studying races
From: Linda Clemens
Date: Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:04 pm
Subject: studying races
On another board, Peter Farrell has responded
to my remarks on racism and the study of racial differences.
You say that you see value in the study of
racial differences in certain contexts, including considerations
of their variability in terms of history and geography. But you
go on to say that you cannot see anything in Steiner except as
to claim that some races are better than others.
Regardless of whether this is a fair characterization,
can't you admit that the same criticisms can be made to such
studies in science? Millions of people certainly make that same
criticism. Work and insights in the field of anthropology up
until relatively recently (30 or 40 years) was suffused with
cultural and racist biases. The discipline itself largely shaped
it character from the colonialism where it was born, in an atmosphere
of racial superiority.
So how big of a risk does this "baggage"
pose today? To emphasize, I'm mostly interested in why this wouldn't
argue that this kind of science has no place at all. Why is the
threat so much more serious in Waldorf than it would be in science?
By the way---the field of anthropology has
become largely "paralyzed" by this concern. A kind
of social activism and "deconstructionism" as is applied
now in non-scientific studies such as literature or history has
replaced the more traditional disciplines because of it. Eliminating
cultural biases is one thing. But this over-reaction reminds
me of the political attacks on academics we've seen in closed
societies like China or Iran, motivated by the supposedly "dangerous"
consequences of the study being attacked.
L
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