Sunday, December 23, 2007

Wise words from Mr. Wise

At timwise.org you can read Tim's review of the movie "Crash." It's an excellent read. Our resident racist here on the banco weblog may even like it. Below is a segment. (p.s. - We need you, mr. racist....we learn how you think and rationalize.)

"Racial conflict has emanated from a very particular history, which has been anything but random, whether in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the United States. Racial conflict in L.A. hasn't just happened, as if by accident. Particular patterns of oppression, including police brutality, the exploitation of immigrant labor, racist housing patterns that have kept people of color isolated from opportunities, and deindustrialization, have all conspired to produce the toxic mix of hostility and desperation that has so often played out in the city. So too with America more broadly: we are not randomly crashing into each other, as if by coincidence. We are not suspicious of one another by accident. The history of the U.S. has been one in which opportunities have been racially contingent, in which whites have been favored in every avenue of life, and people of color relegated to either de jure or de facto second-class citizenship...That Crash gives us little in the way of insight as to that backdrop...only lowers the probability that audience members will come to appreciate just how deeply ingrained the damage of racism truly is."