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but i really don't see the "double standard" in this.
that's one of the main arguments that's run through the thread--you maintain it is, others disagree, you ignore the criticisms and act as though the characterization makes sense.
i don't think it does make sense and the post i put up a few days ago about the different weights attached to "african-american" and "white" in the states was *about* this characterization and it's logic.
that this judge cleared the court of all but african-americans ENACTS the particular ways in which the category african-american (or a substitute) functions culturally in the states.
that's it.
"white" (or a substitute) simply doesn't have the same range of possible uses.
its not a double standard--it's a use of language that reflects differing historical experiences in the states.
you might not like it--hell, who really likes the fact that the present is shaped by the past when that past is as ugly as that of the history of racism in america?---but that doesn't change what this is.
you'd prefer, it seems, to see in the rejection of your characterization of this as an example of a double standard something more or other than what it is--that i don't understand, but i suppose it's your prerogative--you seem to think, though, that rejecting your characterization is a defense of double-standards or "division" or "hatred" of "negativity" or whatever--and that makes no sense to me.
you just picked a bad example: it's a mistake.
everyone does something similar at one point or another.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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