>>On Wed, 2 Jan 2002, Yoshie wrote:
>>
>>> I take it that Fisk was trying to say, a little hyperbolically, that
>>> he could identify with those who blindly attacked him, merely because
>>> he looked "Western," unable to understand what forces were actually
>>> responsible for their oppression, much less how to counteract them
>>> effectively; and also that he could imagine what circumstances were
>>> likely to breed such murderous rage and make it indiscriminate.
>>> That's a way of looking at the world that a certain kind of literary
>>>and sociological imagination teaches you.
>
>You really don't get it, do you?
>
>A lynch mob chases an innocent man, eager to beat and possibly kill
>him not because of anything he has done but because of the color of
>his skin. One can say that one understands the sources of their fear
>and rage. One can regret the upbringing that has given them such
>a--racist--way of responding to the world. No matter how much
>literary and sociological imagination one has, only a murderous
>racist can say that in their place one would join the lynch mob.
That's a misuse of the term racism, which refers to a social structure of oppression. Is it the case that Robert Fisk, a white man, is among the racially oppressed, politically, economically, and socially subordinated to and controlled by the dominant race of Muslims, whose mobs would lynch Fisk and anyone who looks like him with impunity, with implicit or explicit encouragement from their rulers? As it obviously isn't the case, your analogy is a faulty one.
Historical analogies, if you need one, may put Fisk in the position of an abolitionist white tragically assaulted by slaves in an uprising against slave owners and all other whites; in the position of an anti-colonialist white tragically assaulted by colonized natives in an uprising against colonial masters and all other foreigners; and so on. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>