Monday, June 17, 2019
"Racism, Guilt, and Self-Deceit": controversial book from African professor relates language to ethical and discrimination (anti-gay) problems
I wanted to mention a book originally published back in
1990, “Racism, Guilt, and Self-Deceit” by Gedaliah Braun. The book was republished in 2010 (Amazon says
not available now in print) and offered on Kindle in 2013. The publisher seems to be Amazon Digital
Services.
On the strike page on Goodreads, she says she left the US in
1976 to teach philosophy in Nigeria. I noticed a comment about a "Muslim president" that seems way off-base.
On that page, and on other pages, she says that many African
languages don’t have the ability to express complex abstract concepts such as
conditionality or supposition, so people in this part of the world haven’t
learned to process moral concepts the way western individualists can. They understand tribal authority. She even
maintains that complex languages common in the west develop when people live in
colder climates and deal with more natural challenges.
This might explain the anti-gay attitudes (and anti-gay laws
in past years) that seem purely tribal (fewer children) and irrational.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment