[5184] in Central_America
Re: New quotes for Fri Nov 19
sethf@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sethf@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Nov 19 23:49:35 1993
Well, if we're both missing points, I suppose it's just one more
proof that the world is divided into Us (==good) and Them (==bad) :-).
"Don't twist my words"? I quoted them exactly, and clearly
marked my changes. If you assert "I assume men to be guilty until proven
innocent ...", why is this different from "I assume blacks to be guilty
until proven innocent ...". Or is the essence your rebuttal that, due to
overall privilege, the proper analog is instead "I assume whites to be
guilty until proven innocent ..." (this is better?)?. This is YOUR
phrasing. By the way, how global does privilege have to be? I know
quite a bit about neighborhoods inhabited by mostly older Jews and
younger blacks, and I don't think the aged people living literally in
fear of their lives are much comforted by knowing that their social
status is greater.
Normally, I regard this sort of argument as a right-wing
canard, precisely for the reason I bring it up here - it uses appeals to
be pain and suffering to try to shut up - silence, if you will - any
dispute over what's being said. And what is being put forth is typically
a completely race, sex, or class-based indictment, wrapped up in an
appeal to fear, suspicion, anxiety, mistrust.
I haven't denied any pain exists. Rather, it is the exploitation
of it that is in question.
> And you have still not explained why you think it's more important
> for the privileged members of society to be treated very very fairly
> than it is for everyone else to be treated just a little more like humans.
Talk about twisting words!!! I phrased my statement in the
negative - to be clearer, along the lines of "It is dangerous to
discount injustice done to individual people because of group
memberships". Too much of this gets you right back where you started.
That should be obvious.
