Julia, thanks for attempting to get us refocused. In addressing your questions, I am struck by how impossible this discussion is in the absence of voices from "black" America.
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What I do know is that even the most "assimilated" African-American friends of mine have a significantly different mindset from me. Even being gay does not afford a similar mindset despite our shared experience of "differentness" and exclusion.
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For me the challenge of the day, and I believe it is what Obama spoke of, is to discuss the subject as though we know nothing useful about it. Only then will new truths and fresh directions appear.
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I have yet to read the unvarnished, unprotected words of those who feel the oppression of the past in this discussion here. Without those words I think we are engaged in philosophical masturbation.
Phil, I hope you don't mind; I cut your post down to some sentences that struck me especially hard.
Regarding the absence of black voices in this forum: Yes, that's a problem - but it also assumes that in any discussion of race/racism, "we" will be talking about "them." Historically, "they" have not
been the problem; the dominant (white) sector of society has been the problem.
Therefore there should be something white people have to teach each other.
It's true that in an interracial dialogue, we have a lot more listening to do than talking. That alone will make any kind of useful dialog difficult; we are all (of all races) fond of our own voices. But I don't think that the absence of black voices means that a discussion would be valueless.
