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

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Thu Mar 16 12:04:34 PST 2006


JD: 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.

^^^^ CB: It is important to confine the use of the term "racism" to white prejudice, because structurally/institutionally there is white supremacy. Black's are _prejudice_ , not racist, toward whites. It is important to retain this qualitative distinction. Racism is prejudice + power.

Black prejudice against whites is not just personal. It is structural too, but it is in response to structural white racism.

^^^^^^

JD: 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?

^^^^^ CB; I think it has to do with Black nationalism not being inherently reactionary ,but "White" nationalism is inherently reactionary. The political principle is over the grammatical parallelism.

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