[UUPoly-L] Racism vs. classism

[P O <wild_card@sbcglobal.net>]

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:04:43 -0500
From: "David VanHorn" <dvanhorn@microbrix.com>
Subject: Re: [UUPoly-L] Acceptance, tolerance and
liberalism
To: uupoly-l@uupa.org
Message-ID:

<25b178740703050604qf2157b9r8fe8a122fbdcff0f@mail.gmail.com>
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On 3/4/07, David Hall <airsafe1@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Wow, David, this is a whole different Hawaii than
the one the tourist
> sees.
> I never was stationed there, but passed thru many
times and loved the
> place.
> Hard to see behind the curtain who actually has the
'privelege'.


Ain't it though..

It's a nice place to visit, but if you get too far off
the beaten path,
things are very different.
There's a lot of good too, but I guess my point was
that the grass IS 
always
greener on the other side of the fence.

------------------------------

David,

Yeah, that's always been my point too.  As a general
principle, I avoid conversations about racism because
most people just don't want to hear about the fact
that racism is not confined to whites.   The area we
live in is probably 70% black, the percentages are
even higher in the schools.  I no longer let my kids
go outside to play because I'm tired of them getting
chased home, beaten up and called names because
they're white.  At the grade school the principal made
it very clear that any problems must be the fault of
the white kid, even when it was one skinny little
white kid being shoved around by 5 larger/ older black
kids.  Even the police around here have made their
opinion on the matter quite clear.  

Personally, I don't care about a person's skin color
any more then their hair or eye color.  I feel it is
your words and actions that show who you are.  Anyone
that judges based on race, for good or ill, regardless
of the races involved, is a racist.  Spike Lee once
said that it was impossible for a black man to be
racist, since a black man can't keep a white man from
getting a job.  Personally, I feel that definition of
racism is wrong on so many levels I wouldn't know
where to start.  

As for the earlier laundry list of the problems of
racism, it's nice, but hardly exclusive to race.  Many
of those issues were a matter of economics, not race,
a factor usually ignored in the race discussion.  The
real problem is not about race, it is about economics
and social structure.  

Allowing ourselves to get dragged into thinking that
race matters or should matter is sidelining the real
issue.  The real issue is poverty.  The issue is why,
in the richest country in the world, any children, of
any color, don't have adequate health care or
educational opportunities.  Why are the majority of
Americans, even those working at "good" jobs, too poor
to afford to be sick?  Why do we work longer hours,
for less pay, with less benefits and less vacation
then most of the industiralized world?  

The point is that racism, like sexism or religous
wars, are a great way to keep the populous busy hating
each other, rather then focusing their energy on where
it really needs to be, on trying to figure out why
over the last century this country has grown weathier
and wealthier, but the people have grown poorer and
poorer.  All this time the wealth has been being
distilled into a smaller and smaller number holding a
larger and larger share, while the rest of the
population has been left to hang.

Okay, stopping now before this goes into a full-blown
sermon or worse into a rant.

Just a final note, I'm not denying the existence of
prejudice of all sorts, certainly it exists.  Ignoring
it won't make it go away.  That never works with a
problem.  I'm just saying that there are a lot of
other problems we need to address and the biggest one
is equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, sex,
religion, sexual preference, relationship structure or
whatever.  If we focus too much on the side issues, we
get distracted from the real goal.  It's like the
whole  Marriage Amendment that just happened to get
brought up while the ruling party needed a good
distraction from the War of Terror, er on Terrorism. 
If we let ourselves get Balkinized into groups based
on race or gender or whatever, we lose the strength we
could have while united.  Dr. King dreamed of a nation
where all people, regardless of race or religion or
sex could stand together as brothers and sisters.  I
dream of a world like that.

Pat