culture & poverty again

[Doug Henwood]

Chuck Grimes wrote:

>Why do you post this shit?

Because it's symptomatic of where rightwing thought & propaganda are 
going; they've left the Bell Curve way behind. As Angela noted, the 
author was careful to put his argument partly in the mouths of 
members of maligned groups. It's also an example of the way that 
pseudo-scientifice racism has moved out of biology and into culture. 
You can bet that a lot of centrists and liberals who'd be nervous 
about embracing biological theories of poverty are willing to swallow 
"cultural" explanations. It all fits in with what Balibar & Zizek 
call neo-racism or multicultural racism, which holds that cultures 
are sacred and ought to be kept pure & apart. Multiculti racism 
avoids saying one is better than the other; "this shit" is pretty 
clear on the hierarchy, but everyone should be Benthamized.

Doug