Well, Paul grows tired of this topic, and so do I,
so anything further from me will have to be offlist. Steve has responded
emotionally to what he thinks is my assumption that because he is white he
personally has never experienced racism, when I was careful to state that I know
nothing of his personal experiences and therefore my comments are general and
not individual. Nonetheless he has chosen to interpret them
personally. I have, in my turn, taken umbrage at the suggestion that I am
not being logical, when I pride myself on being logical. This is not a bad
illustration of one point I am trying to make, which is that people can pretty
well be counted on NOT to respond intellectually to things that they *feel*
strongly about. This is why I think it is important that we be sensitive
to the *perception* of racism in Howard's work, whether or not we think it is
actually there. As Paul says, you will never explain it away to the
satisfaction of those who see it.
Rusty
