My hypothesis is that "race may be a statistically significant variable" if we poll on the topic of Iraqi resistance to the occupation in the USA, not that only people of color can speak about it. Surely not an unreasonable hypothesis, given big racial gaps in opinions about the invasion of Iraq that we've seen (e.g., <http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0226-07.htm>) and monumental racial/national differences in feelings about relative paucity of the Iraqi military's resistance during the early stage of the invasion.
***** Reaction to Lack of Iraqi Military Resistance
Happy Disappointed Morocco 3 93 Jordan 8 91 Lebanon 11 82 Turkey 13 82 Indonesia 15 82 Palestine 16 81 Pakistan 12 74 S Korea 26 58 Brazil 40 50 Russia 24 45 Nigeria 54 38 France 59 30 Kuwait 61 29 Spain 68 17 Israel 77 17 Germany 81 11 Italy 83 11
("Views of a Changing World 2003: War With Iraq Further Divides Global Publics," June 3, 2003, <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=185>) *****
The overall pattern is that West European nations tended to feel happy about relative paucity of Iraqi military resistance and nations whose populations are mostly people of color tended to feel disappointed about it. The racial polarization is striking, given that anti-war actions and sentiments were probably as strong in France, Spain, Germany, and Italy as in Brazil and South Korea.
>For example, black Americans have been voting heavily for John
>Kerry in the Dem primaries, and are almost certain to vote in large
>numbers for whoever the Dem nominee is this fall. Those primary
>votes have been cast despite the presence of some seriously
>left-of-center candidates (Kucinich, Sharpton, and Braun, the last
>two of whom are black, and who should presumably benefit from that
>mysterious affinity).
Kucinich, Sharpton, and Braun basically doomed themselves when all three chose to run and the mass media decided, early on, Dean was the only anti-war candidate worth mentioning. Besides, no one significantly to the left of center gets nominated by Democratic caucus and primary voters. Such left-wing Democratic candidates won't be able to collect enough money, and folks to whom they need to appeal -- lower-income working-class folks, especially poor working-class people of color -- tend not to vote at all.
>As Donna Brazile said the other day, she's been telling Sharpton
>that the main concern of the black electorate is getting rid of Bush
In 2000, 53.5% of the total Black voting-age population voted, of whom about 90% voted for Gore. So, only less than half of the voting-age Blacks are committed enough to the Democratic Party to register and vote for Democratic candidates. During non-presidential election years, even smaller proportions show up: 39.6% in 1998. Even against Bush, I doubt that Kerry will draw as high a proportion of Black voters as the Jesse Jackson/Rainbow Coalition-induced upsurge in 1984 (55.8% of the total Black voting age population, and 60.6% of the total Black voting-age citizen population). The Green Party and social movement organizers might try to engage the poorer half of Blacks who don't usually vote before trying to appeal to any other strata of Blacks.
>[lbo-talk] LBO-Talk = Outliers (What Do The Iraqi Resistance Debates
>And The Mars Rovers Debates Have In Common?)
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Mon Feb 16 07:54:07 PST 2004
<snip>
>Apprently, in the Yoshie worldview, you can't believe in complexity
>or ambivalence.
That's called projection, Doug. You asked me if I "admire the 'resistance' because they can blow stuff up" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040209/003237.html>). Obviously, you refuse to see any complexity in my postings despite my fairly conscientious efforts (by the standards of listserv discussion, that is) to offer available data and explain why I'm saying what I'm saying -- otherwise, you wouldn't ask such a question.
As for ambivalence, the word means that one's feelings and thoughts are torn between two opposite sides -- positive and negative, etc. toward which one is equally drawn. I've heard your remarks about the armed resistance in Iraq that count as negative, but I've yet to hear from you any remark that suggests a positive assessment of it. You may be ambivalent about many things -- like capitalism and imperialism for instance -- but you don't seem ambivalent about the armed struggle in Iraq. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>