Wojtek:
>>that "racism" is a very mushy and vague concept that allows anyone to read
>>into it whatever he wants.
Yoshie Furuhashi:
> ...
> With regard to race & racism in America, we should look at criminal
> justice & incarceration as not an effect of racism but as _the cause_
> of "persistent patterns of multi-faceted social inequalities that
> correspond with ethnic differences." ...
I think it would be more accurate to see the police and so forth as the cutting edge of the class war rather than the essence or cause of it. Although they are very close to the essence: one person takes power over others; the power-takers band together to settle differences and defend themselves from reprisal, thus forming the State; this ruling class produces or hires specialized enforcers, and we have the police. If, as I think, the class war produces racism and similar social pathologies, then the police are likely to be closely associated with them and their behavior may appear to drive the system. However, this wouldn't explain all the forms which racist practice takes.