[Peace-discuss] Flag flap

[C. G. Estabrook]

So, you're saying that, since "most white Americans are socialized to be
racists," Dean and Clinton are both "unconscious racists"?

I doubt there's much to choose between the personal attitudes of the two
-- of course neither is a racist in any serious sense. But the Clinton
administration's policies were objectively racist, in that they treated
inequably groups that can be described by color -- e.g., on welfare
reform, incarceration, drug laws.  It's true that the discrimination did
not usually arise because of color (rather class), but there were many
more black women in prison at the end of the Clinton administration than
at the beginning; altho' whites and blacks were using drugs at roughly the
same rate, those imprisoned for drugs in the 90s were overwhelmingly
black; and altho' there are many more poor white people than poor black
people in the US, a larger proportion of blacks were injured by Clinton's
revocation of the New Deal in regard to welfare.

Under those circumstances, blacks rallying to Clinton were as misguided as
feminists who did so -- and on matters of gender, his objectionable
personal attitudes were hardly in doubt (and accusations of rape never
resolved).

But it's straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel to suggest that Dean
has slipped and said a Bad Word while ignoring that he was actually
nodding at -- the sort of reforms (opposed by the Clinton administration)
that are necessary:

"White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag
decals on the back ought to be voting with us because their kids don't
have health insurance either, and their kids need better schools too."

(I do admit that it's probably only campaign rhetoric on Dean's part.)

--CGE


On Mon, 10 Nov 2003, Alfred Kagan wrote:

> Most white Americans are socialized to be racists.  We have to work to
> get rid of the racism we learn as we grow up.  Many African-Americans
> seem to have related well to Clinton.  Perhaps he learned more about
> racism than some of his peers, and perhaps people picked up on that.  
> But Clinton often showed promise on issues.  Unfortunately he rarely
> fulfilled the promise.
> 
> 
> >Would you say Bill Clinton was an "unconscious racist," too?  That sounds
> >to me like the sort of "thought-crime" described in 1984.
> >
> >Dean was not embracing the Confederate flag.  He was awkwardly and
> >jocularly describing a type, with a description he'd used before.  And he
> >was asserting his wish to attract people of this type to vote for him
> >rather than for Republicans by (he wouldn't say this) social democratic
> >policies.
> >
> >You don't seem to have posted your comment to the list.  Do you mean it to
> >remain private?  --CGE
> >
> >
> >On Mon, 10 Nov 2003, Alfred Kagan wrote:
> >
> >  > Trying to cut through this debate is difficult.  We are not
> >>  communicating very well. Dean is not an overt racist, but he is an
> >>  unconscious racist. He may want to overcome this but he has not
> >>  succeeded. Black people can see this for what it is. AWARE needs to
> >>  understand this dynamic.
> >  >
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Al Kagan
> African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
> Africana Unit, Room 328
> University of Illinois Library
> 1408 W. Gregory Drive
> Urbana, IL 61801, USA
> 
> tel. 217-333-6519
> fax. 217-333-2214
> e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
> 
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