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If `civil rights' means `equal (to whites) rights for non-whites' and `gay rights' means `equal (to straights) rights for gays', then the civil rights and gay r
by parenthesis 16y ago
If `civil rights' means `equal (to whites) rights for non-whites' and `gay rights' means `equal (to straights) rights for gays', then the civil rights and gay rights movements are both `equalism'.
A group which sees itself as oppressed can't just wishy-washily campaign under a banner of `equalism' if it wants to effect change. It must first identify itself as a group of people with something in common, and which is somehow oppressed according to that something. This way it can articulate the problem it sees, and what needs to change. After that change has come about, then we can all just be equal people.
- gaius 16y agoBut civil rights is not "black rights", do you see? -isms, generally, exist to advance the interests of their sponsors, to the detriment of society as a whole.
- duairc 16y agoCivil rights is not "black rights", you're right, and feminism is a questionable name for itself. But that generalisation about -isms is intellectually vacuous nonsense.
- parenthesis 16y agoAh whoops - that was a mistake. But my point still stands that to advance equality can require that a group organise under the banner of an -ism or of x rights.