[lbo-talk] Noam Chomsky is losing it

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Sep 28 10:15:31 PDT 2011


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



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