-----Original Message----- From: Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>
That's the point: structural/institutional racism is "accidental".
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Supervenient is the current term of art.
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.
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Well structural bigotry/prejudice would be gone no? Or are you saying that if all xtians became atheists structural xtianity would not be affected one iota.
A wonderful example of why sociological thought experiments are pretty worthless.
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
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Mereological paradoxes, fallacies of division/composition abound re the above as regards the dynamics of social ontology, not explanatory strategy.
Carroll is the perfect example of how a structuralist/Marxist gets stuck thinking there is a Zeno's paradox of collective action to affect institutional change. The fetishizing of agentlessness is just icing on the cake no matter how many times he pulls out "The Eleven Theses....".
Ian