a question that I know has puzzled you and others for some time.
Mostly I've been willing to stand back and think "Well, she stepped in it" and let others do the responding (although I do tend to agree with their points) but I do want to point out that "puzzled" isn't the right word, exactly. While you might not know it from online discourse, there is plenty of resistance to the types of analytic tools fen call on when they discuss racism in America itself. There are huge numbers (the majority, probably) of Yanks who these particular Yanks might (and do) complain are denying all (but the most blatant) racial problems in their own country, and in particular in their own non-Deep-South regions.
If one goes into white middle-class America outside of the South and starts talking about race, the response one gets is almost identical to the tee to the types of responses sometimes heard from the British faction online.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-27 02:13 pm (UTC)Mostly I've been willing to stand back and think "Well, she stepped in it" and let others do the responding (although I do tend to agree with their points) but I do want to point out that "puzzled" isn't the right word, exactly. While you might not know it from online discourse, there is plenty of resistance to the types of analytic tools fen call on when they discuss racism in America itself. There are huge numbers (the majority, probably) of Yanks who these particular Yanks might (and do) complain are denying all (but the most blatant) racial problems in their own country, and in particular in their own non-Deep-South regions.
If one goes into white middle-class America outside of the South and starts talking about race, the response one gets is almost identical to the tee to the types of responses sometimes heard from the British faction online.