BK on Identity

christian11 at mindspring.com christian11 at mindspring.com
Thu Mar 1 07:30:52 PST 2001


Yoshie wrote:


>The term "residual" doesn't fit very well with slavery in North
America, in that prior to its emergence, indigenous tribes knew nothing of the kind, nor did colonists succeed in imposing it on them though they tried; modern slavery wasn't an import from colonists' or slaves' homelands either. It seems more accurate to say that it was
>a _novel_ social formation in North America.


>The emphasis of Brenner's argument falls upon the idea that modern
slavery & its ideological offshoot racism were _contingent outcomes of multi-faceted class struggles_, fought in Africa as well as North America:
>

Agreed. Why I cited Raymond Williams. As for novelty, you're right about that too, but it doesn't contradict the point I wanted to make (and that you make here): "race" was not capital's byproduct, but the outcome of a struggle to make capital.

Christian



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