> On a somewhat related front, I found certain aspects of the article that ChuckO
> sent on the post-N30 activist generation rather amusing. The white middle class
> anarchists bemoan the absence of "people of color" in their loosely affiliated
> anti-global system coalition, and vow to work on their own racism to better
> build a broad coalition. Their repeated usage of the term "people of color"
> is a dead giveaway of their much-despised middle class social background, since
> few "people of color" use the very term to describe themselves, save those
> who are part of the intelligentsia, or at least have spent a few years
> attending a liberal arts university or college reading Bell Hooks and Cornel
> West. Their
> proposals to work on their own racism basically sound like liberal therapy
> techniques (bring in the "anti-racism training" counselor after he/she's done
> w/his "conflict resolution" seminar !!!), another artifact of their
> much-despised middle-classness. They can't even bring themselves to use the
> phrase "working class" -- "people of color" stands in for all those oppressed
> people they want to reach but have failed to reach. Finally, they fundamentally
> fail to recognize that their opposition to everything the WTO et al represents
> comes from a structurally different position from working-class blacks, Mexican
> and Southeast Asian immigrants, etc. Apart from their genuine empathy for the
> oppressed humans/animals of the world (I do not say this facetiously), white
> middle class anarchists hate the WTO (emblematic of global capitalism) because
> they are educated, creative, community-loving folks who hate the fact that the
> system increasingly limits their opportunities to exercise their capacities
> (unless they "sell out" and go to work for Microsoft and live in a gated
> community, which would defeat the purpose). It's not a position I'm
> unsympathetic with (being a disenchanted/alienated white middle class
> 31-year-old radical stuck in grad school and dreading the future), but it's
> light years away from the reasons why your garden variety working class/poor
> white/African-American/Latino/etc. might or does hate the WTO and everything
> it stands for.
Hey, I only use the word "people of color" when I'm taking to academic leftists, which this list is full of. In normal conversation, I use the phrases "African american," black person," "latino" and so on. Also, that article doesn't represent my priorities. I live in Prince Georges County, Maryland, which is the home to the largest African-American middle class in America. I see black people on the train who make more money that I do. Also, living in D.C. gives this white middle class anarchist ample opportunity to witness the class divisions in this town. Latino women clean offices. Latino men wash windows, pour concrete, and do landscaping. Working class African American men work at hotels, operate the Metro, and drive the buses. The wealthier African Americans have nice government jobs and work at associations. My street vendor is an immigrant women from India. She recently had to miss work for several months while recovering from an oil fire which burned her face. I doubt that she had health insurance.
John, I think you are making too many generalizations about white middle class anarchists. How many do you know? Most of the anarchists I know work working class jobs and try to slack as much as possible.
Lastly, I think John's criticisms are on target. but misdirected. I've heard very few anarchists talk like the ones he is criticizing. I suspect that people that he is criticizing are more likely to be highly educated leftists, who like to prattle on about "people of color," working on our racism, and trying to get more token African Americans into their movemnets. Let's face it, sometimes our concerns as white middle class people don't coincided with folks from different walks of life. I'm able to protest the WTO because I'm a single guy, with time and money to devote to this effort. I do this because there are so many people out there who don't have the time, because they have family obligations and/or are being worked to death.
I'm not interested in working on my racism, because I'm simply not racist. I understand that as a white male that I have a lot of privileges, but I also realize that I'm one of the few white males who thinks about this. Because of this awareness, i try to use my privilege to make the world a better place for everybody.
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