From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Keywords: Greeks race Rooney-foolishness
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:33:27 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <94994@bu.edu>, manes@bu-pub.bu.edu (Michelle Manes) writes:
> Okay, I accept that he meant Caucasian and not white.
> And I accept that Greeks are technically Caucasian.
> But now this is getting complicated.  I'm not an anthropologist
> (no, really Michelle?  you seem so knowledgable...), but
> I would assume Mexicans are also Caucasian.  So they don't
> count for minority representation in the literary canon?
> But they count for minority representation in just about
> every other sphere of American life?  
> -- 
> Michelle Manes		|	"What should I be when I grow up?"

The problem is that our society has gone from being obssessed
with race (segregation formally enforced by the government)
to a society that looked forward "to a day when my children
will be judged by the content of their character and not the
color of their skin" to a society that is again obssessed
with race -- though the victims and oppressors have changed
a bit.

Also, the population of Mexico is partly Indian, partly black,
and partly white.  I don't give a hoot what a person's ethnic
background is, no matter whether they are serving me food or
giving me a traffic ticket.  It is the liberal obssession with
race that is the problem today.  This obssession shows up in
nonsensical crap like Afrocentrism, racial quotas, black theme
dorms (whites need not apply), cash incentives to black students
to raise their GPA to a C+ (talk about an insult -- raise your
GPA to a point that most students would be embarrassed by,
and we'll give you $550 for the semester).  I encourage you
all to read Shelby Steele's _The Content of our Character_
(where the black theme dorms and cash incentive programs are
discussed).

Steele is an English professor at San Jose State University.
He is also black.  (Relevant because of the subject matter
on which he is writing, and his own experiences confronting
racism and victimology).  This series of essays, most of 
which (all of which?) first appeared in Harper's, address
why, almost 30 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the status of blacks in America is actually worse than it
was in 1964 -- and why black enrollment in colleges is
declining, in spite of substantial but demeaning efforts to 
raise black attendance.

I think it no coincidence that in times when the government 
and media become obssessed with issues of race and ethnicity
(the Carter and Bush Administrations) that neo-Nazi movements
rise.  For whites on the bottom, who see that racism and
"racial identity" are considered legitimate by the media and
government, it is only a small step (and a giant boost for
their self-esteem problems) to accept the rest of the neo-Nazi
ideology.  If the economy really goes into a tailspin, and
anything approaching real democracy hits this country, we are
in for deep trouble.  Don't think it can't happen here.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Alcohol prohibition didn't work; drug prohibition doesn't work; gun
prohibition won't work.