[lbo-talk] Race: it's a process, not a product (was: celebration)

Dwayne Monroe dwayne.monroe at gmail.com
Wed Nov 5 09:52:51 PST 2008


shag:

I think you'd have to WTF at me when I speak of decentering "whiteness". In other words, I'm talking about institutionalized racism: the notion that there are blacks, Latinos, etc. defined against standard issue whiteness where whiteness represents the norm of citizen, worker, father/mother, adulthood, etc. Whiteness conceived as a process, not a product, is the "good family man" trotted out against the whispered accusation, "He's a Muslin(tm)."

I *thought* this is what Mage was talking about, particularly because he put "Black" and "White" under erasure, and capitalized both. That was a signal to me that he wasn't literally talking about race as a thing, a cultural product, but as I say below: a process.

[...]

....

Sure, I'll buy that.

But the difference is that you have a rich, on and off-list history of seriously engaging with these issues in just the way you've described.

So, I'd give you several thousand benefits of the doubt, even if, at first, I didn't understand your meaning. There's a larger context.

Which means, chances are, no WTF for you 'cause I get what you're getting at.

If you get me.

.d.



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