07-01-2008, 08:46 AM
Kapohocat -- re Berkeley, I don't know when you were there of course. Kids and cliques are there as everywhere.
Perhaps I should have said, in the Ph.D. program I was in, in the 1990's, multicultural issues and post-colonialism were BIG topics. I spent years thinking about all this ... thus I was just using my own example to say Bob is drawing conclusions about the people here that aren't justified.
I would hardly say that Berkeley is a perfect place.
I think the quote you presented is interesting, but I don't automatically accept the premise. The premise is that each individual must accept guilt for the deeds of their race -- even beyond their own ancestors, which I would also question.
In my own genealogy, which I can trace back to the Vikings who founded Dublin and the Irish they conquered, it's interesting to see that I'm descended from both the rape and pillagers and the innocent victims. Very common I'm sure, because how often do the two intermarry? That was the norm.
However, my family did not oppress anyone in Hawai'i ... and anyone who insists that I take on guilt for what ALL Caucasians in power, anywhere and everywhere, have done, is to my mind, promoting another kind of racism. To reject racism is to reject being labeled by race and embrace an identity of "human being."
OK, so if I were Catholic (for example), and believed in the sin of Adam and Eve as original and tainting all human beings, I could walk around under that burden too. But I choose not to.
Such small problem that I do have with folks here is that a segment of the people cannot get beyond our ethnic differences. Also, that those who feel disenfranchised and powerless are in some cases being taught to find strength and identity in the anti-haole movement. I wish people could be PRO their own identity without having to be ANTI people who never, individually, did anything to them.
Perhaps I should have said, in the Ph.D. program I was in, in the 1990's, multicultural issues and post-colonialism were BIG topics. I spent years thinking about all this ... thus I was just using my own example to say Bob is drawing conclusions about the people here that aren't justified.
I would hardly say that Berkeley is a perfect place.
I think the quote you presented is interesting, but I don't automatically accept the premise. The premise is that each individual must accept guilt for the deeds of their race -- even beyond their own ancestors, which I would also question.
In my own genealogy, which I can trace back to the Vikings who founded Dublin and the Irish they conquered, it's interesting to see that I'm descended from both the rape and pillagers and the innocent victims. Very common I'm sure, because how often do the two intermarry? That was the norm.
However, my family did not oppress anyone in Hawai'i ... and anyone who insists that I take on guilt for what ALL Caucasians in power, anywhere and everywhere, have done, is to my mind, promoting another kind of racism. To reject racism is to reject being labeled by race and embrace an identity of "human being."
OK, so if I were Catholic (for example), and believed in the sin of Adam and Eve as original and tainting all human beings, I could walk around under that burden too. But I choose not to.
Such small problem that I do have with folks here is that a segment of the people cannot get beyond our ethnic differences. Also, that those who feel disenfranchised and powerless are in some cases being taught to find strength and identity in the anti-haole movement. I wish people could be PRO their own identity without having to be ANTI people who never, individually, did anything to them.