SLSL Racial Differences

[vze26x2p]

Steve Maas wrote:

> "It may yet turn out that racial differences are not as basic as 
> questions of money and power, but have served those who deplore them 
> most, in keeping us divided and so relatively poor and 
> powerless."--Thomas Pynchon
>
> The (or "A") meaning is clear enough to me, it is only in trying to 
> rephrase that meaning that confusion sets in.  Yet another example of 
> P.'s unique skill.
>
OK, my intuitive, off the top of the head reading will be:

After the mea culpa-ing about racism, sexism and proto-fascism in the 
first sentence of the paragraph,  Pynchon, after brief reconsideration, 
feels obliged to say "it may turn out" that, however different one's 
race is from the favored one, if one only goes around deploring one's 
lowly state (or lets others do it in one's stead) one'll  end up even 
worse off--poorer and more powerless--than would  otherwise be the case.

Deploring the difference in status between or among the races (forget 
political correctness for the moment) "serves" to make things worse, not 
better.

To agree, or not to agree . . . .