[lbo-talk] Radical Left Critique Of Nation Article

Liza Featherstone lfeather32 at erols.com
Wed Nov 26 07:33:29 PST 2003


I think lefties may be getting more interested in the kinds of disparities that you're talking about, but many continue to be more fascination with the totally marginal: prisoners, homeless, youth etc. Even though workers making $10 per hour have a lot more social and political capital than people making nothing, and much more to gain from radical change. A while ago, I read an interesting paper by a union organizer named Steve Jenkins who argues that foundations prefer to fund leftish activities supporting the "voiceless" and "powerless" rather than the working class, because the truly powerless, by definition, don't really pose any serious threat to the status quo.

Liza


> From: kelley at pulpculture.org
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 08:56:29 -0500
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Radical Left Critique Of Nation Article
>
> At 10:49 PM 11/25/03 -0800, joanna bujes wrote:
>> Why do I never see stuff like this in radical papers? No one can bother to
>> crunch the numbers? Anything short of total revolution is useless? What?
>
> At the booster club meeting, I had the joy of listening to parents gripe
> about having to send "their" money to the entire county under a school
> funding centralization scheme that is supposedly also designed to mitigate
> segregation. You know what their tax rate is? 1%
>
> You don't know how hard it was for me to shut my mouth.
>
> The job of the booster club, we were informed, was to raise money for the
> extras we NEED under the new funding centralization plan. There are two
> reasons why we need to raise money for team sneaks (at $150 a piece; they
> fell apart after a week), warm up suits, practice suits, etc. 1]. It's
> about team spirit and solidarity. If you look good on the court, you'll
> play good. You'll play even better if you're looking waaaaay better than
> those "other" teams that don't have warm up jerseys and must provide their
> own sneak. Besides, we shouldn't have to deny ourself and wear hairshirts
> just because we have money, honey! 2]. Those extras will entice the more
> talented kids from the poorer schools.
>
> I was livid.
>
> I don't know how they're going to dupe next year's potential recruits. Once
> everyone hears about the rampant racism, no self-respecting kid will want
> to attend that school. The other day, they showed a film about slavery and
> Jim Crow. Three students whooped it up when they showed footage of blacks
> being beaten bloody, their heads cracked open against the curb. "Beat that
> n-word!" they shouted. Heee Hooo. How funny! Now, they were a minority, but
> the overt racism runs rampant. That such a racist incident was tolerated,
> that no one spoke up--I spent the night literally nauseated.
>
> These people have the _nerve_ to resent the talent that "those other" kids
> have. Like, somehow, it isn't fair that poor kids play better. Which means
> they don't even understand why poorer kids play better. It's not just about
> physical capacity, but drive. You don't get drive living in a world where
> you have plenty of choices, almost all of them leading to a college
> education and a professional career and none of them requiring that you
> practice for hours 'til your body's a sweaty pulp or keep running suicides
> up the court on a bruised ankle because this is your ONLY ticket out. Why
> do any of that unless you feel that you _have_ to? Not surprisingly, the
> talent pool shrivels up pretty quickly among more well-to-do kids.
>
> And, even if you got rid of the overt racism (fat chance), the poorer kids
> will still have to deal with the ratcheted up consumption juggernaut: buy,
> buy, buy; more, more, more; now, now, now. Anyone who doesn't live like
> they do is judged morally inferior.
>
> It't the parochial lack of recognition that anyone lives differently than
> they do. I feel extremely sorry for the people still living in their old
> neighborhoods, but sending their kids to this school. No one has considered
> that these folks have different lives. They do not have four cars in the
> family. They don't have one spouse at home. They don't have jobs that
> enable them to run out in the middle of the day to pick up Tyrone.
>
> These parents have 2 hrs. added on to their daily commute, just so their
> kid can make practices twice a day. Not one person in that booster club
> meeting thought about the fact that maybe defraying their transportation
> costs -- or heaven forbid, giving them a ride home themselves--might be
> worthwhile. Fuck, you can buy Sammy a car, why not buy Juan a car. _I'd_
> buy Juan a car before I ever thought about replacing my 13 y.o. beast.
>
> Rilly. I sat there becoming increasingly steamed listening to them boo hoo,
> make snide comments about the poorer schools, and whine about how it just
> wasn't fair that they were getting a free ride on _their_ money.
>
> We're talking the kind of $ where, I crap you negative, the kids go to
> church and get sponsorships for a fund raiser at $5 and $10 bucks a pop for
> a shoot-a-thon. IOW, without blinking an eyelash, they were shelling out a
> $400 - $800. Individual kids brought in thousands of dollars each. (By
> contrast, in our neighborhood, people were signing up for .20 - .25 cents a
> shot! The median household income for people 35-55 is 90k -- over 3 times
> the median household income of my old neighborhood, slightly more than
> twice that of my current neighborhood.
>
> Not too long ago, we had a discussion about disparities in income and
> wealth. Someone at LBO said that she's not so concerned about these huge
> disparities since at least people have enough money to buy a $120 - $150k
> home. She was concerned that some people have _no_ housing. It's not that
> some people buy $450 minolos, but that some people can't afford any shoes.
>
> Like Joanna, I don't get it. Ok, so Juan's family can afford a 6 y.o.
> mini-wagon and maybe another car. Why does Juan have to be completely
> immiserated for it to register on the lefty richter scale? In the name of
> what? Not challenging or criticizing the consumption juggernaut? In the
> name of not sounding "resentful" or "jealous"? In the name of not inciting
> feelings of "guilt"? Oh piss off.
>
> I get the idea that you're supposed to fight for the revo, that forking
> over money to the state-based social welfare is just empowering the state,
> yadda yadda. But, the fact is, this disparity is what helps drive the
> system. It greases the wheels. It is what makes it all natural, normal, and
> unquestionable. Hegemony pizza, as we used to say in grad school!
>
> The parochial sense of entitlement and snobbery exacerbates the problem.
> There is a continual upping the ante, where the consumption standard is the
> finest boutiques and department stores. Those who shop at Target or Penny's
> or MallWart are just morally inferior, members of the great unwashed who
> must be kept out by erecting 9 ft brick walls, guard shacks, and private
> security patrols. Because, dog knows, it wouldn't do to let "those" people
> get access to your private ball fields or, heck, swim at the YMCA located
> in the depths of your gated community since we all know people who make
> $145,000 a year need their own flippin' YMCA! Christian Association, my
> furry ass.
>
> Even in countries like Sweden, people try to get out of paying their taxes
> with bartering schemes. They, too, resent giving "their" money to "those"
> people. They, too, don't see how _they_ benefit. Just as these people don't
> see how they would never ever be able to buy private school tuition for
> _both_ Caitlyn and Troy for a mere $3000/yr. Even if they tripled their tax
> rate, they couldn't send their kids to private school for $9k a year.
>
> I guess making sure that everyone in a putative democracy receives a decent
> education is highway fuckin' robbery. And I guess paying a lousy, say, $20k
> income tax and school tax/year would just be unfathomable because, hey!,
> Troy might have to drive a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder instead of a 2003
> Cadillac Escalade. Oh the tragedy, the pain!
>
> Kelley
>
>
>
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