Racism is bad... when you don't talk about it.

[loic]

So the Obama administration has decided to boycott the UN racism forum and a bunch of other "western" countries have decided to follow suit. Their objection seems to be that a past conference described Zionism as racist. Duh. Of course it's racist. It's an ideology about defining a national identity around racial (or ethnic or religious or whatever

Comments

[_fustian]

Of course it's bad. Anything which purports to identify humans as anything other than one species, one people, one family, is by its nature counter-civilisational. Recognising and valuing cultural diversity is one thing; claiming that you're somehow fundamentally different because of that culture is quite another.

[scrambledeggs]

I think you're overextending the term "racism". To be racist is to believe that one race (religion, culture, etc.) is inherently superior to another.

I would argue that Zionism per se is neither bad nor racist. In and of itself, Zionism does not purport to raise one race/religion above another; it is simply a belief that in order to preserve Judaism as a viable aspect of world cultural diversity, it is necessary to have one relatively small place that can be considered a "Jewish homeland."

Now, you can certainly argue this point -- is it *really* necessary to have a Jewish homeland to preserve Judaism as a going concern? And it's certainly true that there are a lot of racists who happen to be Zionist.

I also would agree that refusing to participate in the conversation is generally unhelpful. Personally I find "diplomacy" a bit tiresome sometimes.

[kragen]

Concur. Racism involves both believing that humanity consists of separate races and believing that some of them are superior to others.

[loic]

So you don't believe that the pre-civil-rights policies of separate-but-equal were racist?

[loic]

I guess my definition of racism is a little broader. I consider highlighting difference and advocating separation between races to be racism too. If I say "black people eat a lot of watermelon and fried chicken" then many people would consider that racist while I'm just pointing out differences between social groups that we consider "races". Similarly if I say that black people and white people should attend different schools of equal quality, then people consider that racist. I don't think that the Zionist idea that Jewish people should have their own homeland is significantly different from those ideas.

But whatever, it's all semantics and doesn't really address the real issue that we have a bunch of different people on a fairly small planet that need to work out how to live around each other.

[tylercox]

Affirmative Action is indeed discriminatory, but it is not racist.

A Form of Racism

[jcape]

I agreed with this sentiment back in 2001, but I didn't hear anything about the Durban conference inviting a Holocaust denier as the keynote speaker then, just that they were complaining about Israeli government's actions towards the Palestinians.

Putting on my concern-troll hat: When they invite someone like Ahmadinejad to speak about how the Jews made it all up so they could fuck with the Palestinians, you look like exactly the sort of closet anti-Semite AIPAC tries to paint you as, and provides the excuse wealthy countries are looking for to avoid the thing.

It undermines the entire process, just like having the Saudi delegation appointed head of the HRC does.

Re: A Form of Racism

[loic]

Well yes, but that's why you have to be there to make sure the debate is reasonable and balanced. When you have the Holocaust deniers in one room and the Nakba deniers in another you never get anywhere.

Israel

[anonymous]

Israel problem with the first conference was that most of the time was spent on anti-Israel rhetoric, rather than the large death tool problems like Sudan, Cambodia and Congo.

Re: Israel

[loic]

That's fair. I have no doubt that there were reasons that Israel and its political allies didn't like the last conference, but that why participation is good. Don't let the extremists control the conversation.