racist rhetoric

[Larry Gorbet]

Gary Palmer <gbp at nevada.edu> wrote

>I agree with Rudy that come-ons such as "Are blacks genetically
>programmed for promiscuity?" are inappropriate in that they attempt to
>elevate racist stereotypes to the status of a scientific problem and
>thereby foster the very stereotypes that they purport to question.

I have tremendous respect for Gary, but I beg to disagree here.  The
quoted question does not in my view qualify as a "come-on", for
several reasons.  Putting my linguistic anthropology hat on
seriously, I'll note where it appears --- in a fairly serious online
publication, not in a tabloid newspaper; that has implications for
the backgrounds, and reading and critical thinking skills of those
who will see it.  Second, it is followed within about three seconds
of online reading time by text that makes it clear that the quoted
material is not an assertion but a question that is addressed in the
list about which the article is written.  And that in turn is
followed, on the same page, by an article (in a larger typeface, by
the way than the alleged come-on) that describes what the list in
question is like.  If were truly a come-on, it would make it easy to
join the list itself and would not bother giving information that
would discourage many from joining it (which it does, in my opinion).

The principal point of that article is that such controversial
questions are discussed on the Evolutionary Psychology list and that
the list (it is claimed) manages to address them without the usual
degree of simple personal invective that too often typifies
discussion of such issues.  It seems to me that the position that
Gary and others are taking is that discussion of such issues should
be limited to *assuming* their utter lack of merit and then moving on
to the power issues etc. in which they play a part.  Rhettorically,
this just doesn't work if your audience doesn't already know/believe
that the question has an obvious answer that's the same as the one
you would give.  I teach an introduction to general anthropology and
see one of my primary responsibilities there as helping the students
*see for themselves* why, for example, many racist propositions lack
merit (and, especially, are based on false presuppositions).  I don't
see how I can do this by ducking the questions or *simply* attacking
those who ask them.

The question quoted *is* a scientific problem at least in the sense
that "Do languages of tribes in the Amazon only have 25 words?" is a
scientific question:  carefully acquired and analyzed information may
allow us to answer it (and/or show that the question assumes things
we can demonstrate not to be true).

I would also question whether Gary's use of the term "attempt to
elevate..." is appropriate, since it clearly attributes motives which
the immediately available evidence makes at least questionable.

I confess that my willingness to respond to this thread is surely
itself an emotional response to what I see as an eagerness to not
only believe but publicly claim that people we don't know and about
whom we are unwilling to learn even a little from easily available
evidence are somehow evil-doers.  To me, that's the same gullibility
that provides fertile ground for the socially and personally damaging
-isms we work hard to combat.  Casual misrepresentation or
representation with inadequate evidence of others' positions also
damages our credibility to represent in any way the languages and
cultures not our own which are our professional domains.  I am
particularly dismayed that several here have virtually boasted that
they hadn't bothered to read what they were at least indirectly
attacking.

>On
>the positive side, the incident provides a good classroom example of the
>pragmatic language-and-power issues that provide much of the subject
>matter of linguistic anthropology.

As does the response of linguistic anthropologists to it.

- Larry
--
Larry Gorbet                         lgorbet at unm.edu
Anthropology & Linguistics Depts.    (505) 883-7378
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM, U.S.A.