1> Concepts/words are not neutral, they are contested weapons which social
forces use in struggles for power. There is no such thing as an
"objective"/politically neutral linguistics, and meanings are not static.
This is especially true of a loaded concept like racism.
2> From Deleuze and Guattari, A THOUSAND PLATEAUS, CAPITALISM AND
SCHIZOPHRENIA, PP. 469-470
"MINORITIES. Ours is becoming the age of minorities. We have seen several
times that minorities are not necessarily defined by the smallness of their
numbers but rather by becoming a line of fluctuation, in other words, by the
gap that seperates them from this or that axiom constituting a redundant
majority... Nonwhites would recieve no adequate expression by becoming a
new yellow or black majority, an infinite denumerable set. What is proper
to the minority is to assert a power of the nondenumerable, even if that
minority is composed of a single member. That is the formula for
multiplicities. Minority as a universal figure, or becoming
everybody/everything. Woman: we all have to become that, whether we are
male or female. Nonwhite: we all have to become that, whether we are white,
yellow, or black."
3> In other words, the minority is defined by difference from a NORM, and
that norm in our society exists as the WHITE ADULT MALE. Essential to
institutionalized racism & sexism is the measuring of a person's difference
and Otherness from this norm; it is for that reason impossible for a black
person to be racist in the same way as a white person, because the force of
this norm (and the socio-historical conditions that have given risen to the
norm) is not on their side. On the other hand, it is always possible, even
for a white adult male, to enter into a process of becoming, and through
this process to become something other than the norm. What is at stake here
is Otherness itself, the power to not have a "fixed identity" but rather to
experience life as an infinite journey. And at this point I'd like to say
something controversial: you don't have to BE black to make techno, but one
might say that, musically, you have to become-black in order to make techno,
in otherwords, you have to become part of the tradition of music which comes
out of black culture and speak/sing in a language that is not the language
of the majority. (Of course there are other becomings, becomings-woman,
becomings-animal, becomings-molecular...) a funky African rhythm, sensuous
strings, a bird floating through the heavens, little particles of sound that
hover in the air...
/cyborg k
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
