The old, old story*
This Racism series really could eat my blog.
J.G. at Silver Rights comments on my Microbes on Parade entry, "Why They Don't Understand Us" (among others):
Accurate, I think, as a general statement of how people reason. However, I don't believe the experiment applies to racism very well because people don't enter into it as bare slates or randomly. Indeed, the perceived race of the individual asking for the words or that the words be organized would likely influence what words were given and how they were divided.
So, why would someone submit such a poor example of reasoning about racism when he is capable of better? To be very careful, I suspect. Response to substantive remarks about racism are likely to be quite different than those to pabulum like that in this entry, especially in the blogosphere, where any real attention to racism results in jeremiads of denial.
People will enter into the experiment randomly if you select them randomly. And if you don't, it won't affect the outcome, which will be that the dividers will be able to find a basis for their division when there's none objectively there.
Mac, I don't think you feel this was my complete exposition on the nature of racism or people's reaction to race. The issue is so deeply woven into the pattern on American life, getting at the individual threads of it requires either careful, complete picking and pointing or tearing the fabric which tends to fuck up the threads that aren't involved in the pattern as well. A series specifically on the topic is needed, both for complete coverage and to limit collateral damage.
Here's the full series to date, in chronological order. Judge it as you will:
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_08_prometheus_6.html#95662820
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_15_prometheus_6.html#95704789
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_15_prometheus_6.html#95850678
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_15_prometheus_6.html#95869905
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_15_prometheus_6.html#95891273
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_22_prometheus_6.html#95913630
http://home.earthlink.net/~prometheus_6/archives/2003_06_22_prometheus_6.html#95914790
*tip o' da hat to "The Art of Noise"
posted by Prometheus 6 at 6/23/2003 07:26:42 AM |
