Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e93EWL922849; Tue, 3 Oct 2000 10:32:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 10:32:21 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <f9.341a44d.270b47da@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Freemannola@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:100] Re: Welcome and Introduction X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 118 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 1169 Lines: 20 Re: What is race? Race is a "specious idea" (thanks to the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond for their excellent analysis). It is a political concept, refined and sanctioned by the church and the state in the 16th century to justify buying and selling human beings as commodities (a new and different level of slavery). Over the last few hundred years, we have all been socialized and taught to believe that race is biological/theological/ontological. It is none of these! It is simply a system created by Europeans and Anglo/Americans to privilege people who came to be called white. Once we understand the history of race -- especially how it moves and changes to accomodate new realities (ie gradually making Irish, Catholics, Jews, "Hispanics" white so as to keep the construct of privilege in place), we can better analyze how and why institutions and systems work. None of us need to spend time defending this race construct. But I do believe we must take the time to understand, analyze and reflect on how race and racism impacts our lives -- individually and collectively -- so that we can work together to undo it. Margery Freeman
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