Remember: our rules allow pointed disagreement, but require respectful discussion.
--
> Seems odd we flood our words with cliches and buzzwords like
"diversity","tolerance" "embrace" "community" etc. Seems liberals are
rather shallow in this dept. Me thinks when they board airplanes they do
a little racial profiling as in the three men going to Salt lake City that
got booted off a NWA flight here in good old Diversityville, Minn. Hardly
the stuff Prairie Home Companion is made of.Perhaps we can all meet and
get warm and fuzzy at the airport and as we board three or four of our
"community" show up and put on turbans and see what we embrace and
tolerate. Bet the plane never leaves the gate. Betcha. When a police
officer suggests racial profiling has some merit based on
actual experience it is attacked. When a liberal practices it boarding an
airplane it's called "travel safety." Maybe we should move this group to
Kabul...ALL ABOARD!!!!!!!!Foxhole conversions to more logical thinking in
the interest of safety vs political correctness is growing. Only one will
getcha killed.
Even though I am not what is referred to as a liberal, I will respond
to this. I think that a lot of people (myself included) would respond by
stating both cases of racial profiling are racist and should be opposed.
I think that even a lot of liberals would agree with this sentiment. The
simple fact is that profiling is racist because implies there is a certain
'essence' associated with one's skin color (whether biological or
cultural)and therefore those individuals (let's be specific here 'people
of color')can be marked out for repressive treatment. I may be wrong but
there seems to be a strong thread running through this article that
implies that in order to be 'secure' we must engage in profiling (ie
racism in other words) This simply has never worked. I think that South
Africa was the best example of this in its most extreme manifestation.
Also I will have to specifically disagree with Mr. Atherton's assertions.
What are referred to as individuals, are always 'racialized', 'gendered',
'classed',etc, and the denial of this generally leads to the proliferation
of the oppressions that occur under our current rubric of power.
I think rallies of this sort while being 'warm and fuzzy', are very
effective in producing different kinds of community. It allows people to
come together and say they oppose this. This might make the difference
between someone seeing a racist incident (whether verbal or physical) and
feeling that they can't respond and using their power to respond.
On the other hand, they are just that, a start. I think that it
would be good to see this move into the territory of other 'warm and
fuzzy' actions like organizing to work with the communities being targeted
by this sort of racism. I'm trying to do this with some of my activist
cohorts, so if people know any contacts, I'd like to hear. Also
obviously, if folks are interested in working also can contact me (with
the realization that you will be working with people who are 'radical' and
very explicitly anti-war.
robert wood
st paul resident
spinozist
"That which is common to all things and which is equally in the part and
in the whole constitutes the essence of no particular thing."
--Spinoza, the ethics
PS I don't usually support what Mr al Kabir says, but the idea of the
muslim community organizing to defend itself doesn't sound like a bad idea
(although I'm a little dubious of the threat from 'zionists'... we're not
in the occupied territories after all... and the NOI)
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