NATO Bomb Kills Two Peacekeepers

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Tue Jun 22 14:41:41 PDT 1999


The race/class issue has different meaning in the British Gurkha squadrons. If you read my post on Mercenaries of Imperialism, the Gurkhas are a warrior class, not at all underprivileged or exploited in their own society. It is only when they came under British command that they become more expandable than white soldiers. It was reported that Clinton telephone Blair to express his condolences. I wonder what Blair said. "I am embarrassed to tell you they are just Gurkhas" or "No great loss" ?

Yes, some of us nonwhites are more sensitive to the race issue than white intellectuals, but then we have earned that privilege.

Henry C.K. Liu

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Jordan Hayes wrote:
>
> >No, Doug, I'm saying I'm sick of Henry's casual use of the term
> >"Whites" as though there's some cohesive group called "Whites" -- I
> >mean, why not just say "Chinese kill students who protest" or ...
> >
> >Or do you think it's kewl to characterize "Whites" based on the actions
> >of the railroad barrons? Let's not forget: the exercise of power over
> >any group to exploit their labor is yucky, and it has been practiced by
> >each and every racial group in the history of this planet.
>
> For sure, Jordan, which is why I think class is important, and why I object
> to a lot of uses of "race" as misleading substitutes for class. And a lot
> of exploitative social relationships are racialized after the fact - like
> Barbara Fields's argument that racialization followed enslavement. But it's
> still hard to doubt that "white" Brits see Nepalese as somehow more
> expendable than they are, or the Chinese tunnel workers in Henry's example.
> So this race-class thing is pretty damn complicated, and I think both of
> you are treating it too simply.
>
> Doug



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