From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: What is real racism? (Re: Was: Why rish asians should vote Republican)
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 04:08:48 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.023033.3440@hspice.portal.com> georgew@hspice.portal.com
(George Wu) writes:
>>And then, Mr. Wu translates my condemnation of Chinese culture into
>>"hating a man without knowing him".
>     It seems quite logical to me.  You have condemned an extremely large
>group of people.  You can't possibly have met every person who holds that
>cultures' values.
...
>>Let's apply Mr. Wu's reasoning to Nazism, a virulent subculture of
>>Western society, and the Khmer Rouge, a political group.
>>Then, Mr. Wu basically says, "Hatred of African-Americans, Nazis, or even
>>the Khmer Rouge are all the same.  You don't know every member of the group.
>>You just hate them all."
>     Some of the intrinsic policies of the Nazi Party include anti-Semitism
>and genocide.  By definition, a Nazi believes in killing Jews.  What
>comparable belief is intrinsic to one raised in Chinese society?  Chinese
>culture may be difficult to define, as any culture is, but you're the only

We can apply Mr. Wu's reasoning here.  He claims that in order to judge
a culture, you must have met every single member of that culture.

Has Mr. Wu met every single Nazi?  I'm sure that he hasn't.  Mr. Wu cannot
condemn Nazis because he can't make a judgement about them (since he hasn't
met everyone of them).  To reiterate, Mr. Wu does not believe the following
statement "By definition, a Nazi believes in killing Jews."

By the way, I condemn Nazis.  I haven't met every one of them; actually,
I haven't even met one.

>person I've ever heard attempt to ascribe child abuse as an intrinsic belief
>of all members of Chinese society.  (I beg off describing the Khymer Rouge's
>beliefs due to my own ignorance on the topic.)

I do not believe that infanticide is committed by all members of Chinese
culture.  As someone else noted, that something is not practiced by
all members of that culture does preclude it from being "intrinsic" to that
culture.

However, infanticide is much more a part of Chinese culture than Western
culture.  Not all women in Chinese culture are treated poorly, but the
treatment of women in Chinese culture is much worse than in Western culture.

>[something about the need for data points]

Let me put this another way.  If tomorrow, the gov'ts of the USA
and China were wiped, what kind of gov't would the people in those
countries erect?

I believe that the people in the USA would erect a democratic gov't,
again.  I don't have statistical information to back me up.  I have
not met every member of American society.  However, because I have an
understanding of American society, I believe that this is a reasonable
conclusion.

Similarly, I believe that the people in China would again erect a
totalitarian gov't because their culture is so oppresive toward
individuality (and just plain leaving people alone).  I don't have
statistical information to back me up.  I have not met every member of
American society.  However, because I have an understanding of Chinese
society, I believe that this a reasonable conclusion.

>[criticism -> racism]

This conclusion does not indicate racism.  It indicates criticism
and condemnation of a culture.  Culture is not genetics.  I am not
criticizing ethnicity; I am not slighting skin color.

People like Mr. Wu and his Chinese-cu friends are apt to criticize,
not culture, but a person's skin color.  They think that African-Americans
are inferior because they are black.  They think that Hispanics are
inferior because they are brown.  They would not hire an African-American
because her skin is too dark.  They want women who are virgins.

That's real bigotry.  That's real racism.  That's real sexism.

Again, Mr. Wu and his Chinese-cu friends believe that culture = genetics.
They insist that because a person is Chinese-ge, she must also be Chinese-cu.
This is a belief shared by Nazis, Klansmen, and rednecks; i.e. because
you are Chinese-ge, you are expected to do the Chinese-cu thing.

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Jinsei no imi wa nan desu ka.                Sister, can you      |   \|  |`
Shitte itara oshiete kuremasen ka.           spare a coin?        |    | -+-
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Copyright 1992.  Disclaimer:  1 + 1 = 3                           |
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Xref: sparky soc.culture.asian.american:10192 alt.discrimination:4693