<< Read what I actually wrote. I merely reported what's going on in the Polish media without passing any judgments of what is or is not "justified." >>
And I never passed judgment on your views, but on what you reported.
But since you are now explicating your views, and I find them questionable...
<< The point I was actually making was a different one, namely that discrimination based on race is not universal, >>
...but certainly common. And Polish anti-semitism is real; as I tried to argue, the terms of this "debate" in Poland pretty much proves it. This is certainly not to equate it with German fascism, or American racism. As a point of logic (if not always of rhetoric), the use of an analogy is meant to equate the structure of the argument, not the terms of the argument.
<< imposing US-centric categories of interpretation on other societies >>
I feel free--in fact, duty-bound--to impose rational standards of truth and justice to any situation in the world. I have actively worked against US-sponsored racism and imperialism. As a US citizen, that is where I can be most effective. I have only commented on Polish anti-semitism--here, for the first time publicly, in my recollection, and then largely to comment on what I saw as an obvious point that seems overlooked, namely, that the terms of the debate in Poland seem themselves to highlight the problem that is meant to be refuted by at least one side in that debate.
I don't see the rational standards of the Enlightenment that still, in my view, form the basis of any Left analysis as "US-centric." In fact, they are in serious danger here.
<< What's really racist is that the skin color of the victims determines what is a 'holocaust'. Apparenlty, slaughtering Whites qualifies as such, but slaughtering Asians does not. This is a specifically US-problem where world-wide search for victimhood seems to be favorite passtime >>
Your references and implications simply elude me here. Right now, I see a string of three non sequitors.
<< other countries simply mourn their own dead ...>>
But what defines "their own"--or even "other countries"--is the crux of the problem here, is it not?
----Original Message Follows---- From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Polish anti-semitism Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 10:19:33 -0400
At 09:28 AM 6/27/01 -0400, Gregory G. wrote:
>What is this "debate" about? A town massacred its Jews, but it wasn't
>"really" anti-semitism? That one should make distinctions between just Jews
>(they're OK) and communist Jews (bad)? That one should ignore the place of
>constant fascist rhetoric to the effect of "communist = Jew" (or "Jew =
>communist," it didn't matter on their typically subrational level)?
Read what I actually wrote. I merely reported what's going on in the Polish media without passing any judgments of what is or is not "justified." The point I was actually making was a different one, namely that discrimination based on race is not universal, and seeing it as such is imposing US-centric categories of interpretation on other societies.
>Not that I'm standing from some moral high ground in the good old USA, of
>course. In fact, the rhetoric seems eerily similar to arguments that US
>massacres of entire Vietnamese villages were not "really" racist because,
What's really racist is that the skin color of the victims determines what is a 'holocaust'. Apparenlty, slaughtering Whites qualifies as such, but slaughtering Asians does not. This is a specifically US-problem where world-wide search for victimhood seems to be favorite passtime - for most other countries simply mourn their own dead.
wojtek
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