Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!WOOSTER!VAM9360 From: VAM9360@WOOSTER.BITNET (Milos van Leeuwen) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics Subject: Re: Racial-phobia? Message-ID: <90040.2017.VAM9360@WOOSTER> Date: 9 Feb 90 20:17:00 GMT Sender: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Reply-To: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Lines: 57 Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM Gateway >>From: Gene Smith >> >> Do we have a racial-phobia in this country where a man's career can be >>ended simply by being accused of making a racial remark? > >What we have in this country is a deep-seated racism where people's >lives are taken because of racist feelings. Here in Providence, >as well as in national press, racist incidents are usually not talked >about, not even considered NEWS unless it is a person of color >who does the attacking. (Witness the attacks on white students last >fall, the rapes of Brown women the fall before, the killing at Central >High School.) What some people don't seem to realize is that people >of color are harassed everyday, every way you can think of, but >it just isn't printed in the media. > >... (text removed) I'm fairly new to this country so I don't have much to go on yet but I thought I'd give my remarks to this anyway. There obviously is a very strong tension between the different ethnic groups here. I have never experienced anything like it in another country. In my country, there is racism and discrimination too, especially against people from countries around the Mediterranean (Turkey, Italy, Spain, Marocco etc.) and Surinam but there is no group as prominent attacked as the blacks are here. My college here wants to be very liberal, very progressive and very pro-minority. That means that they have several campus organizations for blacks, jews, women, homosexuals, you name it - we got it. There are good black and womens studies departments and majors. Last fall we had an incident here in which two drunk white males burned a cross with gasoline on one of the fields. The campus reacted with a candle- light procession. The two men turned themselves in with campus security. After the procession KKK masks were found. Whoever was responsible for that is unknown. We have a black history week here (and an international week and an indian-subcontinent week (subcontinent to make sure nobody upsets the students from Pakistan)). What's beginning to bother me about this place is that it is so accepted to attack white males for everything. (Yes, I am one myself.) We have posters everywhere attacking the 'white privilege', the 'male privilege' the 'white male privilege' etc. etc. Sorry, but I really don't think you can generalize like that. Sure, white males are violent against blacks and women but putting all white males in one group like this is very much comparable to saying "all ... (put in your favorite minority group) are ... (put in your favorite discriminating sentence)". I think there is indeed something in this country you could call 'racial/gender/class phobia'. I also think there are reasons for that. Not trying to attack, offend, insult, ignore, put down, put up anyone, v Milos van Leeuwen +----------------v----------------------------------------------------------+ | M I L O S V A N L E E U W E N -- VAM9360@WOOSTER (Bitnet) | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | College of Wooster, box C-2936, Wooster, Ohio, 44691, USA, # 216-287-3212 | | OR: Copernicusstraat 64, 1098 JJ, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 020-944272 | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+