On Monday, June 28, 1999 at 21:36:23 (-0400) Yoshie Furuhashi writes: >... > ... Besides, it's nearly impossible to >discuss race on e-lists in any case, which I think has been proven before. Yes, particularly when you blandly say things of the form "Asian studies has regrettably made many seemingly intelligent Asian persons prone to say sillier things than otherwise", and refer to objections about casually lumping together people by the category of race as "serv[ing] to minimize the extent of racism in America". I think race might be an interesting topic to discuss. For example, I'm particularly interested in finding an effective rebuttal to the oft-heard claim in the mainstream that "Hey, the US isn't racist because Asians do so well here; Blacks are just lazy or stupid, or have degenerate family values" --- perhaps an easy target, but it's a start. Or, how about an explanation of the increasing number of Blacks in American sports and why certain sports are still more or less uncharted. I have simplistic answers in the back of my mind, but I'd be interested to hear what others have to say on this. Or, how about the various reasons behind the segregation of our communities. Paul Krugman would have us believe that "Koreans move to Koreatown to be with Koreans, beautiful people move to Beverly Hills to be with other beautiful people", and presumably Blacks cheerfully move to Watts to be live with other Blacks under conditions of economic neglect and decay, and constant brutalizing by racist police [Paul Krugman, *The Self-Organizing Economy*, p. 4]. I must say that I am disgusted by the bilious tenor of the posts on this and many other topics over the past several weeks and the flippant and vitriolic charges of racism that have been made here and on LBO. Michael is right to be in a sour mood. I am also, needless to say, disgusted at the problems about race that still fester in our society. Our communities are divided along lines of color, our children rarely have the opportunity to come into contact with people who are "different" (aside from pastiches rendered on television or in history books); fear and mistrust --- isolating and individualizing poisons --- are the result of this sad state of affairs. And it appears that on this list we can often do no better. Bill
