From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: Re: Racist/Sexist Role Models
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 22:19:28 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity von Uniland, College Park
Originator: clin@signal.eng.umd.edu


In article <1992Nov19.210732.13959@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, montas@stable.ecn.purdue.edu (Hubert J Montas) writes:
[article deleted]
>     Unfortunately, the current cultural status of the western world is one
>in which race and sex make a lot of difference. This culture is centered
>around a patriarchal system with being white as a symbol of redemption. The
>vast majority of role models in this culture are white males, although 50%
>of the people are women and more than 10% are black. Now, we have seen above
>that without appropriate role models, there is no possibility of emancipation
>and thence of freedom. As long as the role models represent white males, nobody
>thinks that anybody else is worth anything. The white male is, according to the
>models, intelligent, reasonable, strong, humanitarian, a kind of Christ really,
>aspiring to be God. The woman on the other hand is submissive, a little dumb,
>passive, and full of love. The black is lazy, violent, poor and totally irrat-
>ional, except for very few exceptions. Now, these exceptional blacks are not
>blacks, they don't smell bad, they just happen to look black, but they are 
>really white (no shit! this happened to both my girlfriend (Ethiopian) and I
>(Haitian), we got all sorts of people telling us we're not black! Now, what's
>so wrong with being black that we shouldn't be?).

    Two things bother me about this commentary.   First, the issue seems to
boil down to "black and white", that somehow there are no other ethnicities 
that matter.    On the one hand, blacks are probably the most prominent
minorities in this country.   T.V. shows, movies, commercials, sports,
etc. all have blacks, and therefore, it seems that blacks want to serve
their own interests, which seems reasonable.    However, I hardly ever
hear of anyone complaining that the Hispanic (Latino) community is being
unfairly treated, or that the American Indian community is being unfairly
treated.   Are blacks just as interested in helping out other minorities?
Or, are they irrelevant?

     The other issue is role models.   I recall that in China, they
used to display an idealistic Chinese who worked hard, believed in
Communist ideals, etc.    I don't think this produced large numbers
of hard working Chinese people.  In fact, it was actually more effective
when the government allowed certain economic freedoms, and the productivity
in agriculture really went up because the peasants could make money
for themselves.    People speak a great deal about role models, but
how effective have they been?   One could argue that a country like
England, which is predominantly white, and also increasing in economic
trouble, should have all the motivation they need to become more
productive.   Why isn't it working there?

    Anyway, the problem is all very complicated, and something that is
not going to be resolved easily.

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu
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