I hate talking about race problems when there's more than one race present.
When I get to focus on one crew at a time I get useful discussions like the one at Blogcritics that followed up Joseph Taylor's foolishness. That discussion was useful because I got to point out the central reason Black and white people seem unable to come to terms over race:
But understand that you and I are dealing with different aspects of that legacy.
What problems does racism cause you, a reasonably well-educated white male from a fairly upper middle class background?
What problems does racism cause me, a 6'2" 185 lb Black male, self-educated, no degree, had to work up from messenger to Assistant VP at a bank, father a farmer, mother a laborer that eventually got a nice safe civil service job?
It's because we're discussion two different things. We're not discussion racism, we're discussing "how racism affects me."
I am curious what the practical ramifications are of your Black partisanship. Do you relate to me differently because I am White because of it?
Note that "the practical ramifications" aren't political, economic, social, but are personal to the questioner.
Black and white folks have the same practical definitions of racism: "References to race that will make me feel bad if I accept it as I understand it." So Joseph Taylor can rant about Black partisans, swear up and down he pays no regard to race, no suh, yet drop this gem in the discussion:
But then again, my logic professor was a white guy, so maybe my ignorant belief that attacking someone because he's white is fallacious stems from that... *L*
…demonstrating that race is only racist when it hurts his feelings somehow.
That Eric is so reasonable and Joseph so not while both show this pattern demonstrates this is a matter of understandings, not misunderstandings. And it explains why totally well meaning people can come up with (from my perspective) the worst ideas to "solve" racism. It's because they're addressing a different problem than the one that has been so damaging to us all.
