warp & woof,

[Terrance]

Otto Sell wrote:

> Means: put it in the right context and of course you can prove that Conrad
> is a racist, but than we, Terrance, are necessarily and inevitably racists
> too, even if we able to love "Hod" and "Things Fall Apart" the same.
> 
> Otto
> 

If a  racist is an individual that holds  that race accounts
for differences in human character and or ability and that a
particular race is superior to others, I am not a racist.
I'm sure you are not racist as I define it here either. But
while I agree with Achebe that it is high time to discuss
racism and that art needs to be studied with 
the questions that he raises, for example, 

Why has their been a preposterous and perverse arrogance
that  reduces Africa (or Cuba or Catholic Ireland or
Mexico)  to the role of props for the break-up of one mind,
of one way of looking at the world? 

And what Achebe says is  "the real question," that is, does
art create, sustain, perpetuate the dehumanization of Africa
(insert name of Other Place) and Africans (Others) by
fostering racist attitudes?   

And questions as to whether a novel or art which celebrates
this dehumanization, which depersonalizes the Other, and
necessarily Humanity in the process can be called a great
work of art. 

studying literature and race or class or gender or
sexuality, so common in these so called postmodern days, is
not like studying math or physics, but more like studying
Languages, Classics, English or Literature or Comparative
Literature or if your school no longer has any of the above,
Cultural Studies. We don't come into a math class with
deeply felt and firmly entrenched attitudes toward the
subject, the discipline (I did take a Seminar in Advanced
Logic and this was the case, but I am speaking of common or
usual experience).  Approaching these issues is a great
challenge, one that I welcome, but I don't think Achebe's
essay, or calling Conrad a "bloody racist" is or was ever a
constructive way to approach these delicate matters. 

Issues of race are so delicate, enormously complex,
interlocking with a number of other systems of oppression,
all of which have intricate self-perpetuating relations to
one of P's major themes domination and subordination. 

We come from very different worlds Otto, this I am sure of.
You noted once that you would never use the word nigger,
Paul M. agreed, but in my life this has always been  one of
the most used word in the lexicon. What does a german white
boy do when he's singing the lyrics to his favorite raps,
bleep out the N word? Achebe complains about Conrad's use of
the word. He says that psychologists should study Conrad's
obsession with blackness, but what a word means, what is
meant, what it connotes, denotes is a very tricky business.
That's why we must be careful. It's like Alice in Cyberspace
here. 
Before we start saying off with their heads or hands, we
need to consider our biases, our own language, our own
experiences and how these may be, not because of anything
insidious, Other than the Other guys. 

I participate in Peer mediation at a High School in Harlem.
The students run the show, but I'm there to act as liaison,
a role I'm very proud of because the students selected me.
One day we the students discussed the word nigger. Some
students, obviously instructed by teachers, tried to
convince other  students that the word nigger is offensive
in any context. Students were very offended and said, "you
telling me I can't call my nigger my nigger?" "Yeah," the
student that raised the issue said.  "Fuck that son," was
the reply and everyone applauded it.  

We discussed for a while Cucaraches. 

My green eyes sings:

Pina platanos chiquitas
of the rainbow el color
Cucarachas muy bonitas
Always ready for amor

Ay si si si senor
Always ready for amor...


See also Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's "The Revolt of the Cockroach
People"

and 

"Cuco Goes to a Party" by Mario Suarez