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 e9HNvv908581; Tue, 17 Oct 2000 19:57:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 19:57:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <002f01c03896$2995b1e0$9aeeffd1@cbking> 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: "Catherine King" <cbking@flash.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:199] Re: Defining Our Own Racism X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3541 Lines: 76 Hello RMalcus: I don't think you are rambling at all. Your identity as an African American in an American society **at the general level** is quite the same as the identity of Irish Americans, or Japanese Americans, or Asian Americans, or Jewish Americans. Because America is not an ethnic order but a political one--by definition it holds many ethnicities, religions, races, etc.,--under the symbol of an equality of law, judicial review, and due process, we all live in the tension between our familial-ethnic-religious roots and this general order under law shared by all equally. It's not "one or the other," but a tension we all live in between the two orders of being. It's confusing for all of us, especially when most of us do not understand it. The difference with African Americans is, of course, the proximation of history and the inclusion of slavery **after** the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Constitution, and the subsequent history of the recalcitrant racism that followed that inclusion. It seems to me that, precisely because of the particular history of African Americans and your linked-but-opposed relationship with our self-defined "white" American history, your loyalty to what it means to be an African American here and now would naturally be stronger and more defensive of that identity at this point in time than other ethnic identities that have had a somewhat less troublesome past with regards to their ethnic heritage. Jewish people have a different, but similarly strong, defensive identity among their other ways of celebrating their identity and history. Like African Americans, under the conditions of history, and particular indiscretions notwithstanding, how could they not? In other words, the tension between living as an African American in the tension between your particular past (and unfortunately also your present, I think you will agree?) and your identity with living in a free culture under the tenets of the Constitution which we all have embraced de facto, is heightened for you in ways that it is not for white Americans whose relatives came here and were born here under vastly different social and political conditions. My own experience tells me that many white Americans are oblivious to this identity tension for African Americans, or for anyone who hasn't normally experienced wasp hegemony. I might ask where we-they would be if the tables were reversed. But you are hardly rambling by expressing that tension and the frustration you feel by living in it while trying to create a dialogue with others about this most tension filled subject. Regards to all, Catherine King ---- Original Message ----- From: <RMALCUS@aol.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 9:32 PM Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:195] Re: o Karen Re: Defining Our Own Racism > I really do not know. When we engage in dialogues of any sort that have > personal meaning for us, I think we try to navigate through these > conversations trying to make sure that we and our points of views are not > threatened or disregarded. All that I know is discussions about race demand > as much care and sensitivity as any conversations we might have with our > significant others. The point that I am trying to make is that my identity > as a human being, regardless of what others might say, is intimately tied to > my experiences as an African American in American society. Please, forgive > me if I am again rambling. >
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