On Nov 6, 2008, at 10:51 PM, David Cake wrote: > There are degrees and levels of racism. The plain, > old-fashioned racism, worries about genetics and descent. The > advanced, modern, kind still manages to discriminate against plenty > of people, but does it based on culture and class that just happens > to coincide with race. I saw a blog today that called it racism 1.0 > and racism 2.0.
I think this is absolutely backwards. The US didn't go to war with Japan during WWII because they thought the Japanese were sub-human monkey people. They went to war for geopolitical reasons and then the government started a propaganda campaign to convince people that the 'Japs' or 'Nips' were sub-human. Similarly the white Americans didn't decide to acquire slaves from Africa because they believed that Africans were actually inferior. They chose Africa because slaves were relatively cheap and available there and only later came up with Biblical and pseudo-genetic rationalizations for the practice. People will always dehumanize their enemies and those they oppress because it makes it psychologically easier to kill/exploit them. End the exploitation and the rationalization is no longer needed though it may linger for awhile. I've met a man for Northern Ireland who was completely convinced that Catholics were genetically different from and inferior to Protestants. I've met a member of the Tohono O’odham who was absolutely convinced that Apaches were demons who could assume human, owl or coyote form at will. In each case these beliefs were responses to, rather than causes of the conflict. When I was out canvasing I ran into a few racists but many more of what we call "racialists" or "white tribalists". These are people who are reluctant to vote for a black man simply because the see the races as being in competition for economic and social status. I think this is what you mean by "racism 2.0" These people don't need to buy into any myths that dehumanize black people because the worst thing they have ever done to blacks is to oppose affirmative action and welfare politically. -- It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. -Rollo May _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
