Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?
Donald Edwards (warrl@blarg.com)
27 Apr 1995 23:05:08 -0700
Gary Strand (gary@ncar.ucar.edu) wrote:
"vb> Vernon Ballard
"gs> Gary Strand
"vb> I EMPATHIZE with them because we share a common history in a society which
" is institutionally racially biased (women have a similar history on gender
" grounds).
" All our histories are unique. No-one lives the exact life of another, so
" collecting people together by history isn't quite correct. It's just a dif-
" ferent way to obliterate our individuality and replace it with group iden-
" tity.
It's quite likely that there are black people alive in Africa today
who were slave-owners. (I won't dismiss the possibility that some
*still* *are* slave-owners. Just as I won't dismiss the possibility
that somewhere in the world there are still white slave-owners.)
And there are white-slavery rings still in existence.
So let's hypothesize that one of these black former slave-owners
owned a white slave who had been born and raised a slave. The
slave escaped, and fled to the United States. The slave-owner
later immigrated to the United States.
The ex-slave, being white, is part of the oppressive white class
of former slave-owners.
The ex-slave-owner, being black, is a "brother", bound to all
other blacks in America by their common heritage, that they
are the descendants of slaves.
Something, I am afraid, seems slightly wrong with this...
" The history you "share" with them removes some degree of individual respon-
" sibility for their acts? Really? What of those who suffer at least the same
" victimization by society yet don't turn to violence? What excuse can they
" offer?
What of those who suffer at least the same victimization by society
yet don't happen to be black?
|