Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!aiai!ken
From: ken@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Ken Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Racism (was: Turing Test and Subject Bias)
Message-ID: <562@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 10 Jul 89 16:55:44 GMT
References: <1415@uceng.UC.EDU> <2037@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <5453@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: ken@aiai.UUCP (Ken Johnson)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 25


> ENTRY     racism (RAY'siz'uhm) n.
> SYLLABLES ra-cism
> MEANING   1. The notion that one's own ethnic stock is superior.  2.
>           Discrimination or prejudice based on racism.

I am interested in this definition.  About a week ago I read the
following statement from a black author (I can't remember his name, but
the statement is so extraordinary that I can reproduce it exactly:)

``If I call you a lump of white shit that's not racism, that's just
prejudice.  If you discriminate against me that's racism, because you
are in a position of power over me.''

Any comments anyone? (Incidentally I happen to think this author,
whoever he is, must be bonkers if he believes that racial insults are
not racist.  Overhearing two schoolchildren exchanging racist jokes in
England last week -- it does not happen here -- I could not have been
more disgusted if they had shat on the floor.)

-- 
Ken Johnson, AI Applications Institute, 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN
E-mail ken@aiai.ed.ac.uk, phone 031-225 4464 extension 212
`I have read your article, Mr.  Johnson, and I am no wiser than when I
started.' -- `Possibly not, sir, but far better informed.'