Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?

DIVIDE/HORIZONTAL (95akw@williams.edu)
20 Apr 1995 20:58:29 -0400

In article <3n6fhnINN4l6@hpsdlmc1.sdd.hp.com>,
Gerold Firl <geroldf@sdd.hp.com> wrote:

>In article <3mg9df$ku2@news.cc.utah.edu> pb1487@u.cc.utah.edu (Paul
Bernhardt) writes:
>
> [many deletia]
>
>It seems to me that many of your statements here, while well-intentioned,
>are not helping to resolve this problem. By focussing on how american
>culture makes it more difficult for blacks, you avoid the part of the
>interactional dynamic where blacks are in control: their own behavior. That
>is where each of us can make an immediate difference; "think global, act
>local". Can't get any more local than ourselves.

And how exactly shall I change my own behavior? What is wrong with the
colored face *I* put on every morning? You are arguing statistics and
creating a mythological, monolithic "black community" that only exists in the
minds of politicians, pollsters, and people who don't understand the
basic problematics of race and identity. All of us are linked by
color. Some of us are linked by a church, or a locality, or a class,
or a belief. But these are only particular articulations of identity.
They are no substitute. The problem of racism is exactly the problem of people
putting statistics before individuals and subtle particularities. The
exact thing that we have to do in our time is *resist* the temptation
to endlessly categorize. Your analysis, at the very least, could use
some qualification..

-Alex

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