Ernie : If I was an African-American who *had* been unjustly harassed just because of my skin color, I would be far more likely to see harassment even when it didn't exist. Yes, the victim mentality is ultimately self-defeating, but that doesn't mean the group itself is less rational for feeling that way-- just that the culture has been shaped by past experiences. While this is true in principle, I think there is more to it. Ideology is part of the picture also. I have studied Marcus Garvey and kind of like the man. Gutsy. Flamboyant. Creative as hell. Ambitious. Smart, etc etc. OTOH, he cooked up an ideology which it is no problem to see has had long term effects on the African-American population. Essentially he advocated "Black Power" 50 years before it became popular in the 60s and 70s. Garvey's type of BP was respectful of decent White people, but clearly other black folks decided to be less respectful, or hardly respectful at all, and the idea evolved into "Chipsterism," as it were. So, while what you say is correct as far as it goes, you need to take into account an ideology which is also at play. And in some % of cases the ideology seems to rule entire sub-populations., that is ,various communities among African Americans. Juan Williams vs Al Sharpton, is one way of looking at it, or Bill Cosby vs Jesse Jackson, Billy ----------------------------------------------------------------- In a message dated 8/11/2009 10:17:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Billy, On Aug 11, 2009, at 10:09 AM, [email protected] wrote: > At the risk of over-generalization, isn't it true that some non- > white groups > are far more open-minded and rational than others ? I'm not sure if that question is well-defined; "rationality" is only meaningful given an appropriate set of assumptions, and if I was in an argumentative mood I could make a case that overreacting to ethnic stereotypes might actually *be* rational in some circumstances. :-) The statement I would agree with is that different ethnic subcultures in America are more or less sensitive about their place in it -- but with greater or lesser reason for being so. > but there is a segment of Black America which "has a chip > on its shoulder," and who needs that ? If I was an African-American who *had* been unjustly harassed just because of my skin color, I would be far more likely to see harassment even when it didn't exist. Yes, the victim mentality is ultimately self-defeating, but that doesn't mean the group itself is less rational for feeling that way-- just that the culture has been shaped by past experiences. -- Ernie P. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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