>>Well-meaning leftists who tell them that racism is in their
>>interest are basically helping them to remain ignorant of
>>working-class interests.
>
>here's where you need to understand what substantive empirical
>theory is --as opposed to normative social theory. no one here is
>saying anyone "ought" to be racist or that the interests of a
>working class movement is to reinscribe racism. they are doing
>empirical research to examine why racism is so persistent.
(1) Why do empirically-minded leftists not rest content with an empirically observable & theoretically unobjectionable proposition that a good number of white workers _think_ anti-racism is _not_ in their interest? Why refuse to make a distinction between real interests of the working class and ideological beliefs held by some workers?
(2) There are many things that are persistent besides racism. Capitalism is persistent, imperialism is persistent, protectionism is persistent, individualism is persistent, rape is persistent, war is persistent, malnutrition is persistent, ill health is persistent, bald-headedness is persistent, etc. How do we explain their persistence? By concluding that capitalism, imperialism, protectionism, individualism, whatever is persistent is in the interest of this or that segment of the working class?
Yoshie