From: chrisb@seachg.uucp (Chris Blask)
Subject: Re: ARF on NAAWP and Black Toys
Reply-To: chrisb@seachg.UUCP (Chris Blask)
Organization: Sea Change Corporation, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 21:46:59 GMT

A note of mediation, if I may.

As a dyed in the wool liberal (interpret all you want), I absolutely abhor
racism, but at the same time I can see (at least one of) the points of our
NAAWP friend.  The issue is serious enough that it deserves serious
consideration, not just knee-jerk reactions from either side.  Ignoring or
mishandling this issue leads to phenomenon like David Duke, where otherwise
rational people seem to act like bigots.  I'm going to make three comments,
on History, Present Reality and Ultimate Goal; please read them all before
flaming.

History:	There can be no doubt that 'black' Americans in history
have been treated _very_ badly.  Slavery, degradation... absolutely no
excuse or purpose for it.  However, 'white' people are not the ultimate
evil here; slavery has been practiced since the dawn of Man and has always
been unjust.  The root of the problem with the more modern version of
slavery was that it was colour coded.  Much historical slavery was of the
victor over the vanquished, and often the slave had some way of entering
normal society, or at least his children.  In the modern version, the human
race was divided into groups, white, black .........., and _inherent_
differences were attached.  White people were considered superiour (by
themselves, but they were in power so that's all that mattered), while the
other races were considered genetically inferior.  Now there was no hope of
integration, the results are what we see, and a further discussion of this
point would make its own book.

Present reality:	All of the original players are gone.  None of us
can be held accountable for the actions of our ancestors, making 'seeing
Justice done' virtually impossible.  Nevertheless, we now have (roughly)
two groups, 'white' and 'black', with different average characteristics.
Many black folks are directly descended from slaves (not many generations
back), and do not have a long family history of success in business,
education, or a lot of the other things average white folks may have.  The
immediate reaction is "Well I pulled myself up, why can't...".  Well, black
folks DO pull themselves up.  It's the scale of the thing that is missed.
The percentage of people in 'black' communities with a family history of
'success' is _much_ lower than that of their white counterparts, not
through laziness or genetic inferiority, but historical inertia.

Ultimate goal:		The ultimate goal of anti-racists is to eliminate
laws and attitudes which treat races differently.  These laws include
anti-discrimination laws!  Any time you create a rule which deals with
people by race, you perpetuate racism.  That said, we have to deal with the
Present Reality and, in an imperfect world use what we can NEVER FORGETTING
THAT THE IDEA IS TO ELIMINATE THE LAWS WE ARE MAKING!  In a perfect world
there would be no problem with magazines "Ebony" and "Ivory", nor would
there be much demand for them.  The time when groups like the NAACP should
go is when they no longer help achieve this goal, but become the problem
(which may be soon, I don't know).  Laws and institutions which are
self-fulfilling (like many Unions once the labour abuse is over) should be
gotten rid of (as long as the abuses don't return).


My  Point Being:	A lot of 'white' folks are subconsciously confused
about this issue.  They suffer white liberal guilt, feeling that they
should be nice to black folks, which of course is discrimination as well
(you are X race, therefore I will treat you Y).  They live with the paradox
of "Ebony" magazine, knowing that they cannot buy "Ivory", and after a
while they get downright indignant and tired of apologizing for their
great-grandfathers.  The result of this is David Duke and the NAAWP,
reactionary events feeding off the confusion and resentment, as opposed to
addressing the issue (I know nothing of the NAAWP, so forgive me if it is
legitimate).  

The whole process is like surgery.  To fix something, you have to do all
kinds of awful things (create discriminatory laws and institutions), then 
slowly remove those tools and stitches, until only a healthy body is left 
behind.

-chris blask