Re: Is white racism nec. all bad?
Robert Hartman (hartman@informix.com)
28 Apr 1995 18:57:59 GMT
In article <3nq121$706@blarg1.blarg.com>,
Donald Edwards <warrl@blarg.com> wrote:
>Robert Hartman (hartman@informix.com) wrote:
>"In article <3nmkj7$cn8@ncar.ucar.edu>,
>"Gary Strand <strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu> wrote:
>"> Because, to me, "oppression" is too-often used for "things didn't turn out
>"> the way I wanted". Face it, life is a bitch and a crap shoot sometimes. "If
>"> you can't always get what you wa-ant, you musta be-en oppres-sed", right?
>"> Sorry, but that kind of self-pity and refusal to realize that life ain't
>"> always fair just doesn't carry well with me.
>
>"OK. Even if it is often used that way, too-often used that way, what
>"do you do about those situations when it is appropriately used. How do
>"_you_ tell the difference?
>
>You look at the process, not the result.
>
>If a person is penniless, starving, sleeping under a bush, is that
>person oppressed?
OK. Let's look at the process.
Would you say that systematic denial of education is a form of oppression?
Have you looked into the conditions at inner-city and minority schools?
I'm not just talking about the violence. Things were bad 20 years ago
before that got so bad.
AA is meant to address the process. To the extent that it fails to
do that, it is because you can't measure "process" in any objective way.
You can only measure results.
>(Interesting figure: the lowest income 20% of the population provide 7% of
>full-time workers. The highest income 20% of the population provide
>29% of full-time workers. Hopefully it's no surprise that people
>who work, get more income than those who don't. But the fact that
>they do, seems to offend some people.)
The fact that some people are marginalized by our educational system
seems to be completely lost on some people. But I'll concede you this,
I'll stop calling it "oppression" and call it "unfair marginalization"
if you'll concede that the latter exists and is a real problem.
Will you?
-r
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