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From: gt4115a@prism.gatech.EDU ("HARDIE,PETER THOMAS")
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: the *isms
Message-ID: <28272@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 7 May 91 17:54:42 GMT
References: <14622@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
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In article <14622@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> farmerl@handel.cs.colostate.edu (lisa ann farmer) writes:

>I just remember something else that was emphasized in the seminar.
>(yea, I am the one who posted stuff about to be *ist you have to be in
>power).
>
>The point was made that it is useless to say that you aren't *ist,
>because some time in your life you probably had a *ist thought even if
>it wasn't conscious.
  ...
>male I am more nervous.  So I admit that I am racist because
>the power structure has taught me to think that this black man is more
>dangerous than a white man.  I can never say that I am no longer
>racist because I don't know how deep what I have been taught goes.

So far this is ok.  Many (most) people will have unconsicous attitudes
that they are still holding on to.

But I still am not sure about the initial premise that you must be a
member of the power group to be an *ist.  What defines membership in
this case?  Mere genetics?  Social contact?

And there is the remaining question about those who are the objects of
discrimination.  We all know that there are black people who are as
bigoted as Archie Bunker - are they racist?  If no, why not?

I can see that people are partially a product of their culture, but
what exempts the (relatively) powerless from the *isms?

--
Pete Hardie
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
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