[lbo-talk] Noam Chomsky is losing it

[Carrol Cox]

On 9/28/2011 10:23 AM, Eric Beck wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Miles Jackson<cqmv at pdx.edu>  wrote:
>
>> If the problem is defined as "prejudice", people are inexorably drawn toward
>> strategies and interventions designed to transform the Prejudiced Mind
>> rather than the social structures that reproduce patterns of racial
>> inequality.  Look at it this way: if we eliminated all of the prejudiced
>> thinking in our society, 40% of African American children would still be in
>> poverty, because that's a product of social structure.
>
> The anti-Reedians have--for at least the two year this discussion has
> been going on--acknowledged this and specifically rejected "prejudice"
> as the basis of their argument, but still people feel compelled to
> raise this point. At this point I can only see it as a red herring.

Indeed. It is impossible to even _begin_ to discuss "race" in the U.S. 
if it is defined (or felt) as personal prejudice. Eric is right that no 
one pays attention to this obvious fact, but I see  no recoruse but to 
go on repeating it.In any case, no discussion of U.S. politics goes very 
far unless participants recognize  the centrality of "racist" social 
structures _or_ their complex influence on consciousness.

Carrol