>Messsage du 25/11/2000 11:59
>De : <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>A : <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Copie à :
>Objet : Re: Taking the cure
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> you clearly have not been to one of these new age retreats in cali
> where white folks do all kinds of crazy ass stuff in the woods in an
> effort to reclaim the soul they sacrificed when they dealt for
> membership in the white race.
>
> chris niles
> -------
>
> You're right, I haven't been to any retreats. But this thread seemed
> to be about finding cures for whiteness,
you are using a medical metaphor for a political problem. yes, i consider whiteness, like all concepts, both a product and a form of energy, and yes, i suppose if one is a practioner or devotee of energy medecine, than one could define whiteness as some kind of energy illness. fine up to this point. but energy medecine (primitive terminology but we'll go with it for right now) is, in it's current state, much more a product of usually white, very soul-hungry new agers searching for meaning than the result of our best 'scientific' thinking and commen sense analogizing on energy (energy is one of those terms that has been so maligned by new agers that it is hard these days to talk about it without somebody confusing you for one--a new ager, that is). and even if we conceded, as we could, to look at whiteness as a sickness--that is, as a form of bad energy--it still (like all good quantum phenomenah) manifest itself, literally, as a not-necessarily-stable-matter-of-fact in our w! orld. as such, it gives rise to social relations expressed, for example, as abuses of white power. since politics has to do with the abuses and uses of power, and since non of us can function as whole human beings if we are alienated from our power, it follows that developing a (anti-authoritarian) politics is critical to confronting white racialism.
however, mind you, confronting whiteness does not reduce to political confrontation, strictly defined tht is. but somehow, i don't think you have a problem grasping that.
and I offered one--rather me
> and my work buddy came up with one.
>
> Now, you were pretty quick to dismiss this idea, so I'll ask you, what
> you suggest instead.
>
re-read the thread, i already did. there are all kinds of ways to challenge the white race that are both politically constructive and good for one's development as an individual. virtually any struggle in this country--be it legal, electoral, union, militia, etc--can be given deeper practical and theoretical significance (and produce high quality chaotic potential) by understanding the general centrality of whiteism to the lives of all americans and figuring out, specifically, how it plays out in that struggle. realizing the depths of your humanity has, i think, shocking, transformative value.
if after re-reading the threads, you are not convinced that i've given any examples, i'll provide one or some, as time allows.
chris niles
the new abolitionist
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