The following was written in response to a quote by Andrew Pfister [Rebel FM Ep.11] that “There is a difference between racist and racial”, something I thought was a good point of discussion and so wrote this piece. After taking it as a personal attack I failed to generate much discussion on their podcast other then them saying that I am “full of shit” [Rebel FM Ep.14 1:31]. Well internet I submit this to you for your vicious and brutal judgement, at least you might answer my emails that were in all honesty sent in a naive intellectual curiosity.
by Damocles
Resident Evil 5 Racism “There is a difference between racist and racial”
or how to make Arthur Gies and Anthony Gallegos hate you.
“There is a difference between racist and racial”
No there isn’t, except perhaps in American semantics as a mechanism for actually permitting discussion on issues of race, which is to be applauded! :p
>Granted this might just get a little academic but its an important point.
Any understanding of race is unavoidably based in racist assumption’s and it is these unavoidable assumptions that make it racist and not the intent.
a.) If you believe all people are equal and hold them to the same standards then you are universalising you own racist assumptions on the human condition by failing to take into account other people’s own unique cultural background; which is totally racist. :/
b.) If you believe that people have unique and diverse cultures and have a right to explore and act within the logic of their cultures; well then, guess what, your failing to respect and uphold their individual rights, which again, totally racist. :/
Its called the conflict between 1st generation individual human rights and 3rd generation communal human rights.
1st being proposed largely in the west, concerning what American’s commonly refer to as “freedom” meaning the individual rights to speech, association and property.
2nd from the Socialist movements concerning rights to food and shelter, and the
3rd coming from, what use to be called the 3rd world and non-aligned movement, referring to communal rights of ethnic or racial groups to self determination, living by their own rules without imperialistic interference.
To be conscious of race is to be racist, the only way to not be racist is to either have no knowledge of people ethnically different from yourself, or be the same sort of racist that everyone around you is. Which in a country as diverse as America unless you live in a closed community means your out of luck, and that’s a very good thing, it results in exactly the kind of dynamism that America has become respected for!
The RE5 debate has come about because the Japanese are unavoidably a different sort of racist to Americans, and possess an entirely different language to explore their racial consciousness. They appear insensitive in this case because they haven’t internalise all the cultural boundaries that are inherent in American discussions of race; their trying to tap into the American language of race relations as their inspiration but like the early translation of games their attempt has become garbled. Similarly an American discussion of race relations between the Japanese, Malay, Chinese and Indians in American racial terms would seem similarly blunt and probably offensive for the same reason.
Lost in Translation; "we" dont "get it"
