[lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist?

[Miles Jackson]

On 08/19/2011 08:46 PM, // ravi wrote:
> On Aug 19, 2011, at 11:12 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
>> On 08/19/2011 07:20 PM, Julio Huato wrote:
>>> That is to be expected, because we all are a product of circumstances.
>>>   But if you want your effort to bear fruit, you have to be willing to
>>> shed your prejudices.  And it is the role of people in these movements
>>> to help you set yourself straight when your prejudices get in the way.
>>>   These exercises in personal interaction can be very rough
>>> emotionally, and if the personal commitment is not very strong, people
>>> will waver and be tempted to withdraw back into their comfort zone,
>>> which is obviously a painful loss for both sides.
>> I've gone around about this with Julio before, but I feel compelled to point out that this is exactly backwards.  It is not  "shedding your prejudices" that will allow you to contribute to political struggles to overcome racism;<snip happens>
>
> That may well be, but that is not what Julio wrote (above). He wrote “you have to be *willing* to shed your prejudices” (emphasis mine). It’s not clear how you missed that given the sentences that follow:
>
> Julio: And it is the role of people in these movement to help you set yourself straight when your prejudices get in the way.
>
> Julio: These __exercises__ …
>
> Miles: it is __the political struggles__ that will transform individual prejudices...
>
> 	—ravi

Yes, I read the whole thing, and my point stands.   People of color 
diligently schooling individual well-intentioned white activists is not 
going to address racism in our society.  Racism is a social formation, 
not an individual psychological characteristic, so any interventions 
that focus on changing individual minds are ineffective political 
strategies.

Miles