Mellow out, Mon!
Posted on 09/03/2008 11:05:12 AM PDT by forkinsocket
George Steiner, 79, said he believed racism was inherent in everyone and that racial tolerance was merely skin deep.
The playwright and critic Bonnie Greer labelled him a "cranky old man", while Muslim groups accused him of an "offensive and lazy" racist generalisation.
But other academics defended his honesty and right to express such views, saying they were a valuable addition to an important debate.
"It's very easy to sit here, in this room, and say 'racism is horrible'," he said from his house in Cambridge, where he has been Extraordinary Fellow at Churchill College since 1969.
"But ask me the same thing if a Jamaican family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day. Or if an estate agent comes to my house and tells me that because a Jamaican family has moved next door the value of my property has fallen through the floor. Ask me then!"
Mr Steiner, whose Jewish family fled to America from Paris before the Nazi invasion of 1940, adds: "In all of us, in our children, and to maintain our comfort, our survival, if you scratch beneath the surface, many dark areas appear. Don't forget it."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I think he is speaking of CULTURALISM, not really racism. I am something of a culturalist myself.
Mellow out, Mon!
L
Yeah I think you hit it right on the head - it’s not racism, sexism, etc, as much as culturalism.
It’s really “classism” not racism. A lot of white folks don’t want “white trash” living next to them either.
He has a right to his opinion I guess. Perhaps he had a bad experience. However, this was reality for my mother. We had a truly hostile neighbor until my father showed up at his doorstep one day. I do not know what he said to him but the same neighbor came and apologized to my mother and asked to ‘bury the hachet’ *LOL*
The thing is that races are a little bit different from each other. Our abilites, behaviors, and appearances differ slightly or greatly dependent on your point of view. These differences naturally drive us apart but human behavior can change and often does for the sake of lasting cultural peace. That road to peace can't always be peaceful because with any compromise, you give something up you value for something else. Change is painful and sometimes it is necessary and sometimes it is not.
I think racist feelings explains tribalism and the fact that throughout the majority of history most countries have been racially homogenous. The one thing we do have to watch out for is that when we artificially lift up one race above another (affirmative action) or constantly degrade and blame a race for other races' problems(like how the press constantly attacks whites).
White trash, black trash, and hispanic trash are all harmful, in my opinion. They share the same similarities. The all try to dominate a neighborhood instead of respecting others’ property, engage in criminal behavior and let their own property deteriorate thus bringing down the value and quality of the neigborhood as a whole.
BUMP!
As someone said above, a lot of it is “classism” or better said culturalism.
I recall a vivid example of this in college, when I lived in an on-campus house, divided into apartments.
In the single 2 bedroom apartment below mine, an African (that is from Africa) family lived. They spoke with a delightful accent, and even with their slightly bratty small boy, were always very kind and nice—and were literate and well educated—the husband after all was attending college. Later however when they moved (they were forced out, because apparently they didn’t pay their rent...) they left the apartment utterly trashed.
Soiled disposable diapers were piled in the closets, the kitchen was totally dirty with spilled food, etc., etc. I knew one of the maintenance guys who cleaned the place, and he said he’d never (ever) seen an apartment left like such a total pig sty as that place. Knowing them, this shocked me.
When reflecting on it I realized though, these folks likely had parents or grandparents who lived in huts—without proper clothing, education or hygene, in an African tribal environment. In other words, despite their literacy and education, these were people whose culture was not far removed in time and habits from the stone age.
If I were the good British doctor, I wouldn’t want some YOB types with 6 guys in the house, playing Gothic Rock all the time...as these are similarly uncouth people culturally than the ones he mentions. But it’s culture (or the lack thereof), not color which is key.
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