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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] racism 101 for white american permies

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  • From: Harmon Seaver <hseaver@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] racism 101 for white american permies
  • Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:25:14 -0600

Racism is essentially irrelevant at this point. The major problems
today are the dichotomies of class, economy, and environment. What color
someone might be is almost moot.
And the whole subject is absolutely irrelevant to the subject of
permaculture, although I guess you could make an argument that
permaculture is inherently racist since it discriminates against various
species in favor of other species. Or is that speciest?


rafter@liberationecology.org wrote:
> Thanks to Ben for calling that one.
>
> Briefly:
>
> Y'all know how there is a cutting edge, a sort of global best-
> practices conversation, about ecological design? And we are all
> pretty excited about it, and how it's called permaculture? And how
> it's not homogenous at all, but how even with all the differences of
> opinion that run though it, it's still identifiable and coherent and
> more-or-less the best thing going in terms of ecological design?
>
> Well, that sort of conversation exists for issues besides ecological
> design. There is also, for example, a conversation just like that,
> but about racial and ethnic relationships. This one is called anti-
> racism (though you might hear it called critical race theory, in
> certain circles, or some other variant.)
>
> In this conversation, racism is defined as "power plus prejudice." So
> it's not just about your attitudes, conscious or not, or even your
> actions - it's also defined by social context of those attitudes and
> actions.
>
> If this seems like an exciting, or confusing, or infuriating, idea, a
> great entry point to understand it better is the short,
> conversational, funny book by Tim Wise called "White Like Me."
>
> So, just a few short principles that come out of the anti-racism
> conversation:
>
> * No one is "colorblind," even if that were an appropriate response
> to a racially divided caste society - which it ain't.
> * Unconscious prejudice affects our experience of the world, all of
> us - and it is measurable:
> see for yourself at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
> * Explaining one's racially charged remarks as reason, logic, or
> common sense doesn't make you not racist.
> * Having non-white genes in your heritage doesn't make you not racist
> - particularly if you are "read" as white in your public life.
> * Having non-white friends *definitely* doesn't make you not racist.
> * If you think you are racist, you're almost certainly right.
> * If you are white, and think you aren't racist, you are almost
> certainly wrong.
> * None of these things make white people not racist, or disprove the
> existence of white supremacy:
> * Listening to music by non-white artists
> * Getting pulled over by a non-white cop
> * Making white-people jokes
> * Seeking out spiritual guidance from non-white people
> * Claiming "logical self-interest" or variations on that theme
> * Being progressive, bohemian, radical, green, anti-authoritarian,
> etc.
> * Being poor, being a woman, being LGBTQ, being disabled, etc.
>
> Permaculture, as a movement, as a community that is trying hard to
> help save this big complex world we live in, will grow more effective
> and more powerful as we learn to learn from this other best-practices
> community.
>
> rafter t. sass
> The Liberation Ecology Project
> liberationecology.org
> 518-567-7407
> skype: raughter
>
>
>
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>


--
Harmon Seaver




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