_______________IT'S CLASS, STUPID! BY RICHARD RODRIGUEZ (11/10/97)

Richard Rodriguez is right. Class is a far more important issue than "race" -- especially because discrimination on the basis of class is ignored and still legal. Many Americans look upon their class "inferiors" as an "inferior race" biologically suited for their jobs and with no rights that the "herrenvolk" need respect. The fact that most of the members of this "inferior race" bear the racial label "white" does not give them great privilege; it only frees their oppressors from guilt. Few have noticed the irony, but Lino Graglia was repeating a current "politically correct" dogma: the idea that humans can be divided into distinct, "pure" and mutually exclusive "racial" categories that dictate the culture, opinions, needs and capabilities of all their supposed members. While affirmative action is presented to the public as the only way to help the "black" and "Hispanic" poor, even the opponents of affirmative action dare not mention the fact that many middle-class Caucasians of partial Indian, black and Asian ancestry get jobs and money by pretending to be "minorities" or "of color" when they could easily blend in with the rest of the white majority. Indeed, it is a dirty secret that Hispanics can get affirmative action benefits while still claiming a "white" racial identity. Affirmative action is discredited by its own standards. -- A.D. Powell SALON | Nov. 14, 1997

R E C E N T L Y+| THE BOYS IN THE BATHHOUSES BY DAVID HOROWITZ

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