> I amy also add that the perception of "moral
> inferiority" of a group of
> people (defined by their skin color, nationality,
> class, etc.) is an effect
> rather than the cause of that group economic
> exploitation or political
> repression. In other words, a social group is
> economically exploited (or
> politically subordinated) and that leads to
> rationalizations in the form of
> perceiving that group as "morally inferior" in this
> or another way, rather
> than the other way around: that groups being
> perceived as "inferior" and
> that perception leading to economic or political
> exploitation. Being
> determines consciousness, not the other way around.
But consciousness can inflect and perpetuate exploitation and oppression. A thumbnail sketch of ideology, like Ollman writing: "Racism, patriarchy, nationalism, etc., are chiefly ways of rationalizing . . . oppressive practices, though, upon frequent repetition, they can sink roots into people's minds and emotions and acquire a relative autonomy from the situtation in which they originated" (_DI_, p. 60), means that for racial profiling to work in the U.S., for instance, racism has to sink into a cop's mind, emotions, and perception. To what extent does the rationalization come after the oppression here? It's a bit messier than that it seems.
Alec
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