Not much Biko on the web

Understandable; there's not much King on the web either, but we can chalk that up to the family tightly enforcing copyright. Has the same effect of rendering the man an empty , but highly regarded symbol anyone can project any meaning onto.

Do I have to link some right winger claiming King would have opposed affirmative action? Again? Can't you just Google it your damn self?

Anyway, Biko:

We are not concerned with that curious bunch of non-conformists...that bunch of do-gooders that goes under all sorts of names - liberals, leftists, etc. These are all the people who argue that they are not responsible for white racism...These are all the people who claim that they too feel the oppression just as acutely as the blacks and therefore should be jointly involved in the black man's struggle.... In short, these are the people who say that they have black souls wrapped up in white skins.

Put that up before, but it always bears repeating.

Reminded of it by the comments for Open Source Politics: Black Identity (see also: Okay, I am Pissed at In Search of Utopia, as well as You might be able to tell I'm a bit peeved (which is currently giving me a 404. . .) at Prometheus 6), as well as Michael's comment right here.

Or the debate/policy/whatever of allowing or restricting comments at misbehaving; in that case, bit difficult to have an in-depth discussion of women in technology when you're constantly being interrupted by men who reject the entire basis of the discussion, but still decide to contribute. Well, post comments. Contribute, not the right word, but I still hate sneer quotes.

Similarly, if obviously not directly analogous, bit difficult for black folk to have a meaningful debate about anydamnthing if we not only have to deal with our own tendency to accuse the other of being an Uncle Tom or working on the Democrat's plantation, but also constantly have to stop the conversation and explain, slowly, and using very small words, that we should be able to conduct it in the first place.

Explain is a transitive verb, but do I really need to say to whom the explanation or justification is given?

Thought not.

Biko's point, or one of his points, or my take on one of his points, was that a conversation between two clearly unequal groups isn't really going to go anywhere, which is why there's frustration in dealing with the Democratic party/leftists/liberals on the one hand, and just as much dealing with Republicans/conservatives on the other.

Except the latter have the added benefit of being evil, racist fuckheads, of course.

This holds for relationships all the way from the personal on up to the geopolitical, but that gets into all sorts of concepts like white privilege and institutionalized racism, and since liberals (by and large; I'm perfectly aware I'm painting with way too broad a brush here, but loud protestations that this doesn't apply to you is just going to lead me to believe that it does. Funny, that.) tend to dismiss the impact of these things, and conservatives (by and large; etc.) flatly deny they even exist. . . it makes for a terribly fun experience. You have no idea.

But I do hope you see the problem.

If not, well, that's what comments are for. I just hope some other Negro is up to writing slowly and using very small words.