Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!ubc-ean!ubc-cs!andrews From: andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (James H. Andrews) Newsgroups: can.politics,net.women Subject: Re: Discrimination against x Message-ID: <1137@ubc-cs.UUCP> Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 15:12:31 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1137 Posted: Mon Jul 8 15:12:31 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 8-Jul-85 20:35:31 EDT References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> <15520@watmath.UUCP> <1133@ubc-cs.UUCP> <198@ihlpl.UUCP> Reply-To: andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (James H. Andrews) Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 37 Summary: In an article a while ago I wrote: >> By the way, I am basically an optimist when it comes to the potential of >> humans to move away from racial intolerance. Skin tone and hair colour must >> have been factors of discrimination in, say, 10th or 11th-century Britain... >> More recently, up until a few decades ago there was great prejudice against >> Irish North Americans, which has by now dissolved... In article <198@ihlpl.UUCP> zubbie@ihlpl.UUCP (Jeanette Zobjeck) writes: >I think you need to look around you a bit more. > >Perhaps in your area there is a lack of overt racial or sexual discrimination >but I feel that if you were to visit a few large cities (not the tourist traps) >you might find that there is still a boundary defined by color of skin, >another defined by sex/gender and another defined by age.......... >Jeanette Zobjeck ihnp4!ihlpl!zubbie In this article I write: NO no no no NO no no no NO If you read my original posting carefully you will see that I was NOT making a statement about racism and sexism in general in our society; I know all too well that such things still exist, yes, even here in idyllic Vancouver. I was referring to the SPECIFIC prejudices which existed in early Britain, prejudices which now are apparent only in the silly cliches about blond(e)s having more fun, redheads being more temperamental, etc. The point I was making was that these SPECIFIC prejudices have dissolved to the extent that people having these different genes freely intermarry and look on each other as equals, and to the extent that we now refer to them all as just WASPs where before they would have been distinct classes of people. Because we have overcome these prejudices, I have hope that we can overcome the other racial prejudices that we face. (Now sexism is another matter...) --Jamie. ...!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews "'Hero' is the surprising word that men use when they speak of Barbara Ehrenreich"