| DrPhil |
06-10-2010 06:18 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elephant Walk
(Post 1941678)
The more important thing in this situation (and in most situations) is class rather than race. I would guarantee that white Appalachian poor trash kids would get along much better with urban African-American poor than a African-American doctoral student.
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(I don't know what you mean by "get along much better with." Someone can be really nice to you and "some of my best friends are Black," but call you n*gger if they think their father lost his coal mining job to your Blackass father. And try to find ways to re-align the poor and working class white man's status quo. That perceived sense of group racial threat is what racism and discrimination are about. It isn't about prejudice and who gets along with whom).
So, in general, you would be sadly mistaken because this is about something more substantive than poor Black people and poor white people listening to rap, playing basketball, and speaking slang together. Ya know, the stuff that white Appalachian "poor trash" (stupid phrase) and poor urban Blacks could potentially have in common.
What Engels and Marx (and others) predicted regarding substantive class alliances that supercede race never happened.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elephant Walk
(Post 1941678)
Walter E. Williams cited a study done in his book "The State Against Blacks" which showed that a middle class white resident would rather have a middle-class African American move into their neighborhood than a poor white person. Something to think about.
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His book didn't "show" that as a definitive statement. That isn't the intent of such research. It sparks discussion and debate and offers different explanations. Either way, Walter E. Williams is a celebrated scholar but he is part of a longstanding debate among scholars regarding this topic. His books and other research are to be placed within their proper contexts. Dr. Williams knows that. Among the context for "The State Against Blacks" is that his book was written in 1984 by an economist (big surprise that an economist believes and therefore "found" that social class has greater standing?) with a particular sample.
Similarly, whenever people cite William Julius Wilson's "Declining Significance of Race" as proof of anything, I ask them whether they actually READ it and any of Wilson's other research. If they had, they would see that Wilson wasn't saying that race was less salient but instead that social class was increasing in significance. Social scientists already knew that because race and social class are highly correlated (there's no coincidence that Blacks are disproportionately poor and undereducated). |
