Detour into "Racism": (Was: Functional Explanation Again)

[Justin Schwartz]

I don't see anything wrong with "racism," a term of plain English that is 
not redolent of a specialized vocabulary or political correctness. 
"Ethnocentrism" is social sciencey and morally neutral. The KKK isn't 
_ethnocentriuc," what it is, is racist. "Chauvinist" reminds me of old 
Maoist talk. I don't use "racism" to describe all ethnic hatreds and 
dislikes, precisely for some of the reasons Mathew F was mentioning. 
However, I am unreformable and adamant on using it, so y'all's objection is 
noted for the record. --jks


>
>At 09:54 PM 3/22/01 +0000, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>>I _specifically_ excepted black hatred of whites, which I regard as not
>>unreasonable, although unfortunate. I think it's racism, though, when
>>Asians--today a privileged group, though not historically, and of course
>>not all Asians--hate blacks. Or when Jews do. Bear in mind, when my Jewish
>>ancestors came to this country, Jews weren't white. In Japan, anti-black
>>racism is fairly ferious; also anti-Chinese and anti-Korean racism.
>>(Right. Yoshie?)
>>
>>I agree, of course, that in America, anti-black racism by whites is the
>>benchmark of other racisms. But you seem to think that is an objection to
>>having a  term to pick it out, to distinguish it from other racisms. I
>>find that puzzling.
>>
>>--jks
>
>
>why not race chauvinism?  eh?  or ethnocentrism, an older more typical word
>in the social sciences?
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com