as a pejorative.

There are other words just as similar, and I will not defend them being
used in a Jewish or an open context, so long as they are used even
jokingly in the connotation that they have been.

next subject:
This all started b/c Dan was reacting to seeker1's lack of identification
in open as a Jew (thi is the jist that I got). I want to say that even
though I criticized Dan on his method, his idea, if I understood it, is
right on target. Namely that seeker is wrong to hide his identity. That is
as far as i get w/ Dan.

As for my own arguments for that. Hiding an identity isn't going to make
it go away, or even be noticed by others. It just boils up inside until
it creates huge walls of internalized oppression or explodes unhealthily.
This is particularly a Jewish problem, and in many ways a homosexual
problem. Two things that seemingly can be "hidden" from others to avoid
discrimination. In the end you only hurt yourself.

dave