A failure of imagination

[joanna bujes]

At 10:58 PM 05/16/2002 -0400, Chris Kromm wrote:
>Hold up. Every year I go to conferences where African-American journalists
>argue that race coverage in this country's media is what it is because of
>the overwhelmingly white hue of media owners, editors and journalists. Sure,
>racism isn't just about individuals, it's institutional and systemic,
>etc. -- but the fact is that they have a point, and outlets that have more
>African-Americans in charge generally have better coverage. We can quibble
>over how much, come up with counter-examples, etc., but I don't think the
>overall point is deniable.
>
>So why is it somehow anti-Semitic to make the similar point that if, say,
>Arab-Americans ran the New York Times (and other U.S. media outlets),
>coverage of the Middle East wouldn't be so virulently anti-Arab? It's not a
>guarantee, but isn't it likely?

The real point is that if we get beyond identity politics, it would be 
possible for whites/jews/arabs/women/transexuals....etc. to imagine what 
the plight of the other is like and to work for justice and HUMAN rights 
rather than this endless squabble over the shrinking pie and whether you 
should get yours because you're a fill-in-the-blank.

The communists/socialists understood this, which is why they remain the 
spectre that haunts the world.

Yours for the emphatic imagination...

Joanna