[Discuss] Discuss Digest, Vol 58, Issue 10 on racism.

[ingegnue at riseup.net (IngeGNUe)]

On 03/16/16 19:53, Stuart Conner wrote:
> 
> What political correctness is is some group or groups' effort to gain advantage over other groups and enforce thinking and acting a certain way if not by guilt then by coercion by means of ridicule and lawsuits. Just because you believe what someone says is wrong doesn't mean they don't have the right to think it and say it. 
> Freedom people!
> Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for equality, not speech policing nor affirmative action, and certainly not more labels on people.  Because that continues tensions and makes new ones. 
> 
> Political correctness and affirmative action are just tyranny and racism with nice sounding names and enforced to the benefit of anyone except crackers. 
> Still racism. 
> But apparently racism is ok if its practiced against the right group(s). 
> 
> Stu
> 
> Sent from my phone

I was not expecting philosophy time on this list, but I'm game.

Might does not make right. We must ask ourselves, whose freedom? And
freedom to do what?

My definition of freedom doesn't permit people violating other's
freedom. Yes, the argument is it violates other people's freedom when a
culture perpetuates racism, and that some of that perpetuation happens
to be symbolic. There is a two way relationship between symbols and the
material world. For example, there is a causal relationship between
racist attitudes, and police battering black people.

The argument could be that some things are less causal than others. Word
choices may both imply or create undesirable attitudes, if you accept
that language choice has an effect on the mind, and the mind on language
choice.

To complain of censorship for being confronted and told not to use
certain words? The censorship imposed by the stick is much worse.

In the case presented, words are loaded with meaning, and the meaning
conveyed may be different from the one intended. Oppressed groups, in
this case African Americans (because this hearkens back to slavery),
know what it means for them. Generally speaking with regard to oppressed
peoples, the expression of certain phrases, along with attitudes, are
red flags and irritants and tells them something about how welcome they
would be in that given social setting.

Interested readers searching for supporting evidence of this argument
may avail themselves of the already existing, voluminous resources about
racism, rather than duke it out on the mailing list. Indeed, whatever
has been posted thus far (including my own writing here) cannot even
hold a candle to the books that have been written on the subject.

Racism: RTFM? :P

That's all I have to say about that. :)