In a debate with some people on the Freedom of Mind site, I actually had someone who still thinks highly of him tell me this:
You do know that Castaneda was born in Peru of mixed Latino and Indian heritage, right? I'm not sure if Latinos consider themselves "white," such as northern Europeans do. So if Castaneda
produced racism, technically it wasn't "white racism." I mean if Castaneda rolled into a KKK meeting and hollered, "Hey, did you see
what foolish Zen master-shaman savages I made out of them damn bus riding, peyote smoken' Indians in my book? Pretty WHITE of me, hey?"
He'd likely get hung from the nearest tree just like any other "darky."
This from the Castaneda cult website:
"I know now that human beings are creatures of awareness, involved in an evolutionary journey of awareness, beings unknown to themselves,
filled to the brim with incredible resources that are never used."
http://www.castaneda.com/Phony sentimental hogwash, useless to any license holding Indian gaming corporation. Also, it's stolen straight out of the Fourth Way, another group of racists that exploited the image of a fat little ethnic Armenian folk dancer.
Anyway, pesos to tacos, you didn't know that Castaneda wrote a number of bestsellers, ten of them I believe. But, hey, we rich, spoiled,
white American racists will buy just about anything, but only as long as it is an exploitive stereotypical fabrication at the expense of the genetically inferior non-industrial races.
In my opinion, racist as it might be, Castaneda is profound.
Personally I'm tired of hiding my racist heritage, we white people came to an empty, primitive land and graciously killed off all the dangerous animals, including the irrational, hostile indigenous
primates, making the place suitable for fine literature. History will judge us justified in our ruthlessness, given the Paleolithic alternative."