Imagine how it would sound reversed--"I would hope that a wise white male would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman." Pretty bigoted and dumb, right? Right.

Well, I'm glad you've convinced yourself of the rightness of your own argument.

Her point - which was really not all that complicated or earth-shattering except in the funhouse-mirror world that passes for racial dialogue in this country - is that a woman of color would have experiences that would potentially give her greater insight and sensitivity to the plight of the least fortunate than someone of a different background. If she were "wise." Or so she "would hope."

The idea that such a statement can even rhetorically be put on a par with an assertion of white supremacy just shows how blinkered we are in this country when it comes to the lives of our fellow citizens of color. I

You're, obviously, well within your rights to be offended by what omooex says to you, and equally within your rights to make multiple posts, one after another, about how horrible and unfair it is and what a terrible person he is and how very very butthurt it makes you.

You're on shakier ground trying to equate it with prejudice codified in law for centuries, and perpetuated in practice, to this day, by people who look a lot like you and me. I've been on the receiving end of real anger just for the color of my skin... and while I didn't like it, I couldn't work up much real outrage. A lifetime of privilege and all I have to put up with is some fucker in my face now and then?

Maybe we can walk around East Oakland someday and you can explain to folks there all about how unjust it was for this Colombian/Palestinian dude to have been so mean to you on the internets.

got it.

got it.

there isn't any point in discussing it unless there is an issue of "power plus prejudice".

A point of great and challenging subtlety, which will get steamrollered at the first mention of Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr.

Also: "doon-coon?"

in the privacy of their polling booths, the good majority of Americans chose a black man over a white man

Yeah, the majority of voting Americans did... however, the majority of white voters chose McCain.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#USP00p1

I know it's technically accurate in a dictionary sense to describe any accounting of race as "racist"

I think I know what you were trying to say, Scientician, but this whole idea of redefining "racism" as meaning "any accounting of race" is straight out of the FOXNEWS playbook.

We're being sold the idea that racism and all of its lingering social, psychological and developmental effects magically disappeared at some moment between "I have a Dream" and Tiger's first Masters. It's crap. Ignoring the effects of race and gender privilege, pretending we are "colorblind" when the lived experience of millions puts the lie to that notion, is just part of the new, genteel supremacy.

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Others simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench.

That assertion - that we will be a color-blind society only when people of color stop mentioning the fact of prejudice and hatred in this country - is one of the key elements of our new 21st century racism. It allows bigots to hide behind the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And it's every bit as hateful as the more overt slurs against Latin@s in general... but with more deniability.