List,
Seems this list has acquired a reactionary element. Those of us who bring
to the attention of others that the construct of biological race is a
scientific nonreality, that its invention was born in ignorance and
exploitative relations, and that continued attempts to reassert its
ontology perpetuate racism--we are "politically correct." This post of
Warren's reads like something from the National Review editorial pages.
So those who press on that we live on an elliptic sphere are "politically
correct"? Or are we only "politically correct" when our pointing out of
scientific facts (or the lack of scientific facts) coincides with an
activism against oppression? Or is there really a difference, seeing how
the round earthers discoveries threatened the authority of oppressors?
In your post you have said this: "No one ever got past an obstacle in
her/his path by pretending it wasn't there." This assertion, in the
context of your post, carries several implications. First, you are
asserting the existence of biological race (since this is what this
argument is about). Second, you are asserting that those who point out
that there is no objective basis for biological race are pretending it
isn't really there. Third, that pretending that something really isn't
there, even when there is no proof of its existence, is being in a state
of "political correctness." "Political correctness" being used here to
accuse all of us on the other side as denying necessary truths when those
truths don't please us or stymie us in our activist struggles. Fourth,
that biological race is a barrier that must be understood in order to
overcome it. Or is this last point an assertion that scientists must
overcome their resistance to the nonexistence of biological race so that
they can... what?
Andrew Austin