Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:06:09 -0700
But if the statements that racism is not merely prejudice, but systemized prejudice and that the refusal to differentiate racism from prejudice allows racism to flourish,
I understand 'strong' to be used in a philosophical sense, of claiming more where another might claim or has claimed less (a weak claim, which is not to be understood pejoratively): for instance, that something is right in the sense of being what one ought to do, not merely what it is permissible to do. If Yvonne's posting is considered as a single claim, then its weak form would be to claim only that racism is not coextensive with prejudice, but a species thereof, without also asserting that confusion of the two permits racism to flourish; however, like Yvonne herself, who speaks of 'statements' in the plural, I should regard these as two different claims, connected only by the dependence of the second on the truth of the first. Obviously they are both up for discussion, though as my own postings indicate I agree with the first and can see a possible case for the second: that by treating all prejudice (which might be regarded as the weak claim that foreigners, etc., are different in ways that the prejudiced person does not like) as racism (the strong claim that that is so by genetic inheritance), one encourages the merely prejudiced to go the whole hog and become what one says they are. Whether that is also how Yvonne would argue for her second claim I naturally cannot say.
Leofranc Holford-Strevens -- *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/353865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home)/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub