Shane Mage wrote:
>
> On Nov 21, 2009, at 3:38 PM, shag carpet bomb quoted:
> >
> > "What would it hurt other than my leftist pride if someone said I
> > was being racist?...
>
> Like all personal insults, whether or not ending in "ist," it would
> totally subvert the logos of the discussion underway. Otherwise it
> would be welcome as one's opponent's humiliating admission of defeat
> in argument.
Note: In the context of the whole quotation from Angela, it makes a
difference that the hypothetical "insult" was NOT "You are a racist" but
"You are BEING a racist." The latter charge has almost certainly been
valid at one time or another of every poster on this list. And it is not
aninsult, it is a criticism, and a criticism,moreover, that should be
welcomed, even if one rejects it (as Angela said she probably would in
most cases), since it potentially points to one more category of the
racsm that permeates U.S. society. As Angela says, what would it hurt?
And I would add, potentially adds to the understanding of the two
leftists involved in this hypothetical context.
>
> > ...I'll ask for evidence and I will most likely debate it..."
>
> Which would be a mistake, like attempting to conduct rational
> discussion with a troll.
Only if it was _intended_ as an insult. But if both (say) were involved in the same anti-racist activity, asking for evidence is a way of getting at the principle(s) involved in the behavior alleged to be racist. And that brings us back to my initial poing, the difference between "You are a racist" and "You are being are being racist."
I had my differences with Angela, but she is certainly correct here.
Carrol