(no subject)

[nolly]

Will Shetterly says:
If we fight racism, we're accepting the enemy's battleground and the war will last longer. I think the way to end racism is to ignore it and fight poverty. I agree that racism is a tool of the rich. Its purpose is to distract us from the real issue: privilege.

Comments

[meep.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, I agree it should be poverty that needs to be "attacked".

But I don't think poverty is due to lack of privilege, unless by privilege one means having educated parents who don't abuse you or drugs and who have steady work. I've got blood relatives who range from having been on welfare at one point (not now, I think) to rather wealthy, and we've all come from intact families with supportive parents and okay educational opportunities (I do admit that NCSSM is well above the opportunity most people get -- but then, most people wouldn't have been able to take a fractal geometry class.) Among my cousins, let's see -- my sisters and I are the most educated, and two of us make more money than the rest (my other sister is still in medical school, but I'm sure she'd have no problem making money once she becomes a doctor.)

Or, unless one is referring to global poverty, in which case the privilege might relate to not being run by a kleptocracy, where all foreign aid gets consumed by the rulers and the common people have no protections whatsoever. Huh, wait -- corrupt govt siphoning off money to boondoggles benefiting cronies -- reminds me of Louisiana. So maybe there =is= a common thread.

[redbird]

My immediate reaction to that summary is "Will Shetterly is white."

I like WIll, but this feels uncomfortably like the endless ways that women are told that we can worry about sexism after we've dealt with $other_problem.

Racism is a real problem, though in this country race and class are entwined.