Re: Richard's apology for sexism, racism and capitalism

There are problems with this notion that the lack of negative image of the
racialized means that making natural the historical or constructed
distinctions between populations is not inherently racism.

One racialized group, the "white race," possesses a quite positive image
in the eyes of the dominant group (themselves) and those who have
adopted the perpetrator's perspective. Not racism? Even when white
society does not openly oppress minorities they still insist minorities
live in their system and up to their standards.

The category "race" is the creation of a racist system. A race as a
biological construct means to differentiate human types.  Blacks in
America are members of a caste system which does not allow them (without
cosmetic alteration) to be considered members of the racialized group with
the positive image (whites). Blacks are set up to fail in their attempt to
meet the white standard.

While it is not inherently racist to recognize racial difference--since
centuries of racialization and struggle against racial oppression have
created racial identities that are important to subordinate groups--it is
inherently racist to suppose that these differences are of anything other
that historical and political origin.

Perhaps the attempt to politically and culturally neutralize discussions
of hominid variation would profit from an understanding of clines or some
similar construct. Clines, while not a ideal construct, may help us think
about how the development of genetic characteristics can be the result of
social organization (such as the emergence of sickle cell following
widespread use of intensive horticulture in regions of Africa) or to
understand migratory patterns that locate groups with different phenotypic
features in similar climes and regions, allowing us to move away
simplistic notions of natural selection. We are animals, after all.

But the moment you attribute the existence of social inequality to
different human types constructed from these physical differences you have
produced a racist explanation--more than this, even constructing different
human types from these physical differences is a racist act.

One of the problems is that typological arrangements represent a
pre-scientific manner of thinking that cannot be reconciled with the
scientific theory of evolution. More important is that the practice of
naturalizing sociopolitical and cultural distinctions among people
represents part of a systematic program of oppression.

Andrew