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From: chk@purdue.UUCP (Chuck Koelbel)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles
Subject: Re: career vs. relationships
Message-ID: <515@mordred.purdue.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 20:26:45 EST
Article-I.D.: mordred.515
Posted: Mon Mar  3 20:26:45 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 04:42:50 EST
References: <11785@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <660@rti-sel.UUCP> <551@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 39
Xref: watmath net.women:9512 net.singles:10655
Summary: What is sexism/racism?

In article <551@hoptoad.uucp>, laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton) writes:
> In article <680@rti-sel.UUCP> wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly) writes:
> >What are sexism and racism, anyway? It seems to me they involve the
> >assumption that a person has a certain set of capabilities based on
> >h/er membership in a group. 
> 
> We were discusisng this in net.politics.theory a while ago.  I still think
> that sexism and racism involve the assumption that a person is *inferior*
> based on he/r membership in a group.   Not everybody who reads politics
> theory agrees with me.
> 

I'd modify Laura's definition to say that statements which involve any
difference in quality (positive or negative) are sexist or racist.
For example, "Men make better mathematicians because they are logical
thinkers" counts as sexist in my book.  I'm not sure Laura's definition
would classify it as sexist.

> I get very worried about political movements which can't tell the difference
> between a statement of fact and a slur.  Are their perceptions so warped
> by their ideology that they cannot perceive what is?

I wouldn't call their perceptions "warped" so much as "blurred".  Often
when you are close to a problem, statements get emotionally charged (even
if they are not intended to be).  This makes picking out facts from slurs
difficult.  Adding to this problem is the fact that most facts can be used
to "prove" slurs. ("More mathematicians are men because men think more
logically than women" - where exactly does the fact end?)  Unfortunately,
I don't have a foolproof system for communicating facts so that they cannot
be misinterpreted - if anybody does, please let me know.  (Better yet,
post it to the net - it would solve a LOT of problems!)  So it looks like
we'll just have to muddle along with our faulty perceptions for the fore-
seeable future.

						Chuck Koelbel

PS Please note that any statements above concerning men, women, math,
   and logical thinking are purely for illustrating points.  They are
   NOT my personal views!