Genovese

JKSCHW at aol.com JKSCHW at aol.com
Fri Oct 13 10:57:33 PDT 2000


I am no doubt wet behind the ears. I have never practiced law and I have only been out of law school for two years. Although I am constrained to draft opinions that follow the Supreme Court's precedent, you could read recent opinions by Judge Bucklo and decide whether they are racist. "Racist" is a slur, even when true; sometimes slurs are appropriate, but not here, talking about Genovese. It is not racist in any sense to say that slaves, like most members of all subordinate groups in any society, tend to accomnmodate themnselves to their situation rather than to go to the wall over their oppression. This may be false, although it is not false, but since it applies to all groups without regard to race--to workers, for example--it is not racist even if it were false. It is not even in any way derogatory. I don't see why the success or failure of "Gramscianism" as a program has anything to do with the truth of the theory of hegemony, the name for the idea that in stable societies, theruling group rules more b y consent than coercion. --jks

In a message dated Fri, 13 Oct 2000 11:42:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Charles Brown" <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> writes:

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>>> JKSCHW at aol.com 10/13/00 11:08AM >>>
I cannot censor the use of any term, but if you think "racist" is a scientific term, you are deceiving yourself--it is a slur, even when it is true.

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CB: The use of "racist" is a slur even when it is true. Is this the way you "reason" when you write opinions for the court ? Well, I guess it is very much in the racist Rehnquist court mode of thinking, so you probably do.

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If you were to read Gevonese or understand Gramsci, or even to read what I said about them, you would understand that to say that slaves "consented" in a Gramscian sense, as a general rule, is not to say they were happy under slavery. Moreover the fact that not all racism takes the form of explicit avowals of racial inferiority does not mean that someone who denies racial inferiority, like Genovese, is racist. Finally, Gramsci does not limit his notions of capitalsim--for one, he applies them expressly to the ancient world and theRenaissance, and even if he did, Genovese's genius was in extending them to capitalism.

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CB: If you were to read or understand what I said, or Aptheker says, you would realize that it doesn't matter if Genovese claims to be using Gramsci's logic , he is still putting forth a racist and false thesis regarding U.S. slavery. I like Gramsci, but where exactly has Gramsciism led a revolutionary struggle ? Why is it that self-proclaimed rightwingers are "using" his thinking ?

Claiming Genovese has "genius" is an example of your "not great" thinking.

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Do you write your briefs to the court this way, Charles?

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CB: Why do you constantly tell people on these lists that you are a lawyer ? To reassure yourself that you are one of us ? You seem kind of wet behind the ears to me.

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