Comments on: If you read just one Blog this week… http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/ Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:02:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: John Isbell http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3899 John Isbell Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3899 "No individual is liable for slavery because of their ancestors, even those whose ancestors did own slaves." There are black Isbells and there are white Isbells, largely because of what some of my ancestors did prior to 1865 (enslaved people). I once met a black person named Isbell, at church, and apologized. I value that particular apology, and the chance to make it, pace Scott. My aunt, as Capt. Frances Isbell, USAF, had a black Sgt. Isbell in her front office, and an apology never occurred to anyone in the 1940s. Except I'm fairly certain it occurred to the sergeant. An Isbell co-wrote some of Otis Redding's songs. This is obscured in the US, because even down South, it's often unclear which cracker you meet is descended from slave-owners (me). Everyone gets a pass. Visit Martinique or Guadeloupe and it's a whole different story (and no, white islanders don't spend their days apologizing). History is harder to hide there, which has its virtues. I think they'd appeal to Toni Morrison. This is a different side of race relations. “No individual is liable for slavery because of their ancestors, even those whose ancestors did own slaves.”
There are black Isbells and there are white Isbells, largely because of what some of my ancestors did prior to 1865 (enslaved people). I once met a black person named Isbell, at church, and apologized. I value that particular apology, and the chance to make it, pace Scott. My aunt, as Capt. Frances Isbell, USAF, had a black Sgt. Isbell in her front office, and an apology never occurred to anyone in the 1940s. Except I’m fairly certain it occurred to the sergeant. An Isbell co-wrote some of Otis Redding’s songs.
This is obscured in the US, because even down South, it’s often unclear which cracker you meet is descended from slave-owners (me). Everyone gets a pass. Visit Martinique or Guadeloupe and it’s a whole different story (and no, white islanders don’t spend their days apologizing). History is harder to hide there, which has its virtues. I think they’d appeal to Toni Morrison.
This is a different side of race relations.

]]> By: Scott Martens http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3900 Scott Martens Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3900 In my defense, this wasn't intended as a comprehensive way of approaching black-white relations in America. My example, rather, dismisses the idea that even if old fashioned "black people are inherently inferior"-type racism is on the retreat in the US (and I think on the whole it is, at least among those with the most power in America), there is still a justice-based argument in favour of race-specific remedies. This is important in making a case for language rights based on history and justice considerations. I haven't actually tried to support a skills-based analysis of current inequality, although I think it has some virtues as a partial explanation. You can dismiss it without disagreeing with my conclusion that a collective debt due to a historical injustice does exist, and that there are people who should justly be the beneficiaries. It certainly isn't intended as a comprehensive explanation, and certainly one way that past poverty creates present poverty is intergenerational transfers of wealth. The problem is that addressing that issue in a justice based framework is a lot more complicated. In my defense, this wasn’t intended as a comprehensive way of approaching black-white relations in America. My example, rather, dismisses the idea that even if old fashioned “black people are inherently inferior”-type racism is on the retreat in the US (and I think on the whole it is, at least among those with the most power in America), there is still a justice-based argument in favour of race-specific remedies. This is important in making a case for language rights based on history and justice considerations.

I haven’t actually tried to support a skills-based analysis of current inequality, although I think it has some virtues as a partial explanation. You can dismiss it without disagreeing with my conclusion that a collective debt due to a historical injustice does exist, and that there are people who should justly be the beneficiaries. It certainly isn’t intended as a comprehensive explanation, and certainly one way that past poverty creates present poverty is intergenerational transfers of wealth. The problem is that addressing that issue in a justice based framework is a lot more complicated.

]]> By: Janis http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3901 Janis Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3901 Minor quibble -- no, we are not all to be held liable for the past. What we are held liable, and responsible for, is the future. We inherit the problems of the past, and we should implement solutions to them. I'm not responsible for the past, but if I don't get off my ass and help solve those problems for a better future, that's what I can be held loable for. Minor quibble — no, we are not all to be held liable for the past. What we are held liable, and responsible for, is the future. We inherit the problems of the past, and we should implement solutions to them. I’m not responsible for the past, but if I don’t get off my ass and help solve those problems for a better future, that’s what I can be held loable for.

]]> By: Bingo http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3902 Bingo Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3902 Both the Blogs are cool. Both the Blogs are cool.

]]> By: Spy Software Guy http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3903 Spy Software Guy Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3903 Anyone have links to the best sites that offer free blogs like this one? Thanks Dave Anyone have links to the best sites that offer free blogs like this one?

Thanks
Dave

]]> By: Keywords http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3904 Keywords Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/08/23/if-you-read-just-one-blog-this-week/#comment-3904 <strong>Babel</strong> Amptoons is right, Pedantry's series of posts about language policy is one of the most interesting things in the blogsphere right now. (Right up there with Ornicus' series of posts on Fascism, and Nathan Newman's discussion of the minimum wage.) But Pe... Babel
Amptoons is right, Pedantry’s series of posts about language policy is one of the most interesting things in the blogsphere right now. (Right up there with Ornicus’ series of posts on Fascism, and Nathan Newman’s discussion of the minimum wage.) But Pe…

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