>>> sawicky at bellatlantic.net 08/06/01 06:55PM >>>
I wasn't making any claim about blacks
here having power, except insofar as
they have not been great re: the local
Hispanic community. Not that whites
would be any better. Oppress was meant
a bit facetiously, to note the diversity
within a nominally black area. In other
words, I don't think you can find a black
nation within the U.S.
(((((((((
CB: Yes, I would say that Black people in the U..S are an oppressed nationality-race, not full nation. Of course, considering the title of this thread, I am not sure that Jews were a full nation in Europe, as they were highly integrated into the European population in ways analogous to what you say of Black people in the U.S. Yet, as I said earlier, Leninists defend the right of Jewish people to national self-determination and national liberation, the right of the State of Israel to exist.... so...
(((((((((
I do not mean to claim that blacks oppress whites in D.C. If you want to see real oppression, try getting your car inspected, but in that case everyone here suffers regardless of race, creed or color.
Now that you mention it, I would argue that blacks in D.C. have less power than in Newark or Detroit.
(((((((((
CB: Charles Diggs' battle for home rule for D.C. is very much in reverse since I worked at that the House District of Columbia Committee in '76.
Here the authentic (in terms of popularity) local politicians were destroyed by the Washington Post and the U.S. Congress while President Bill was diddling M.L. Now they're working on P.G. County. The Mayor and police are utter tools of capital with zero political roots.
mbs
(((((((
CB: Max, regarding your n.b, I am sympathetic to the fact that for white people living in a majority Black city there are local power dynamics that make the claim that Black people don't have power , well, not jive with your day to day experience.
But this is is something of an illusion of immediate experience. You know about positivism, and basing a scientific conclusion on only your immediate experience. You know that in the overall larger , national picture , using sociological and economic and other social scientifc data etc., power resides with whites relative to Blacks.
I don't mean this makes it ok that you feel like an oppressed minority in your local city.