From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Aug 04 2001 - 11:42:57 MDT
Michael Wiik wrote
> If it's possible in the U.S. to have an intelligent discussion about
> race, it might be here on the extropians list.
Extropians, I'm sure, take this as a compliment, and rightfully so.
> I'm not saying it's possible, but it might be. Unfortunately, this
> would seem to require at least a few representatives of each race
> under discussion to be actually on the list.
??? Why is that? What is the absolute necessity of that, when
our goal is accurate understanding (finding the truth)? Are
you implying that people of different ethnicities, or races,
or points of view have separate truths? Are you claiming, for
example, that you cannot efficiently strive for an understanding
of, oh, say racism, without consulting racists?
Now, logically, in some cases "outside" help is so enlightening
that it seems almost indispensable. If we wanted to understand
a race of alien beings, for example, failing to have any in the
discussion would be quite a handicap. But people of different
races from yours are hardly alien beings.
Lee
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