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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!dmcanzi
From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.flame
Subject: Re: Discrimination
Message-ID: <1391@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-May-85 06:18:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1391
Posted: Mon May 20 06:18:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 21-May-85 05:26:13 EDT
References: <354@iham1.UUCP> <250@spar.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 36
Xref: watmath net.women:5138 net.flame:9993
Summary: 

In article <250@spar.UUCP> ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes:
>So, why do *I* have to pay for something *I* didn't do?  *I* didn't hold any
>slaves, *I* didn't force any Orientals into ghettos in San Francisco, *I*
>didn't lynch any black people in the South, ...
>            ... I hadn't even been born when most of these things were
>happening. So why do *I* have to pay? -- Carl Deitrick
>
>    *Your* white ancestors intelligently came to this `land of opportunity'
>    where `ALL WHITE MALES ARE CREATED SUPERIOR', lived decent, hard working
>    lives, and now, *YOU*, the fruit of their expectations, have fulfilled
>    their hopes by attaining a what probably seemed but a dream a short
>    130 years ago.
>
>    But one reason why their dream was realized--and a large part at that--
>    was due to a system skewed heavily in favor of white boys like *YOU*.
>    That meant many people's dreams went unfulfilled since the results of
>    their labor were usurped by a system that favored *YOUR* FAMILY.

It's hard for me to imagine the above two paragraphs serving any
purpose other than to try to make Mr. Deitrick feel guilty.  You would
not be trying to make him feel guilty if he wasn't white and male, and
you are well aware that he had nothing to do with the assorted nasty
acts committed by other white men.  The only thing I can conclude,
therefore, is that you hold him guilty for being a white man.  You hold
him guilty, not for what he has done, but for what he *is*.

Something in our upbringing encourages us to feel guilty for the acts
of other people, acts we have no control over, for no reason other than
some accidental resemblance, such as being of the same race or sex.
People should recognize this and resist it.  It makes no sense for so
many people to go around feeling guilty for the way they are born.  And
that includes *you*, Mr. Ellis.
-- 
	David Canzi

"The Indians got revenge on the white man.  They gave him tobacco."