[Peace-discuss] Would It Kill Us to Apologize to Iran for the Coup?

[Robert Naiman]

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 10:24 AM, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 8:58 AM, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm definitely not in favor of refusal to recognize privilege. But I
>> presume that in a non-racist society, if everyone woke up one day and
>> discovered that by some mysterious process, a chunk of their neighbors
>> were disproportionately excluded from the economic benefits that the
>> society had to offer, people would move to address the disparity.
>
> You gotta be shitting me, Robert.  Surely you jest?  You have neighbors
> right here on this mailing list who are disproportionately excluded from the
> economic benefits that society has to offer, and it has nothing to do with
> race, and no one on this list is doing a damned thing about it or is GOING
> to do a damned thing about it.  Whenever I talk about poverty, lack of
> health insurance, etc., from a personal perspective, I get a blank stare
> from the limousine liberals.  "Get a life," they say, or "Be warmed and
> filled," to quote the Good Book.  I daresay that most of the readers of this
> list care more about people in Pakistan than they do about their neighbors,
> at least in terms of doing anything pragmatic to help them.
>
> I'll probably live to regret that comment, but there it is.

I hear and appreciate your anger and frustration, but I don't really
follow what you're saying. Are there "limousine liberals" on this
list? Are there people on this list who say, "Be warmed and filled?"

How one should apportion one's "caring," if that is indeed the right
way to think about it, is a complicated question. It's certainly true
that many of us have a disproportionate focus on the impact of US
foreign policy, at the expense, perhaps, of the impact of US domestic
policy. Is that a moral failing? I don't think so - because we live in
a society where there is, obviously, far too little concern about the
impact of - and even knowledge of - US foreign policy, relative to its
impact. Of course, it is also true that there is too little concern
about the impact of domestic policy, and one could focus only on that
and never run out of stuff to do. But for some group of people to have
a disproportionate focus on US foreign policy I don't think is a bad
thing, and in fact, at this stage in our history, I think it's a
necessary thing. That certainly doesn't justify ignoring domestic
impacts, and it seems obvious to me that collectively at least, this
list doesn't comprise a group of people who do so, judging from the
concerns and organizing efforts that are represented here on a regular
basis.

>> So, the fact that such disparities persist in our society, and the
>> fact that we don't move successfully to redress them, to me is
>> evidence enough of racism; no other story is necessary.
>
> You ain't read enough stories, apparently.  There are many types of
> disparities in our society, and many complex causes of such disparities.
> Racism is an important one, but it is only one.

Indeed. It is one, very important, instance, among others.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org