Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?
Rod Hagen (rodhagen@netspace.net.au)
Sat, 15 Apr 1995 10:15:12 +1000
In article <3mkco3$23j@news.informix.com>, hartman@informix.com (Robert
Hartman) wrote:
> In article <3mgkgn$ofv@blarg1.blarg.com>, Donald Edwards
<warrl@blarg.com> wrote:
> :"Runner A and runner B start a race an equal distance from the finish
> :"line. Runner A has a basically clear lane ... Runner B's lane contains
> :"obstacles of varying shapes and sizes laid out at irregular
> :"intervals.
deletia
> :
> :What I see happening is that because runner B was so disadvantaged,
> :the debris will be moved from lane 2 to lane 1 for the race between
> :C and D, and this is supposed to make things fair.
>
deletia
>
> Would it make the race any fairer if we were to move all of the debris
> back to lane 2, and go back to pretending that there never was any debris?
>
It seems to me that a large part of the problem of racism actually
involves seeing all of these issues as some sort of competitive race in
the first place. "Proof" of superiority or inferiority is in a large
measure what both racists and competitive runners are all about!
Think of life as an opportunity to work co-operatively towards achieving
enhancement of the situation of all. If runner A falls down, then runner B
should give him/her a hand up! If there is "debris" on the track then we
should all do our damndest to clear it up before someone gets hurt! And if
someone doesn't want to run, but would rather build sandcastles, then we
should not judge them the better or the worse for it.
Unfortunately,instead we try to establish universal systems of reward and
punishment around "success" in an arbitrary, humanly created and
blindingly narrow framework (the running track of life?) that inevitably
leads to conflict, human destruction and misery for massive sections of
the human community.
--
Rod Hagen
rodhagen@netspace.net.au
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