[lbo-talk] Fight the taboo on the use of the word "racist"

[Miles Jackson]

jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> On 14 Mar 2006 at 14:48, Jim Devine wrote:
> 
>>I think Doug's formulation is better. The problem with the word
>>"racism" is not that it's been over-used as much as it's been
>>mis-used. For example, I've seen advocates of the W.J. Wilson
>>"declining significance of race" theory being described as "racist"
>>even though Wilson doesn't deny the existence of institutional racism.
> 
> 
> This just poses up another question. Why are some people mis-using the term? Where do they get their 
> definition of racism? What is their definition of racism?
> 

Like almost everything in a hyperindividualist society, it must be 
construed and described as a psychological trait.  Think Maggie's 
"there's no such thing as society, only individual men and women". 
Remapping all social phenomena as individual traits is a crucial 
ideological bulwark for capitalism; thus the ubiquity of the 
"racism-as-psychological-aberration" silliness.

Miles