Re: About that race issue

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:24:27 -0700, Miss Elaine Eos wrote:

In article <1qbvjir36z6vu$.t1aoz5phwbgb$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
"Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Race as a factor or criteria is not in itself racist. We
don't say that prescribing certain drugs because they simply
work better with Africans is racist, do we?

Race isn't the factor, there. Drug-interaction and patient safety is.
Now the REASON for the drug-interaction may be that a certain blood type
is more common among blacks, or whatever, but you're not "not getting
the same pain killer as that guy over there" "because you're black."

But race is at the root of a medical decision here. The guy
gets a test purely because of his ethnicity, and the choice
of medication is made based on his race.

Examples:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20061015/tips/15.html



Nor is it
racist in the pejorative sense to include screening for
sickle-cell anaemia if the patient is of a melanin-enriched
complexion. NHS hospitals nowadays require race to be
specified on the admittance form, for the simple reason that
blacks and Asians have a far higher rate of lactose
intolerance and this allows the hospital to adjust their
diet accordingly. None of this is racist in the normal use
of the term.

Agreed. But that's because race isn't the actual criteria of filtering.
In the hospital example, it's sort of a "first cut approximation" to
assist with crowd control, but that's the same as skipping the
menstruation & pregnancy sections for men isn't "sexist" -- it's just
"well, there's a fair chance that this doesn't apply, so I'll skip it
unless I get additional information that tells me I need to come back to
it.

Or unless the lab wants to make more money.
Seriously -- I had a comprehensive bloodworks a couple of
years back and when I looked up all the acronyms on the
result sheet discovered that they did test for pregnancy.



"Teenager/young-20s dressed in 'gangsta'" may well be a decent enough
filter (sure, 'agism', but they *ARE* all crazy, so it's ok! ;), but
treating black-gansta different from white-gangsta just because he
happens to remember more news stories about black kids than white kids
is racist.

So how racist is it if his perception is backed up by
veritable mountains of data proving that when it comes to
crime and gang activity, African-American males are
massively overachieving?



(Interesting aside: for a white kid, you hear "17 yr old Tommy Smith was
arrested today in an incident involving gang violence" but, for a black
kid, you hear "17 yr old Tommy Smith -- a young african-american male
from the lower East side -- was arrested today in an incident involving
gang violence" -- why *IS* that?!)

That IS interesting, albeit for a different reason: what is
unusual is newsworthy, so a white Tommy Smith (name changed
by editor) should by rights have his Anglo-Saxon heritage
mentioned.



For that matter, this issue changes with location. In
countries where the non-white population is still largely
homogenous by origin in a particular location in Africa, it
can make purely descriptive sense to specify a certain
ethnic type of blackness.

I already pointed out to Hutch that answering "what did the fine
gentleman who saved your life look like?" with a mention of his
ethnicity -- especially in cases when is a distinguishing characteristic
-- is not racist. Another example:

A: Who's that kick ass golfer over there?!
B: Which one?
A: Over there <pointing>
B: There are 10 kick-ass golfers over there, which one?
A: The guy in the polyest...
B: Don't *MAKE* me kick you!

A: The guy dressed like a pimp.
B: <thump>


A: The black guy.
B: What, have you been living in a box for the past 10 years?!?!

I thought he was Asian?



If, for instance, I were to talk
to another Londoner and tell him about two ladies of my
acquaintance, one West African and one East African, he
would be given specific information as to a distinct
physical type. It's like saying that someone has a Nordic
or Latino look.

You are *NOT* presenting describing two women's physical appearance to a
friend in casual conversation as an example of not-[whatever]-ist
speech, are you?!?!

(Hard to tell if that one is racist or sexist -- probably both ;)

If I say I met a hot lady the other night and I'm asked "so
what did she look like?", I would probably give ethnic type
along with height and other vital measurements. In extreme
cases, I may resort to gestures as visualising aids.



If it makes you feel any better, racism can be about positive things,
too. But it's still racism, and it's still vulgar. An example: "She
was the most beautiful black woman I ever met."

It may be vulgar, but it still matters.

.

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