[lbo-talk] Re: dean and rebel flags

[Joseph Wanzala]

The idea that the confederate flag carries racist symbolism 'for some and 
not for others' is disingenuous. It is a racist symbol period. It is a 
measure of how deep unconscious racism lies that people can pretend that the 
flag only represents Southern nostaligia and anti-Northern sensibilities. 
You cannot seperate the issue of what the flag represents from the issue of 
what Dean said, one flows from the other. The business about Dean is not 
'selective outrage'. My original post was not a 'where the outrage' post - 
it was an effort to analyze the significance of Dean's comment in the light 
of this election and the way race issues were handled during Clinton's 
campaign. It is not being selective. Of course the term 'people of color' is 
a problematic term of art in the discourse about race, but just a 
problematic as any term used to refer to racial groups. In the UK - all 
non--white people are called 'black' including Chinese and Arabs. In South 
Africa, 'coloreds' are a seperate group from blacks, where in the US that 
distinction is not made.  However, your remarks about 'people of color' 
don't contribute to the serious discussion about the nomenclature of racial 
taxonomy and seem merely gratuitous.

Joe W.


>From: "Dennis Perrin" <dperrin at comcast.net>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: dean and rebel flags
>Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 13:11:37 -0500
>
>Joseph Wanzala:
>
> > This is not 'selective posturing' - it is dealing with the issue at 
>hand.
> > That is like saying everytime a person of color addresses an instance of
> > perceived racism thay are being 'selective' by 'only' addressing 'one
>issue
> > at a time'.
>
>The issue at hand isn't whether or not the Confederate flag carries racist
>symbolism (though for some it does), it is about Dean's comment concerning
>the Dems reaching out to those who display that flag. We can go on for days
>with anecdotes about the many ways the Confederate flag is seen & used, but
>I was trying to keep to the ridiculous, and yes, selective outrage over
>Dean's rather tame point.
>
>And could we retire "people of color"? What a meaningless term. Are there
>people without color? See-thru people? Invisible tribes huddled in the
>forest? And what is the difference b/w "people of color" and "colored
>people"?
>
>DP
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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