Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 21:50:25 -0700
Subject: Re: Reductionism


Unfortunaltely, I accidentally deleted the message that I'm replying to, so I apologize 
in advance for not being able to direct this to a particular person.

The argument was made that racism, sexism, and homophobia are not reducible to economic 
causes, particularly the accumulation of capital.  While I haven't see any studies of the 
latter two, Ronald Takaki's "A Different Mirror" explores that ecomnomic factors that 
contributed to the rise of racism in America.  He shows that it was the fear of a 
lower-class coalition among the planter aristocracy that cause the status of blacks in 
the colonies to go from indentured servants to perpetual slaves.  He has similar analyses 
of other groups: the attacks on them didn't happen until they had an economic resource 
that the elites needed.

At least in the case of blacks, this predates capitalism; the writer is thus right to 
claim that it is not caused by capital.  But it remains a manifestation of class warfare, 
an attempt to accumulate and control wealth of some sort (often land).
-- 
Yours &c.,

Jeff Johnson				  "Amicus Socrates, amicus Plato,
Graduate Student, Political Science		sed magis amica veritas."
University of Wisconsin--Madison	 	              --Aristotle


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