What makes you think you're not a racist?

[MrGongGong]

So when intellectual lightweights like Cameron spout on about how "Multiculturalism has failed" what are they REALLY referring to ?
because I bet it's not a well argued philosophical stance ! and has probably more to do with "Baa Baa Green Sheep" myths than anything tangible

[John Skelton]

(I have several reservations about Zizek in general myself, but that's by the way).

So do I (several marginalias worth ).

So when intellectual lightweights like Cameron spout on about how "Multiculturalism has failed" what are they REALLY referring to ?
because I bet it's not a well argued philosophical stance ! and has probably more to do with "Baa Baa Green Sheep" myths than anything tangible

As with Sarkozy (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meaning-Sark...37059&sr=8-1); it's a way of 'addressing' 'concerns' which enables the politician to tap into support for the so-called extremist Right while 'condemning' the so-called extremist Right. (The 'unless we take immigration / Islamic extremism / whatever seriously the whatever the local far-Right groups are called will pick up support and that will be a tragedy for democracy' line).

[MrGongGong]

So following on
Why do we persist in allowing these dimwits who have very little grasp of anything more complex than the tuck shop finances to be in charge of things which we regard (wether they are or not is another matter !) as important ?

The response to Gove at the Schools Prom at the RAH was encouraging though !

[Pilchardman]

As with Sarkozy (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meaning-Sark...37059&sr=8-1); it's a way of 'addressing' 'concerns' which enables the politician to tap into support for the so-called extremist Right while 'condemning' the so-called extremist Right.

Indeed.

So following on
Why do we persist in allowing these dimwits who have very little grasp of anything more complex than the tuck shop finances to be in charge of things which we regard (wether they are or not is another matter !) as important ?

Do we really allow it, though? We have very little to choose between at the ballot box. It's a choice between two varieties of neoliberal, and a small band of opportunists who'll prop up whichever of the main varieties they think will let them have a few Mondeos.

[MrGongGong]

Neoliberal ??

(well Ken Clark maybe )

[John Skelton]

Neoliberal ??

(well Ken Clark maybe )

I think you have a different kind of (neo-)liberalism in mind, GG. Neo-liberalism refers to Reaganite / Thatcherite economic, (anti-: "there is no such thing as Society") social and political policies. Monetarist economics, unregulated markets, privatisation, the dismantling of the public sector and welfare state. The Chicago School of Economics.

Interview with David Harvey http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/lilley190606.html

[jean]

It is not racist for me to say that many religionists are homophobic (or misogynistic, or whatever reactionary aspect it is). And yet there is a tendency to lump the things together, race and culture. That tendency is what Malik and others call Multiculturalism...

I haven't read the article yet, but it seems to me that the term multiculturalism is often used in an attempt to separate race and culture, and to draw attention to, and deplore, the fact that they have been 'lumped together'.

Thus it is possible to argue that multiculturalism is a success and a Good Thing because we all eat chicken tikka masala now. Which produces as one counter-argument among several that this means nothing if we aren't nice to the people who cook it for us.

And it's also possible to argue that multiculturalism is a very Bad Thing indeed because accepting the equality of cultures would involve an acceptance by the host culture of (say) forced marriage and FGM (a position seriously argued for by some in the past, most infamouslly Germaine Greer).

In neither of these cases is cultural practice coterminous with race.

[Pilchardman]

Neoliberal ??

(well Ken Clark maybe )

Liberal in the sense of classical free market economics. Neo, in the sense of the new variety claiming this as their starting point. In reality, of course, they hadn't read much Adam Smith, far less David Ricardo. Nonetheless, that is the language they adopted. Hayak's Road to Serfdom is a forerunner of this movement.

[MrGongGong]

OK
got it
Pilchardman

[Pilchardman]

I think you have a different kind of (neo-)liberalism in mind, GG. Neo-liberalism refers to Reaganite / Thatcherite economic, (anti-: "there is no such thing as Society") social and political policies. Monetarist economics, unregulated markets, privatisation, the dismantling of the public sector and welfare state. The Chicago School of Economics.

Interview with David Harvey http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2006/lilley190606.html

Exactly.

[Pilchardman]

OK
got it
Pilchardman

:)

[Sydney Grew]

The word "racist" is a non-word, an error, a spelling mistake. It grates terribly. The correct word is "racialist."

Enoch Powell: "The adjective 'racialist' has gained a strange sort of currency in recent years and seems to wear all sorts of meanings. I have even once or twice heard it applied to myself."

[Pilchardman]

In neither of these cases is cultural practice coterminous with race.

That's right.

As I said earlier in the thread, race is itself a pretty flaky term, but if we take it as meaning something like skin colour or ethnic origin, then there's nothing at all I can think of as cultural that is coterminous with race. Nor is there anything essential in any culture that coheres to a particular race. Arabs are not necessarily Muslim. Jazz musicians are not necessarily African Americans. The descendants of French people do not need to eat snails in order to be full human beings.

[amateur51]

Forgive me for quoting myself, but reading this phrase, I was impressed again by a sense of a resemblance of anti-racism to witch-hunting. When I was originally feeling my way towards similes a couple of days ago, the most natural resemblance in expression and response seemed to be anti-communist hysteria in the States. And, as a public subject, racism seems to have had more of hysteria about it than might always have been helpful to thinking.

With respect, I can acquire Communism (tho not easily these days ) but I inherit race, by definition

[amateur51]

Of course it's one opinion. It's mine. I only speak for myself.

As to the second sentence, it's important to note that the Multiculturalism I'm talking about has a capital M and isn't the same as multi-racialism. I've heard people saying "multiculturalism has failed", by which they generally mean that multi-racialism has failed. That would be daft view to hold, given these islands' history of immigration since deep into prehistory. It's also probably a racist view. I'm talking about the neoliberal policy of Multiculturalism, as described in my posts, and in the article by Kenan Malik to which I linked.

Oooops, straw man time!