Cultural racism

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 08:54 PM 5/29/98 +0100, Jim heartfield wrote:
>I'd put it a bit differently. I can remembe writing a very angry article
>when the Bell Curve came out warning of the oncoming march of Eugenics,
>but actually it never happened. The overwhelming critical response was
>hostile to the Bell Curve. It is noticeable that subsequent books of
>this ilk sunk without trace. Waterstones, the biggest bookchain here now
>regularly refuse to stock works of explicit genetic racism. My
>assessment would be that the 'scientific' racism is just too explicit to
>get a hearing amongst the powers that be.
>
>What you have instead is the 'cultural' version of the racist argument.
>So while elites fear that it might be unnacceptable to say out loud that
>black people are genetically inferior, what they do feel confident to
>say is this: that there is a culture of underachievement, or that there
>is an underclass that is passing on its behavioural traits through
>negative acculturation, or, as the  government's 'Social Exclusion Unit'
>here says, that social exclusion is passed on through generations.

Two quick comments:

1.  Cultural racism does not carry the same weight as its buiological
variety, though.  The implication of the biological racism is "there is
nothing we can do to help them, it's in thier genes."  The implication of
the cultural variety is that "we can help them by eradicating their culture
of underachievement."  

That may translate into a difference between a death camp and 'social
programs.'

2.  There is a peculiar version of cultural racism veil;ed as 'cultural
diversity.'  It is usually professed by well off intellectual elites,
separated from social problems by layers of security systems, who profess
the message 'let them have their own culture.'  In that argument, culture,
like religion, is treated like the opium of the masses.  No attempt is made
to change the material conditions of ethnic minorities.  Instead, their
'cultures' are being cherished as a proxy for material well-being, under
the guise of 'cultural diversity.'

PS.  I have nothing against cultural diversity, say, fishing or writing
poetry, provided it does not serve as a substitute for fully sharing the
material wealth created by a society.

Regrads,

WS