I agree with Maggie here. I also think that the issue among the left is not about whether or not race is a "social construct" or not. Rather, what _kind_ of construct is it? Is it a matter of institutions that have been created by the dominant ethnic group over time (segregated housing, jobs, etc., etc., in an interlocking system) that is reinforced by ideology and very difficult to root out (requiring a lot of struggle)? or is it simply a matter of ideology, i.e., what's in people's heads, something that can be solved if we simply reveal that it's wrong and if we use correct forms of speech and discourage others from using incorrect speech? IMHO, some of the PoMos lean toward the latter, which seems very idealist in the philosophical sense of the word. At 12:01 AM 2/22/99 -0500, you wrote: >i'm not sure why everyone keeps attributing the idea of race as a social >construct to post-modernism. in fact, i'm surprised that so many anti-pomos >will give pomoists so much credit! the idea that race is a social construct >has a long a proud history, you can read it in the writing of distinctly non- >pomo types like sojourner truth. in the 60s the idea of race as a social >construct was captured by dozens of groups, hundreds of leaders and lots of >songs. the whole idea of black power was to co-opt blackness away from whites >and frame it with pride. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/JDevine.html
