Where's BB King and Pol Pot?

[Rakesh Bhandari]

Well, this Ivy sophisticate can make important distinctions among
blacks--he is no vulgar working class racist. At any rate, the comment
suggests how the oppression of African Americans is built on confounding
race and class oppression--something to be underlined when reviewing the
criminal justice stats for example (see Jeffrey Reiman's helpful
discussion in The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Prison). Of course
there is the added monstrosity of the equation of New York African 
American and Central Park rapist in the minds of suburbanites
everywhere--for example, it was expressed by my neighbor on the plane on
the flight home. Of course, the welcome African must presumed to be a
wealthy Nigerian who will make an important contribution to the endowment
in the future. 

The tv got hooked up in my absence; saw Law and Order on Wed night.
Interesting how the prosecutors are faulted for rushing to judgement
against an arrogant Hispanic math teacher while the upstart working class
student turns out to have carried out the strangling and manipulated the
golden boy heir--all in order to preserve his relation to the dean's
daughter, his meal ticket.  Anti racism served as a cover for the
expression of the most banal class prejudices in the academy.  The show
ended with a heroic intervention by the millionaire to teach his son
important values and save him from his self destructive loyalty to his
working class friend. It was the punitive class morality in so much of
television that got me to unhook before. 

yours, rakesh