This week has been dubbed "International Blog Against Racism Week" by some folks over on LiveJournal, with the goal being to have lots of people, well, blog about issues related to race. It's not likely to save the world, but it's a noble enough cause, and deserves a mention. There's some good stuff over there-- a discussion of race in casting, and a post on suppressing discussion, complete with its own live-action demo.
As one of the whitest white guys you're ever likely to meet, I'm sort of hesitant to contribute anything to this (see also Sherwood Smith's demurral). I mean, I completely agree that racism is Bad, and needs to be opposed, but I don't really have anything interesting to say on the subject. A few incidents in Japan aside (and attempting to make analogies from those would trivialize the real experiences of countless others), my only experience of racism is sort of second-hand. I've got some distressingly racist relatives, but that just makes for some awkward moments at family dinners, and other than that, I've spent my whole life in places where it wasn't really an issue-- I grew up in a pretty homogeneous rural area in Central New York, and since leaving home have mostly been in elite academic environments, where the badness of racism is simply axiomatic.
As a result, most of what I might say about contemporary racism takes the form of anecdotes about one odd situation or another. Which doesn't quite feel appropriate. Maybe I'll think of something intereasting to say about race in science or race in sports later in the week, but for now, I'll just post the announcement, and leave it at that.
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