Subject: Re: race...
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 21:50:18 -0500


js,

permiso.

isn't "race" one in that series -self, family, class,
region, ethnicity,...,  of identity constructs  constitutive of
human existentiality; and having little or nothing to do with
biology?

ought a naive racism discredit that  construct any
more than naive religion, a thing equally prone to
the chauvinist pathology, disqualify religion?

pc thot police notwithstanding,
isn't racism as necessary  as gender identity?

bob

-----Original Message-----
From: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
<heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
To: Rscheetz <Rscheetz>
Date: Friday, January 29, 1999 5:21 PM
Subject: race...


>
>Jim;
>interesting comments and actually I agree with a lot of them. I do however
>think there is a question here, and maybe I can use the example of "mix"
that
>was cited. I see nothing in the word that would lead directly to assuming
>something perjorative and implying "pure race" . Is it simply in your mind
>impossible and not acceptable to discuss "race"? If I say that I'm part
German
>and Polish, what am I saying? Only that my parents were from those
countries.
>Now if one of them was of Indian descent and I said Polish, but of ethnic
>Indian origins...what then? I see how ludicrous the discussion of race can
>become, and usually how meaningless, but if I wanted to communicate my
parents
>ethnic and cultural background...how should i do it? Is it wrong to say Im
a
>mix of Polish and German, those were two languages spoken in my house as a
>child, along with English. Where is the problem? I would argue that "mixed
>race' does not mean "mix of pure race"...not at all. If I say my Mom was
>Polish...that only means she was born in Poland, spoke Polish, and grew up
>with Polish cultural conditioning...NOT that she belonged to some imagined
>pure race of Poles (the last people by the way who would sugges anything
like
>that). It does not grant legitimacy on regressive notions of "purity". If
one
>cannot make the distinction in one's language and vocabulary (and hence in
>thinking) between pure race hate mongering and scapegoating, and the use of
>useful terms like "mix' in the discourse of everyday life (as Marcuse put
it)
>then that person has a seriously impaired speech condition. I think I know
>what you wnat to say with this, and I think i was guilty in my remarks of
>sounding offhand and cavalier, which is a wrong tone to take about a topic
>this serious. So I apologize for that, but I think you must not create
these
>hard line positions where people who probably share your (at least to some
>degree) positions on matters of rascism and intolerance are going to be
>attacked for using words like 'mix"...and I guess I still find nothing
>offensive in that word.  Anyway, thanks for your thought out response...I'm
>still thinking on it. js
>
>
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