Charles Brown
>>> Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> 05/26 5:00 PM >>>
Have people on this list given thought to how social conservativism in
general, hand in hand with more explicit sexism, racism, and nativism, has
helped to organize the working class people's 'consent'--or at least
underwhelming resistance--to the ideological hegemony of neoliberalism in
the United States? [I don't mean to be US-centric, but as a Japanese living
in the US, I am more familiar with the making of neoliberal hegemony here
and in Japan than in other countries.]
Social conservativism--its fear of sexual liberties and racial/cultural otherness--has provided immense ideological resources that the Right-wingers can make use of in their efforts to dismantle the public sector employment and social programs of many kinds--especially AFDC (Aid for Families with Dependent Children), which is often equated with 'welfare' here.
Think about it. Why haven't the US working class mounted a massive resistance to the bipartisan assault on the most vulnerable sector of the class--single mothers with children--who desperately needed the solidarity of their class brothers and sisters? Could it be that many workers have bought into the Right-wing arguments such as the following? (My comments are put into the square brackets.)
(1) Women are 'popping out' babies, one after another, 'just to get on welfare.' [Panders to fear of female sexuality, 'sexual promiscuity,' + fertility of poor women, esp. of poor women of color. Racist + sexist.]
(2) 'Babies are having babies.' [Caters to fear of teenage sexuality.]
(3) '"They" are just lazy [unlike "us"].' [Exploits every working-class person's righteous resentment against wage slavery + labor discipline, while manipulating the shame and ambivalence about 'idleness' (aka free time), and deflects this mix of complex feelings against poor women.]
(4) 'Only blacks get on welfare.' [Obviously racist.]
(5) 'Only blacks and white trash get on welfare.' [Further promotes the workers' mistaken self-identification as 'middle class,' by racializing poor whites as well as using racism, and therefore preventing the emergence of class consciousness.]
(6) 'Immigrants, especially illegal aliens, come here not to work, but to get on welfare.' [Nativism is obvious here.]
(7) Welfare mothers in 'inner cities' are having kids 'out of wedlock.' [Reinforces the injunction against sexual liberties not sanctioned by the Church and the State. Also solidifies heterosexism.]
(8) Welfare moms' kids, born 'out of wedlock,' in 'inner cities' will grow up to become criminals. [The use of racism in the 'war on crime' are duplicated here.]
The US working-class's failure to vigorously protest the attack on AFDC, in my view, should reveal, once again, why anti-sexism and anti-racism, as well as efforts to erode social conservatism in general, are crucial for the Left because such struggles are NOT separate from class struggles.
Yoshie