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I have learned these kind of discussions are worthless in this site, but since if you seem to have good faith here we go. The episode I remember the most was o
by cambalache 7y ago
I have learned these kind of discussions are worthless in this site, but since if you seem to have good faith here we go.
The episode I remember the most was one when an American delegation went to Moscow (IIRC this was in the sixties, remember, the book is fiction), anyway, in the book the American delegation is comprised by you know, normal people, students and so on. The Soviet delegation is comprised by political-quasi-robots zealots a-la Ivan Drago. One of the members of the American delegation is a black woman, a fact the "Soviet zealots" take as an opportunity to claim that under capitalism racism exists in America. Well, what you do know, the black character proceeds to educate them and tell them they are very well mistaken because black Americans enjoy the same opportunities as white Americans.
This seemed to me very very weird, even if this was a work of fiction. No person of color in their right mind would have that opinion, even less in the 1960s. So I was interested to check who the author was and why they wrote such an unbelievable character. He is a white English guy. Surprise, surprise. The fact he minimized or discarded the huge challenges black Americans faced and still face, just to score a cheap political point in a work of fiction was disgusting to me.
- amylene 7y agoI don’t find this exchange implausible. Black women who represented the US would likely want to project pride in their country, especially an American with Soviets. That is to say, what she said may not have even sounded truthful to herself, but it is plausible that it would be said in that context.
- cambalache 7y agoOf course, you dont. You are white, right? I will only tell you something, I am willing to bet my life that no black/brown writer would write a character like her, in that circumstances, ever.
- big_chungus 7y agoWho made you the spokesman for every non-white in America? You're no more qualified to speak on their behalf than amylene. You certainly have no justification for writing off his arguments with "You are white, right?" That's called racism.
- cambalache 7y agoIt's still true, and regretfully for you this is a free space. Racism is falling over oneself to justify discrimination. Tschuss Knabe.
- oska 7y agoI'm highly dubious about talking about people in terms of skin colour. However, putting that aside, this comment is far better than your original, short comment which is, rightfully in my opinion, being down-voted for being low quality. In this comment you give real detail about your problems with the narrative.