[PEN-L:8820] Re: re: racism

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> This is a dead end strategy [for ending racism] because the revaluation
can easily be overthrown, because the economic base for the categories
still exists. What is needed is a two prong attack. 1. A  redistribution of
income to those that are underprivileged. 2. A vigourous  attack on the
idea that race exist. It should be pointed out at every  opportunity that
the racial categories are based on a lie. Anything else is self-defeating. <

Race is a "lie" as a biological category, but aren't such societal
categories "real" even though they are human-created?

Also, what about using "race" as a way to undermine the economic base for
racism? That's one view of what affirmative action is supposed to do: if we
can break down the barriers to hiring, say, Blacks, into good jobs, then
eventually race becomes irrelevant to hiring, i.e., it slowly loses its
status as a socially-created fact.

On these questions, I think it's best to avoid excessive abstraction. So
Rod, what does your view mean _in practice_ for programs such as
affirmative action? (BTW, I am not talking about quotas, which are just one
form of aff. action.)

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/JDevine.html