Q: What do you think about the postmodern idea of race as a construct? A: Oh, please. Only people who have never been the victims of racism could cook that up. Yeah, race is a construct -- it was constructed by white people in order to keep a system of power alive and well. Sure it's a construct -- a construct that runs the highest and lowest levels of the US economy. What does race as a construct mean to James Byrd Jr.? What does it mean to me when someone tries to run me off the road in Watertown, Massachusetts, as they did years ago, because they see a black in a car on what they think of as their turf? Only people who have not experienced dead-on racial hatred and violence can play with "race" in that way. To me it is nothing to play with. [From an interview in the February 1999 Boston Phoenix] Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
