Race & Murder/ Strawperson of "only racism"

Rakesh Bhandari bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Mon Apr 26 20:08:42 PDT 1999


I am unsubbing temporarily--not out of protest to anything being said.

To me it seems obvious that years of using racist epithets, adorning onself with swastikas and doing fun guy things like naming your fantasy baseball team the Border Hoppers with the Taco Bell as a logo--all things the parents, principal and peers apparently did not challenge (take a moment and think about that please)--work to undermine one's repsect for fellow human life and confirm one's self perception as a lord of mankind.
>From this self appointed position of lordship, it is a short step to
retaliate beyond the law, reason, proportion and decency against every and anyone who has crossed you. As my favorite black political theorist once said, the chickens come home to roost. I am not sure however if the media coverage of this horror is the incident to stake one's argument against D'Souza's Reaganite end of racism thesis. This massacre is not reducible to race the auxilliary role of which in this massacre seems clear to me, and there are several better examples to dispute D'Souza's thesis, including of course his own book which in the end grants the greater plausibility of the Charles Murray world view.

I wish I could remain plugged in to find more about what I said that Michael Pollak finds bracing; my ideas often in the form of "brainstorms" are as always open for revision. If you could cc anything to my personal address, I would appreciate it, Michael. I'll look for "heavenly creatures". Thanks.

Yours, Rakesh



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