I'm a believer in affirmative action, both in jobs & political institutions, and numbers & proportions matter a great deal in both. All- or nearly all-white outfits, even if they had seemingly "right-on" politics in their platforms, still do not measure up. In fact, such entities would reek *hypocricy*. It is a sign that active recruitment of women & people of color is not the norm in them and that informal exclusion is operative. Once women and members of subordinated races are in, _then_ it is the quality of our participation, and how others react to it, that becomes a question (e.g., who is setting the agenda, whose perspectives are given respectful attention, whether feminism & anti-racism guide political actions, not just theory, if so, what kind of feminism, of anti-racism, etc.). When we are not even in, it is impossible to evaluate the quality of participation. As for quality, quite often, the quality of discussion on not just gender but race here leaves much to be desired (it's often inane). The same goes for other e-lists in which I take part. We have a long way to go, in quality & quantity, especially if you feel comfortable saying that whether or not we are even here doesn't really matter....
I find it especially outrageous for a nearly all-white political outfit (or its members) to question the existence of an all-black outfit and deplore its "separatism" while aquiescing to the fact of white dominance in other institutions (including itself).
>i do not want the conversational
>dynamics to be grounded in men's acquiesence to feminist analyses because
>it's the right thing to do.
Not shutting up unfeminist guys in leftist fora says much about the quality of the said fora; the same goes for race. There is no such thing as "free speech," and it's a good thing too, as Stanley Fish (one of the few postmodernists who don't pretend to be radicals and hence are more honest) says. White leftists & feminist guys have special responsibilities to make sure the political atmosphere in leftist fora (be they e-lists, journals, meetings, or political parties) is a welcoming one for women and members of subordinated races. Those who fail to do so I cannot really trust, for the implicit message in that case is that "while anti-feminist & racist views are to be tolerated in the name of 'free speech,' if such views offend, alienate, and drive away women & people of color, so be it."
[An aside to Rakesh: Here's my honest judgment on race & gender on LBO-Talk and other left e-lists & institutions.)
Yoshie