Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?
Lane Singer (lsd@ix.netcom.com)
31 Mar 1995 08:22:35 GMT
In <mbowen-3003952351420001@mbowen.dialup.access.net> mbowen@panix.com (mellow mike) writes:
>: : Isn't is cost-effective to utilize stereotypes? If so, maybe you should
>: : say our brains are wired so as to keep using stereotypes in spite of
>: : disconfirmations. Most of us keep to our old beliefs too long, in other
>: : words. Or you could say the cognitive systems we evolved during our
>: : hunting days (and going back to the beginnings of life, if you like) is
>: : not optimal for post-industrial society. Howard Gardner doesn't put it
>: : this way, but see his great book _Unschooled Minds_ anyhow.
>:
>: Your description of 'cost effective' is legitimate. In cognitive
>: psychology circles it is sometimes refered to as being a 'cognitive miser'.
>: Sometimes the processes are damaging to the individual and to our
>: society, sometimes not.
>:
>i beleive this is why derrick bell claims that white supremacy is and will
>continue to be a permanent feature of american life.
Well, if that's the case (and it may or may not be) it should also
be remembered that "American life" will come to an end some day.
What it will be replaced with, who knows? But as long as this caste
system is in operation, its end is hastened.
>white folks will not
>likely have any reason not to be lazy in this regard.
This seems like it could be the case, and yet people have changed
their attitudes many times, even just in recorded history. What you
fail to take into account in your (justified) pessimism is that there
is great impetus to change this status quo.
>although the case
>against white supremacy has been made abundantly clear in every
>generation, each successive generation has replicated it with its
>fundamental premises intact.
This isn't entirely true at all. Every generation that passes sees
an enormous gain in awareness. The white supremacists know this, and
so are trying desparately to enlist as many cohorts as they can through
their absurd lies and weaselry. But they're dinasaurs; they're doomed.
The world is rolling right over them and their pathetic bag of evil
tricks. They had their day, in 1930's Germany, and they blew it as
their retched philosophy is bound to blow it. White supremacy is an
obscenity, and most everyone can see that.
>despite the fact that millions of 'white' americans discover the moral
>flaw and disabuse white supremacy and racism in all its forms, they will
>continue to be lumped with their self-identified white fellow citizens who
>are purposely racist, cognitively incapable, willfully ignorant or just
>plain oblivious. this minority of anti-racist white americans will not
>overrule the slack majority and will be unable to politically distinguish
>themselves as an ally of the racially oppressed. hmmm. i'm beginning to
>convince myself. i'll stop this pessimism here...
Man, you're depressing me, here.
>the longer i talk about this in cyberspace with more and more americans,
>the more i tend to agree with derrick bell. i don't like that.
The world isn't just made up of whites and blacks. I'm not white, and I'm
not black - and in that regard, I'm in the majority.
--
Lane Singer
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