That is very long tanya,


and one day i entend to read it,

Ok... I know that it is long... but everyone that has been posting in the proud to be human and proud to be white threads; I encourage you to read this and really look at yourselves, your posts and the other posts.

****************************
Mark Halstead, Education, Justice, and Cultural Diversity: An Examination of the Honeyford Affair, 1984-85 (London: Falmer Press, 1988)

Our note: The following consists of excerpts from Halstead's book, pp. 139-55. Ellipses are omitted from the end of each major paragraph and his text begins with our (1).

6 Different Types of Racism:

Pre-reflective Gut Racism
Post-reflective Gut Racism
Cultural Racism
Institutional Racism
Paternalistic Racism
Color-Blind Racism

(1) Pre-reflective Gut Racism: This name is being used instead of the now redundant term 'racialism,' implying racial hatred. Its name suggests that it has emotional rather than rational origins and content. It can be observed in both individuals and groups. Its deep psychological roots can be traced to three main factors. First, there is a tendency to feel fear, anxiety, insecurity and suspicion in the presence of any persons and groups who are perceived as strange, foreign or unfamiliar....Secondly, there are certain motivational dispositions such as rejection, aggression, dominance and superiority which some psychologists consider fundamental to human personality....The third factor is ignorance of racial minorities, which leaves people open to the too- ready acceptance of myths, sterotypes and other fear-arousing communications.

(2) Post-reflective Gut Racism: This type of racism is concerned to provide a justification for the continuation of racial privilege, and this may involve the creation of an ideology of racial superiority and domination. Whereas pre-reflective gut racism may be attacked for making arbitrary distinctions between people on the basis of irrelevant differences, post-reflective gut racism counter-attacks by claiming that the differences are not irrelevant. Post-reflective gut racism therefore involves the post-hoc rationalization of practices emanating from racial prejudice, such as social avoidance, scapegoating and overt acts of racism. This rationalization may take two forms: first, the establishment and acceptance of an unfounded system of beliefs which would, if it were true, justify racial discrimination; and secondly, the misapplication of well-founded scientific theories to provide support for racist ideology. Both forms of rationalization may ultimately be the product either of conspiracy or self-deception.

(3) Cultural Racism: This term is being used with increasing frequency to draw attention to a shift in the focial point of much racism from physical characteristics such as social customs, manners and behavior, religious and moral beliefs and practices, language, aesthetic values and leisure activities. Whereas post-reflective gut racism seeks to explain and justify racist attitudes in religious or scientific terms, cultural racism attempts the same thing in cultural terms. It involves prejudice against individuals because of their culture. The culture of minority groups is seen as flawed in soem way, and thus as standing in the way of their progress. Unlike post-reflective gut racism, however, cultural racism does not involve belief in the existence of any biological incapacity to change. On the contrary, change is exactly what is sought. Minorities are encouraged to turn their back on their own culture and to become absorbed by the majority culture.

(4) Institutional Racism: In one sense, this type is closely liked to type three, for the institutions of a society are a product of, and a part of, its culture. But whereas cultural racism focusses attention on the differences or supposed flaws in the culture of minority groups which are said to justify their inferior treatment, institutional racism generally refers to the way that the institutional arrangements and the distribution of resources in our society serve to reinforce the advantages of the white majority....The standard analysis of institutional racism involves four steps:

a. The historical creation of an institution which is non-racist in intent because it is designed for a homogenous society. If it contains any elements of racism, these must not be conscious, because if they were the institution would exemplify type two racism.

b. A change in the context within which the institution exists, so that new minority groups are disadvantaged by the continued existence of the institution. For example, giving preference to the employment of the 'lads of the dads' may make it more difficult for new racial minorities to get jobs; and seeing exclusively white faces in school textbook illustrations might give black children a poor self-image.

c. The power of the white majority over the institution. The institution may be perpetuated intentionally for racist reasons (because the whites perceive it to be to their advantage to do so), intentionally for non-racist reasons (because, for example, tradition and normal procedures are highly valued) or unintentionally (in that customary procedures are adhered to unreflectively).

d. The moral judgment that once the discriminatory consequences of the institutional practices are raised to consciousness, anyone seeking to perpetuated them is guilty of racism. A stronger version of institutional racism involves the claim that merely going about business as usual in such a context makes one an 'accomplice in racism.'

The main difficulties with this analysis are its oversimplified view of white individuals as the source of institutional power and its assumption that the raising of individual consciousness is sufficient to bring about institutional change....
Institional racism, which I am referring to as type four, refers to the long- established organizational practices which disadvantage members of racial or ethnic minorities for no other reason that that they are members of those minorities.

(5) Paternalistic Racism: This type of racism refers to the process whereby the freedom of black people is defined or restricted by generally well- intentioned regulations that are drawn up by whites....It differs in two ways from institutional racism. First, it involves the initiation of new practices and procedures in response to the presence of racial minorities in the country, whereas institutional racism involves the failure to adapt long-standing practices and procedures to new needs. Secondly, it involves a more clear- cut wielding of power by white people, whereas it was argued above that in institutional racism it is a mistake to oversimplify the power that any individuals can wield in established institutions. Paternalistic racism implies that white people have the right to interfere in the lives of blacks for their own good and the power to define that good.

(6) Color-Blind Racism: Color-blind racism is the type which most closely corresponds to what is commonly called 'unintentional racism.'... What is it that makes color-blindness a type of racism rather than merely a misguided form of action? I want to argue that color-blindness not only leads to undesirable outcomes (the disadvantaging of black people by ignoring or marginalizing their distinctive needs, experiences and identity), but may also involve racial injustice. It is not a new idea (indeed it can be traced back to Aristotle) that there can be injustice in treating people the same when in relevant respects they are different, just as much as there can be in treating them differently when in relevant respects they are the same....When a color- blind approach is adopted to any social policy in this country, white people are usually able to dominate because the common experiences are defined in terms which white people can more easily relate to than blacks and which tend to bolster the white self-image at the expense of the black....Color- blindness falls down because it is based on an idealistic principle (that all people are equal) which may be valid sub specie aeternitatis but which fails to take account of the contingent facts of racial inequality and disadvantage in our present society. (139-55)


Carl Gutierrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu

Taken from http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/Halstead.html

Sounds very logical to me.

what up dawg??

Its sound and valid research!