what the...

Rob Schaap rws at comserver.canberra.edu.au
Sun Jan 10 20:12:06 PST 1999


Eric's note to Angela is a very wise one, IMHO. I'm no more aware of American 'race relations' than Angela professes to be, but Eric's note has about it a pretty familiar ring, wherever we might be reading it - there's some history to support the thesis over here, anyway. Of course, the average white person ain't much different in the respects you identify ...

I'm with Eric on that more general bit about ideological absolutes, too. If you mean by this what I think you do - that to disagree is to betray and that to include 'the trenches and fortifications of the bourgeoisie' in your menu of sites for political practice is to betray - then there remain even today a fair few leftie sects who fit the bill.

Good on you! Rob.


>Actually, the tendency that most gets on my nerves is with the white
>activists who claim that we need to "listen" to the wants, needs, and
>thoughts of black people or other particularly oppressed groups, then
>choose a sect as the "spokepeople" for blacks; the group itself being
>completely out of touch with most black people and much more popular
>among chic white radicals.
>
>If we truly "listened" to the average black person, and heeded his/her
>political wisdom, we would all be voting for left of center democrats.
>Furthermore, we would be Christian with a great deal of ambivalence
>about abortion and drug legalization. This is the absurdity of the
>white identity politic trend.
>
>Better that we speak for ourselves and base our political action on our
>own perceptions, however limited they may be. The key is to expand our
>perceptions, and to understand why a vote for a democrat who will
>guarantee a few more millions in social programs is worth voting for,
>even if we choose to avoid "lesser evil politics" because the difference
>has little or no meaning for our personal lives.
>
>In my opinion, the racism on the left is most profound in ideological
>absolutes, and identity politics where we pick and choose the
>"spokespeople" for another community.



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