[lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist?

[// ravi]

On Aug 20, 2011, at 2:07 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
> 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...
>> 
> 
> 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.

But again, that’s now how I read what Julio says above. He is *not* saying that schooling individuals is going to remove racism. He is answering a question from Doug (I think it was) to say that if a well-intentioned white activist wants to join the struggle then he has to be willing to drop his prejudices, be schooled. It’s not being claimed that this schooling will directly address or solve racism in our society.

I think Julio has responded as well, so feel free to ignore this thread with me,

	—ravi