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

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 15 09:43:53 PST 2006


me:
> 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.

CB:
> All terms of political criticism are misused by someone. All critical
> political terms are used in slander somewhere. Surely, you are not claiming
> that the cases of problems of misuse of the term "racist" are so important
> such as to justify suspension of the use of the term "racist" in the cases
> where it is accurately used ? ...

no. I just think that it's good to not over-use it, because if over-used, it's likely to be mis-used. Unfortunately, a lot of people mis-use it alot. This applies especially to those who think "racism is dead" or that it's totally a matter of personal attitudes.

in a different message, CB wrote:
>Today, the dominant rightwing ideas on racism - such as denying that
racism is still a big phenomenon, and claims that Black "racism" against white people is the main problem of racism - impinge in the white Left.<

anti-White racism by Blacks -- and it does exist -- is totally a matter of psychological attitudes (and language). On the other hand, anti-Black racism by Whites is part of a societal structure of domination.

This is one reason why we have to be careful with language. To liberals, only psychological/linguistic (i.e., individidual) racism exists, so that it's a problem sprinkled somewhat randomly all over society. To me, attitudes that seem very similar in isolation (in the abstract) have completely different meanings when put in societal context. Black "racism" against Whites is a (perhaps self-defeating) part of self-defense, while White Racism againt Blacks is part of an effort to defend structures that give them privilege.

To conservatives, affirmative action for Blacks is an example racism against Whites. To me, AA is way to undermine institutional racism.

Why do I capitalize "Whites"? because of the grammatic principle of parallelism. Why don't other people do so? -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles



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