>Why do you assume racists are economically rational?
>
>Yeah racism is larger than matters of individual prejudice, but I
>don't see how racism is meaningful as a category unless you can
>locate it in specific human acts and relationships. Sometimes it
>sounds like phlogiston.
>
>
I know what you mean. But over the past few decades, it seems like a dichotomy has opened up. People who want to emphasize the enduring significance of race tend to focus on racism as a set of social structures while people who downplay race tend to treat racism as a set of individual attitudes. I assume that's because of the perception that individual white attitudes have changed a lot, so racism must have become a more structural phenomenon. Maybe this is a misperception on my part.
Seth