[lbo-talk] Obama & the white guys

[Miles Jackson]

Chris Doss wrote:
> I suppose the argument could be made that the
> structural disadvantage is one that accrues to people
> from poor families. Thus people with black skin would
> tend to be at a greater disadvantage than those with
> white skin, given that they are more likely to come
> from poor families for obvious historical reasons.
> However, it would be racist only in an accidental
> sense ("accidental" in the Aristotelian sense of the
> term).

That's the point: structural/institutional racism is "accidental".  It 
is independent of the psychological characteristics of any individual in 
our society.  Thought experiment: eliminate all the personal 
bigotry/prejudice in our society.  If we did that, 
structural/institutional racism would not be affected one iota.

As Durkheim pointed out all those years ago, psychological 
characteristics cannot explain social facts.  Nowhere is this more true 
than in the analysis of racial stratification.

Miles