<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Kelley:
<BR>
<BR>You and I have a rather different appraisal of the value and substance of
<BR>McGee's intervention on this topic. I see little or nothing of substance in
<BR>what he had to say; at best, it was 9 parts invective for every 1 part
<BR>substance. Perhaps it is because I have seen him engage in precisely this
<BR>type of intervention on a number of different listservs that it seems like
<BR>the same old "race baiting" to me.
<BR>
<BR>Truth were to be told, there have been no really substantive contributions on
<BR>the topic of reparations in this exchange, but that is at least in part the
<BR>effect [I would even go so far as to say the _desired_ effect] of McGee's
<BR>intervention: we are not supposed to have a discussion on its efficacy as a
<BR>political strategy -- the commissar has spoken, and that is all we need to
<BR>know.
<BR>
<BR>But it is the efficacy of reparations as a political strategy to bring even a
<BR>modicum of justice to the African-American [and native Americans and so on]
<BR>that must be discussed. For if we are to be serious about anti-racist
<BR>politics and struggle, if it is not to an arena we simply cede to the
<BR>intellectual bullies and then ignore, then surely we must have some
<BR>confidence that the strategies we support and pursue have some reasonable
<BR>hope of success. Reparations has such a political efficacy in South Africa
<BR>today, and it has had such an efficacy for Holocaust survivors, but it is/was
<BR>the particular historical circumstances, with the widely acknowledged sense
<BR>of governmental and national responsibility for the most vicious acts of
<BR>racism, combined with what they saw as an indisputable connection between
<BR>those acts and individuals who had directly suffered from them, which made it
<BR>possible to undertake reparations on a mass scale in both instances. There is
<BR>nothing remotely like that in the US today. As a political strategy with any
<BR>reasonable hope of success in any near or middle term, reparations in the US
<BR>will be very limited to specific historic acts, like Rosewood and the Tulsa
<BR>riots, where state governments provide token monetary compensation to a small
<BR>number of living survivors; this also follows from the situation of the
<BR>rather limited compensation given to the remaining survivors of the
<BR>Japanese-American internment camps during WWII.
<BR>
<BR>But if you want a political strategy with some hope of success, if you think
<BR>that it might actually be important to remedy at least some of the injustices
<BR>which African-Americans face because of the institutions, structures, and
<BR>legacies of Racism, and do it some time "before the long run" and "the
<BR>revolution," whenever those millenial moments will occur, reparations are not
<BR>the means to that end. I am not about to take up the struggle for
<BR>reparations, for example, as a means to providing African-American children
<BR>with a quality public education; there are many far more promising strategies
<BR>for achieving that very important end. For some "revolutionary" nationalist
<BR>folk, this lack of political efficacy does not matter, however, because
<BR>either (1) they don't believe that any remedy of racist injustice is possible
<BR>in a multi-racial American society, or under capitalism, etc., or (2) what is
<BR>more important is the way in which the demand reparations contributes to the
<BR>production of a certain narrative of African 'nationhood' in the Americas. I
<BR>think that, at the very least, they should be upfront about those
<BR>presuppositions, and be prepared to debate and defend them.
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">i agree that art engaged in the old standby --action/practice is somehow
<BR>more important that discussion and theorizing. i've spoken often here
<BR>about how silly such comments are -- at a discussion list. i've also
<BR>spoken about how sexist i think they are -- generally when i rag on carrol
<BR>or mike yates for thinking we spend too much time in front of a computer
<BR>instead of organizing, etc. i thought about responding but thought
<BR>better of it b/c i think it happens a great deal and, indeed, leo, you've
<BR>made similar gestures yourself.
<BR>
<BR>art made an appropriate critique -- it is a comment grounded in a great
<BR>deal of theorizing on the part of people of color. i'm most familiar with
<BR>it in terms of feminists of color: bell hooks, gloria anzaldua, gloria
<BR>yamato, etc.
<BR>
<BR>i think brad's comment was useless. utterly useless, at best --
<BR>particularly from someone who generally manages to pump out some major k's
<BR>on other topics. doug at least had a theoretical critique! it was useless
<BR>because he seemed to make an equivalence. there wasn't one. white people
<BR>speaking about black nationalism and reparations is fine -- as is men
<BR>speaking about feminist theory and practice -- but do your fucking homework
<BR>and don't be surprised if someone steps out of the shadows and upbraids you
<BR>for not doing your homework. people who spend a lot of their time reading
<BR>and pontificating because that's their work or because that's what their
<BR>lives afford at the moment --like us --the us that bitches about dumb
<BR>conservatives -- owe one another that much.
<BR>
<BR>kelley</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
<BR>
<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --
<BR>
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