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"Racism"
Topic Started: Jun 5 2008, 07:02 PM (81 Views)
DĂșnedain
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There's a good discussion going on at VFR right now concerning the "racism" word and whether or not it should even be used by traditionalist conservatives.

Should the word "racism" be shelved altogether?

There are a lot of good points made by either side, but I think I agree most the comments left by Erech, specifically this one:

Quote:
 
With regard to your latest entry on racism, I wrote in my essay "Racism":

Some aspects of the racism embodied in the West--particularly during its Colonial epoch--were correct and justified, insofar as they partook of a mythotype by which to frame the mountains of real data discovered by Western explorers of the globe beginning in the late 15th century (and exponentially expanding in following centuries) about obvious factual inferiorities of non-Western cultures--inferiorities on a variety of levels, ranging from the technological, to the scientific, to the artistic, to the social, to the ethical, to the political, and finally to the philosophical.

Note: I realize, as your entry recognizes, that "racism" was a later ideological construct, and my quote is therefore being anachronistic. This brings up the question you raised in your entry: should we ditch the term altogether? If we do not ditch the term, as you suggest, how can we avoid the anachronism of judging--both favorably and unfavorably--the behaviors and thoughts of past eras that involved the contact between West and non-West, and of framing that judgment by use of that term? More piquantly, if we retain "racism" as a useful term, how can we avoid the implications of the concept of a "good racism" that would be included within the more generic term?


I also agree with another commenter (Scott K) who said that using words like "anti-white" to describe the very real racial bigotry of people like Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, etc. are more than sufficient substitutes to the ideologically-charged word "racism."
"I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen."

~ Martin Luther
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