[Marxism] Notes on David Brion Davis' review

[Austin, Andrew]

If you cannot understand how race is mind independent then you cannot
understand how class is mind independent, Rakesh.  Race, like class and
gender, is an objective social structure.  You don't think race is a
figment of our imagination like Fields does, do you?  The reality racism
has, Rakesh, is the reality of social structure operating on the
physical and cultural segmentation of people based on
socially-historically constructed essential differences in relation to
phenotypical and culturally variable characteristics. The concept of
racism and race that I use - combined with historical analysis -
specifies why over time and in what ways groups remain essentially
different AND why group identities are variable and change - such as the
Irish and other previously nonwhite groups being redefined as white.
This is precisely why racism "must be understood to be a nexus of
material relations within which social and discursive practices
perpetuate oppressive power relations between populations presumed to be
essentially different" as Harrison puts it.

-----Original Message-----
From: marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces at lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Rakesh
Bhandari
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 11:06 PM
To: marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
Subject: [Marxism] Notes on David Brion Davis' review

The problem of course is the kind of reality race itself has.

>  "Racism," writes Faye V.
>Harrison, "must be understood to be a nexus of material relations 
>within which social and discursive practices perpetuate oppressive 
>power relations between populations presumed to be essentially
different."

But this definition of racism does not specify why over time  and in
what ways these groups remain essentially different? I cannot agree with
this!

I don't understand how racism can be mind independent! Races surely were
not how nature was carved at the joints before our minds got involved!