----- Original Message ----- From: Chris Wright <cwright at 21stcentury.net> To: <aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 7:34 PM Subject: Re: AUT: race, etc
> I am personally not so interested in the way 'white skin privilege' people
> take up this question (Noel Ignatiev, Ted Allen, etc.), much less the more
> liberal, reformist, academic strains. You are right that they pose a
> moralistic critique in many ways (and sometimes an anti-immigrant and
> patriotic critique, as in Noel Ignatiev's work.) It is NOT a question of
> saying "Ooh, I'm white, so I am bad." That would be stupid (and it is a
> strain of this thinking.)
>
> However, one key component of racism has always been the denial of
> whiteness, especially in liberal, post-Civil Rights racism in the U.S.
Race
> is always viewed as Black people's "problem", something that happens to
> "them". Hence stupid and racist questions like "Why do they always have
to
> harp on race? Why can't we just all be 'people' (or all be 'workers')?"
> That very mode of thinking hides the fact that it is a question that only
a
> person racialized as white could ask. White people think that they have
no
> race because in their mind, race is always a way to describe, categorize,
> and colonize someone else. Instead of challenging racism, the call for us
> to just all be humans or workers or whatever is a call to just be white.
> just act white and everyone can get along or then we can (finally) get on
> with the revolution.
>
> Another aspect of the problem is that white people like to be in denial
that
> their skin color does give them privielges (I reject the political
tendency
> associated with the term "White Skin Privilege", but I DO NOT reject the
> idea that whiteness confers privileges, material and mental.) Being
'white'
> in the United States means being less subject to all kinds of daily
> brutality, such as levels and frequency of police violence, poor schools
and
> heavily policed schools, violence from the judicial system via longer
> sentences and higher conviction rates for the same crimes, etc. It also
> means material privileges that increase the chances of being in the upper
> layers of the working class (or at least staying out of the bottom most
> layers, which now increasingly means semi-slave labor in the prisons,
where
> Black and Latino workers now constitute over 50% of the population, and an
> ever higher percentage on death row or serving life sentences and serving
> for capital crimes.) These include privileged access to the best jobs,
> higher wages, marrying the (massively white) bosses' kids, etc. It also
> includes benefits like lower prices on negotiable consumer goods, such as
> cars and homes. Greater likelihood of getting credit and loans. Access
to
> every neighborhood, not just the ones red-lined by the real estate
> companies. Not being beaten or attacked or fire-bombed by your white
> neighbors just because you moved in (whites in Black and Latino
communities
> rarely ever suffer anything even close to this kind of violence,
especially
> if they make even a small effort to treat their eighbors like human
beings.)
>
> Should I beat myself up for this? No. I should, however, realize that
> class solidarity in the real world will mean solidarity with every
struggle
> by racially oppressed people, and that I will risk... no, I will LOSE...
> every privilege I have that protects me from feeling the full impact of
> capital's brutality. In return, I will be better able to be a
revolutionary
> and a human being. If my concern is revolution, then I want to emulate to
> the fullest extent (and encourage other to emulate) the kind of human
> relations we will have in communism. Really, this is very important
because
> communism is not revolutionary apocalypse off in the future, it is the
real
> movement of the class struggle today. it is the complete negation of what
> is, and the possibility of what will be.
>
> As such, to not have a thorough going critique of racism as not simply
"the
> oppression of Black people" (i.e. 'their' problem), we also need a
critique
> of the ideology that makes us complicit in 'their' oppression AND our
> recuperation by capital. Racism is about white supremacy and whiteness.
> Race is a two-sided coin, but capital would prefer that only the Black
faced
> side ever shows up.
>
> Also, white workers have been central to the maintenance of capital, in so
> far as they have chosen whiteness over class unity. Frankly, it is rarely
> Black workers who choose Blackness over class unity. Historically, whites
> scab on Black workers FAR more often, whereas Black workers have a long
> tradition of refusing to be scabs. And where are the Black organizations
> that organized mass lynchings? That beat up people for eating at 'their'
> restaurants? Riding on the front of 'their' bus? Working in 'their'
> factories? (Isn't it clear enough when workers identify with exploiters
of
> their labor because of whiteness, that whiteness itself is a problem, a
form
> of class collaboration?) And where has the state EVER intervened on
behalf
> of Black people to maintain their privileges? Actually, what privileges
> were there ever to be maintained?
>
> I am not trying to deny that white workers get oppressed. In fact, it is
> their exploitation and oppression by capital that makes it NECESSARY to
try
> and make them complicit in someone else's oppression (much as men are
> expected to actively and passively comply with women's oppression). I am
> not arguing for a hierarchy of suffering, but for us to recognize this
> hierarchy of power and incorporation as a way to decompose our class.
Race
> is one way, and a very effective one, to decompose the working class. The
> dual struggle for Black liberation and against white supremacy is a
> NECESSARY struggle in the recomposition of the working class as a
> revolutionary class. As long as 'communists' and 'anarchists' refuse to
> recognize the really existing different needs of people fighting racism
(and
> sexism), that there are separate and specific demands reflecting the
reality
> of this oppression, the term communist or anarchist will only be a label
> with a hidden signifier(white) communist, (white)anarchist. And that
hidden
> signifier will eventually negate the open one. You can't be blind or
happy
> with whiteness, or allow others to be so, and be a communist or anarchist
in
> any thorough-going fashion. Why? Because you cannot consistently and
> wholly break with ideology and class collaboration.
>
> Now some notes.
>
> First, race in the U.S. is the only thing I am relatively competent to
talk
> about (and even here I am, for reasons of space and directness,
> oversimplifying racism because I am not going into any of the dynamics of
> racism against Latinos, Asians and Native Americans.) The importance of
> race to capital is evinced by the MANY FORMS of racism. Not all of them
are
> white supremacist (though European domination made that the most common
form
> for a long period) or anti-Black. Latin America has very different racial
> formations, as does Asia and Africa. And those racisms are also bound up
> with, but not reducible to, white supremacy because of European and U.S.
> domination. I am not going to over-simplify race by claiming one coherent
> racism for the whole world. That would be essentializing race, giving
> credence to it as a cultural or biological artifact of human existence.
It
> is a product of capital's struggle against labor in the historical
context's
> it finds itself in (slavery, colonization, globalization, etc.), which
> changes the form (the mode of existence) of racism. I would argue that
the
> best part of Ted Allen's book on the origins of the white race is his
> discussion of religio-racism by the English against the Irish from the
whole
> period of the formation of capital in England forward to today. Also, if
> you think racism can only be Black vs. white (something Harald implies in
> his comment, IMO), then you also essentialize race as biology or culture.
> Racism is a specific form of power relation, a form of class
decomposition,
> of class collaboration, and of hyper-exploitation that partially depends
on
> mobilizing one section of the working class against the other through the
> fetishization of a specific cultural or biological feature. This won't
stop
> happening under capital's reign.
>
> Point two, I think that people who see racism and sexism as endable under
> capital fall prey to exactly the illusions of the "White skin privilege"
> tendency (which not surprisingly, came out of Maoism!) We cannot
predicate
> revolution or communism on the end of whiteness. We CAN AND MUST
predicate
> class composition on the struggle AGAINST whiteness, as well as against
> white supremacy and the oppression of Black people. (and we have to do it
> without discussions of whiteness becoming just another way for white
people
> to talk about themselves endlessly, while marginalizing Black people
again.)
>
> Oh yeah, third point. Its not about trying to "be" Black, or the frankly
> sickening phrase of dying 'our skin color or soul' (as if wanting to not
be
> on the same side as the oppressor was bad; and indicating enough death in
> the soul already, a white death.) I am not interested in 'race' as an
> identity (which would give whiteness a justification as an 'identity' that
> can be progressive.) It is absolutely and precisely about the practical
> preconditions and process for a thorough-going and complete class
> recomposition. To get more concrete, we would have to discuss practical
> struggles. (There is a wealth of historical discussion to be had on this,
> especially if we look at all of the working class organizations that
> functioned in the context of white supremacist politics in many different
> ways, as well as so-called 'workers struggles' that sometimes were nothing
> but class-collaboration through white skin i.e. strikes in factories to
keep
> Black workers out of the skilled trades or out of factories altogether.
Or
> a recent episode in San Francisco of a life-sized doll of a Black worker
> burned in effigy on the construction site of the new airport to drive out
> Black construction workers. But I suppose we should only address the
> workers who did it in moral tones, as 'bad' workers (not as being as
> expressing class collaboration through white supremacist hate) or
'console'
> the Black workers with a few 'anti-racist' phrases to show that not all
> whites are like that (which Black workers rarely enough take seriously
> anyway, hence the perpetual non-integration of the Left in the United
> States.)
>
> Btw (I can't stop myself), the response from Harald mirrors in tone and
> content exactly what I hear from all the white Leninists too. It seems
that
> "white noise" can come from "anti-authoritarian" mouths as well as
> authoritarian ones. that just shows the thorough-going poison of
whiteness
> and its desire to hide itself even in the best politics.
>
> Cheers.
> Chris
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Harald Beyer-Arnesen" <haraldba at online.no>
> To: <aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 10:02 AM
> Subject: Re: AUT: race, etc
>
>
> > Actually, I much more like to follow up the class thread,
> > though it is far more difficult to articulate oneself on
> > that topic in a way that is both illuminating and useful.
> > The race things irritates me more though, so a brief comment.
> > I must admit that I perceive "the refusual of whiteness"
> > and all that "race-traitor" litany as a whole lot of ir-
> > rational liberal guilt at the best, and extremely counter-
> > productive at that. Who needs it apart from our masters?
> > And who do you expext to reach with such soul-searching,
> > even if clearly confined within WASP moralism?
> >
> > Let us talk about practical solidarity, and let us be concrete
> > when talking about it, rather than going to the cleaners to
> > get our skin-colour or soul dyed.
> >
> > An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
> >
> > Harald
> >
> >
> > in solidarity,
> > Harald Beyer-Arnesen
> > haraldba at online.no
> >
> >
> >
> > --- from list aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
>
>
>
> --- from list aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu ---