{"id":1325,"date":"2015-06-19T23:06:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T03:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2015-06-19T23:06:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T03:06:40","slug":"the-charge-of-racism-is-eurocentric-bigotry-an-academic-leftist-weighs-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/06\/the-charge-of-racism-is-eurocentric-bigotry-an-academic-leftist-weighs-in.html","title":{"rendered":"The CHARGE of “Racism” is Eurocentric Bigotry?! An Academic Leftist Weighs In"},"content":{"rendered":"

An email from “Leon Marlensky,” the only consistent leftist remaining, as far as he is concerned. Here, he sounds off a bit over the Charleston, SC coverage. I have reprinted this here with Leon’s permission.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Jack:<\/p>\n

In the wake of the tragedy in Charleston, SC, the \u201cR\u201d word, predictably, has been thrown around with abandon.<\/p>\n

If this doesn\u2019t convince you of the soundness<\/em> of my verdict\u2014I won\u2019t say truth, <\/em>for I refuse to appropriate a Eurocentric epistemological\/metaphysical fiction that continues to be used to vanquish the indigenous conceptual resources of the minds of those that it colonizes\u2014that the right has decisively defeated the progressive agenda, I don\u2019t know what else will.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of considerations\u2014<\/em>as I\u2019ve explained to you before, I prefer not speak of reasons, <\/em>for the latter is a variation on reason <\/em>or logos, <\/em>which is of a piece of the same devious coercive ontology as truth<\/em>\u2014that bear my claim out. Before proceeding with my argument, however, I ask your forgiveness in advance for availing myself of the very same decadent logics that I\u2019ve been the first to decry for their annihilation of marginalized discursive possibilities.<\/p>\n

The bivalent logic of Aristotle and the standard bourgeois discourse will have to do for the time being.<\/p>\n

First, \u201cracism<\/em>\u201d is intelligible if and only if race <\/em>is a meaningful concept. But race is a classificatory schema devised by European males during a specific time\u2014the so-called \u201cEnlightenment\u201d\u2014of European his story. Race <\/em>is a conceptual tool invented by \u201cwhites\u201d for the purpose of subsuming the identities of staggering diversities of flesh and blood particulars under a few monolithic, bloodless, lifeless abstractive generalities.<\/p>\n

In continuing to speak of \u201cracism,\u201d a dastardly ethno-chauvinistic imperializing rhetorical construct is vindicated by both whites and people of color alike: Whites betray their bigoted delusions, however oblivious they consciously remain to them, while blacks and others\u2014but especially blacks\u2014reveal just how effective Europeans and their descendants have been in enslaving their minds.<\/p>\n

Moreover, \u201cracism\u201d is immoral <\/em>if and only if individualism <\/em>is \u201ctrue\u201d or normative. Allegedly, so-called racism is evil because it is immoral to judge or pre-judge \u201cthe individual\u201d on the basis of the morally irrelevant collectivity to which she or her belongs (i.e. has been assigned to by society<\/em>). Yet \u201cthe individual\u201d is but another artifact of European culture. No other peoples conceive of their identities in terms of the ideal of an emaciated, atomized individual unencumbered by a tribe, however the latter is imagined.<\/p>\n

In affirming that \u201cracism\u201d is a great evil, we endorse that most pernicious brand of Occidental normativity, individualism, the same doctrine that has served as the moral core of an economic ideology, capitalism, that has been responsible for expropriating the resources of \u201cthe wretched of the Earth,\u201d to borrow Fanon\u2019s expression.<\/p>\n

Rest assured my friend, the right has won. Remember this every time you hear some faux leftist drone on and on about the evils of \u201cracism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your Colleague in Thought,<\/p>\n

Leon \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An email from “Leon Marlensky,” the only consistent leftist remaining, as far as he is concerned. Here, he sounds off a bit over the Charleston, SC coverage. I have reprinted this here with Leon’s permission. Dear Jack: In the wake of the tragedy in Charleston, SC, the \u201cR\u201d word, predictably, has been thrown around with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe CHARGE of "Racism" is Eurocentric Bigotry?! An Academic Leftist Weighs In<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/06\/the-charge-of-racism-is-eurocentric-bigotry-an-academic-leftist-weighs-in.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The CHARGE of "Racism" is Eurocentric Bigotry?! An Academic Leftist Weighs In\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An email from “Leon Marlensky,” the only consistent leftist remaining, as far as he is concerned. Here, he sounds off a bit over the Charleston, SC coverage. I have reprinted this here with Leon’s permission. 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