[lbo-talk] Graeber

[joel schalit]

I grew up, partially, in the UK, and had the chance to live again
London for two of the last five years. I find London especially
diverse, in a good way. However, I find the political echelon still
highly conservative in racial and ethnic matters, in ways that I never
would imagine their American equivalents being. The way
multiculturalism is discussed, for example, as well as immigration, is
as though it is a white only privilege (to problematize), in a white
only country. It can be especially shocking, at times, the sorts of
assumptions that are built into the discourse.

As a German resident, I have to agree with Angelus' analysis.
Minorities and immigrants are outsiders unless they are explicitly,
and voluntarily integrated, with all the problems which inhere in the
voluntary element. This is despite the fact that Germany retains an
enormous and ongoing appetite for importing foreign labor, including
from southern Europe, as well as it's historic dependence on Turkish
migrants, in its industrial endeavors. Racist violence, in the last
year, in the country, has been horrible. The German example is
especially complex.

Best, Joel

On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Angelus: "Now, whether it's *more* racist than American society, I
> think that would be difficult and meaningless to argue, but I think
> that one substantial difference is this: whereas it's a fairly
> hegemonic idea in American society that the society is "multi-racial",
> so that expressions of racism often have to take subtle or veiled
> forms, in Germany (obviously the European society I'm most familiar
> with), it's fairly well-accepted in the mainstream that it's "supposed
> to be" an ethnically homogeneous society, that minorities are
> acceptable only to the extent that they are "integrated", and that the
> children of immigrants aren't "real" Germans."
>
> [WS:] Good point.  I think it is more acceptable in Europe to openly
> express xenophobic and racist ideas in public, but at the same time
> there seem to be less of de facto segregation i.e. people more eager
> to interact with other ethnic groups on a personal basis. In the US,
> by contrast, you will see more political correctness in the public
> appearances, only a redneck would use a racist slur in public, while
> more "respectable" folk would use much more veiled language.  However,
> they tend to fraternize only with their own kind on a personal basis.
>
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

-- 
joel schalit
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