What Race Is Your Sex?

Dad sent me this one. "What Race is Your Sex" is a scholarly publication by Laurel Schneider, PhD. in a book called Disrupting White Supremacy from Within.

One has to laugh at the Mike Adams response. Tho, laughter might not be the most appropriate response. Somehow I don't think Mr. Adams is really going to attend Meadville-Lombard and become a UU minister . . . but if you read to the end of his piece, he may have hit on the head the reason that Unitarian-Universalism hasn't grown in the 50 years since the U's and the U's merged: it's their emphasis on "social justice". Much of this emphasis comes across to so many of us non-Ivy Leaguers as threatening, as condescending, and as just plain weird.

Of course, it's not meant that way. Fighters for justice are, after all, fighting for justice. They're true believers, and what could be wrong with that? The problem is that many of us take their fight for justice as an implication that we are ipso facto unjust. Lots of us probably don't think we're living unjustly. Of course we're all sinners to some degree, no one's perfect. Many of us take their struggle for justice as an attack against us and the institutions that we really don't have that much of a problem with--marriage, the military, capitalism, the United States.

It's wonderful that this great country is free enough and rich enough to be able to afford to let folks like Professor Schneider make a living writing and teaching this stuff. It's great that there's a market for this. Markets are good, they satisfy needs and create value. Jobs are being created/saved here.

I certainly wouldn't pay for any of this, tho, and I wish our taxpayer dollars were not supporting it, either.

Most importantly, I certainly would be unhappy if, when lying on my death bed, I asked my minister a critical question, she/he responded that my question made him/her feel uncomfortable, and would I mind if she/he replaced my question with a question that he/she thinks is more appropriate for death bed discussion. After all, Professor Schneider let her/him write his/her own test questions in Queer Theory class back in seminary. Shouldn't we be talking about what she/he thinks we should be talking about when I expire---instead of what might be on my mind?