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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: defining racism
Message-ID: <302@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Jan-86 19:20:03 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.302
Posted: Tue Jan 14 19:20:03 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 03:34:55 EST
References: <336@l5.UUCP> <28200531@inmet.UUCP>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 33
Keywords: Contains impertinent digression on seatbelt laws

[Jan Wasilewsky]

>As for "emotion-clouded rhetoric", that would only make sense if the
>word  "racism" carried different emotional connotations than "racial
>discrimination" which you admit affirmative action is. 

More emotion-clouded r., Jan.  By stating that I "admit" that
affirmative action is racial discrimination, you imply that my
statement is a concession to opponents of AA, whereas all I have said
is that AA entails taking into account a person's race (or sex) in
deciding on one's actions w/r/t that person, which is admitted by
anyone who knows what the term "affirmative action" means.  In this
sense, I engage in racial discrimination equally whether I seek out
or avoid the society and custom of persons of another race, and
whether I hire blacks preferentially or try to keep them out of my
company.  I engage in sex discrimination (and sexual-preference
discrimination, age discrimination, in fact all sorts of
discrimination) whenever I decide whether to ask someone for a date.
However, I am unrepentant.

We all sin now and then by using loaded terms as a substitute for
thought.  Dave Hudson found that if he could apply the label
"compulsion" to seatbelt laws, people wouldn't like them as much as
if the laws were labeled "encouragement" [to wear belts].  But
evidently "compulsion" does not mean that people will be forced at
gunpoint to buckle up; it means that if you are unlucky enough to be
caught unbuckled by the police, you will be given a warning or
required to pay a fine of $10 to $50, and if you don't pay the fine
you may suffer some consequences the worst of which is going to jail
for a short while.  But this thought process can be short-circuited
by describing the seatbelt law as "compulsion". 
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes