Patterson Talks With Walzer On Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a cover for reactionary and segregationist policies, Orlando Patterson, professor of Sociology, said last night in a discussion with Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government, on ethnic chauvinism.

"There is a distinction between the ideal of ethnicity and the reality. When you have things like Philadelphia's Rizzo announcing himself as a national leader of white ethnics, ethnic chauvinism is no longer a harmless political fringe, but a dangerous national ideology," Patterson said.

Walzer defended the concept of ethnicity, and said ethnicity gives individuals a secure identity. He added that Patterson had created a false dichotomy of universal values versus particular ethnic values in his book "Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse." "Our universality is always embodied in the particular, Walzer said.

Chauvinism is not the necessary out-come of ethnicity: "Egotism is to individuality what chuavinism is to ethnicity," Walzer said.

Patterson said that his ideals of universality were embodied in early Christianity, and have now been inherited by democratic socialism. "Ethnicity just dovetails with conservatism," Patterson added.

Walzer, who also identifies himself as a democratic socialist, said ethnicity may have contributed to social inequalities, but only slightly.