I've never said that color is _the_ determinant of politics -- what I said is that race is "a statistically significant variable," a proposition that seems uncontroversial on LBO-talk only when it comes to discussing Democratic votes of the top third to half of Black communities in the USA. . . . :-> Carrol is white, Shane is white, Steve is white, etc. Not every white man is an Angry White Man, a loose cannon with an axe to grind; and some people of color (Dinesh D'Souza, Clarence Thomas, etc.), for reasons of their own (mainly class), buy or even sell virtually the same politics (naturally packaged in different colors since doing so helps!) as Angry White Men's on race and other matters, retail or wholesale.
I was almost tempted to say that Hell Hath No Fury Like Liberals Scorned, but then again, local friends of mine who work directly or indirectly for the Democratic Party -- some employed, others volunteering -- don't act like Angry White Men of LBO-talk at all. Instead, they courteously solicit my support, because they know that I have resources they want (large lists of activists, etc.) and assisted them when their objectives and mine coincided. :-> It is curious indeed that Angry White Men are acting as if their mad fury could help them advance their positions (whatever they respectively are).
>[lbo-talk] LBO-Talk = Outliers (What Do The Iraqi Resistance ...)
>Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org, Wed Feb 18 08:35:14 PST 2004
<snip>
>The U.S. war on Iraq is racist.
<snip>
>The U.S. is carrying out the White Man's Burden-2004 in Iraq.
>
>I believe Yoshie was examining whether the racist nature of the
>U.S. war is reflected or correlated with races of listers positions
>on the issue of "resistance" vs "terrorism". It is not at all beyond
>appropriate discussion to consider whether sensitivity to racism in
>the US war on Iraq is greater in people of color ! And there
>doesn't have to be a perfect correlation just like there doesn't
>have to be in any other statistical analysis.
I've already posted some empirical evidence from opinion polls at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040216/003501.html>, as many LBO-talk subscribers are addicted to polls, but the results of the polls have been practically ignored.
Race, originally a product of chattel slavery and genocide of indigenous peoples, correlates with memories of colonial conquests, foreign occupations, etc., in my opinion.
And there have been a number of contributions from Black and other writers who think that race matters in responses to the invasion of Iraq and related subjects: Derrick Z. Jackson, "Blacks Have Good Cause to Oppose War in Iraq," <http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0226-07.htm >; David Graham Du Bois, "Iraq, War, & Color Racism," <http://www.blackcommentator.com/14_gc_1.html>; Walter Mosley, "Ignorance Is Not Bliss," <http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0729-12.htm>; Malik Miah, "Race and Class: Blacks and the War on Iraq," <http://solidarity.igc.org/atc/miah104.html>; etc.
>For a white person to accuse a person of color of racebaiting for
>same is, in my opinion, racism itself. It is the typical racism of
>this period in the U.S. - Reaganite or new racism, which denies that
>racism still exists (including on the left). Say something like "I'm
>uncomfortable with talking about race... and what about this that
>doesn't fit your correlation ." But to accuse a person of color of
>racebaiting is be like the Detroit News or New York Times or some
>other racist institution. The represssion of raising racism is one
>of the main forms of racist repression today.
Google the Net with the key word "race-baiting," and what do we find? Here are the top three:
***** Discriminations: Kerry, Edwards Engage In Racebaiting Archives Kerry, Edwards Engage In Racebaiting, January 21, 2004. « Previous Entry | Back to Discriminations | Next Entry » Redbaiting was ... www.discriminations.us/storage/002410.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Armstrong Williams ... Books by Town Hall columnists. Armstrong Williams (archive) (printer-friendly version). October 9, 2002. Race baiting alive and well. ... www.townhall.com/columnists/Armstrongwilliams/ aw20021009.shtml - 38k - Cached - Similar pages
McCarthyite Race-Baiting by the Left Ferreting out Republican ... ... McCarthyite Race-Baiting by the Left Ferreting out Republican Racists by Murray Soupcoff The Iconoclast 21 December 2002. Trent Lott's ... www.intellectualconservative.com/article2051.html - 13k - Cached - Similar pages *****
>[lbo-talk] Race & Opinions
>Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu, Thu Feb 19 08:57:56 PST 2004
<snip>
>Doug:
>>You've got a point, but isn't it just a bit troubling that the
>>people who make this kind of argument are usually white men?
<snip>
>any politics that asks for blank endorsement based on group identity
>and downplays that within-group diversity is a bunch of steaming
>crap that stinks equally bad in any group
>[lbo-talk] Race & Opinions Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com Thu
>Feb 19 10:53:26 PST 2004
<snip>
>African Americans, descendents of slaves, victims of kluxer
>terrorism and targets of Jim Crow, etc, etc, were incapable of
>having political views outside of the 'progressive' frame.
<snip>
>black became all good and white mostly bad
To repeat, my comment is (1) that race is "a statistically significant variable," not (2) that it is possible or desirable to "[ask] for blanket endorsement based on group identity" and downplay "within-group diversity" or that "African Americans, descendents of slaves, victims of kluxer terrorism and targets of Jim Crow, etc, etc, were incapable of having political views outside of the 'progressive' frame." I don't understand why (1) gets translated into (2). One LBO-talk subscriber or another always pipes up demanding "nuance" and "complexity" in analysis and politics, but it's no wonder if they can't find enough nuance or complexity here -- they keep setting up one straw man after another.
Race matters, sometimes a great deal, but within each race, the rich and powerful tend to take positions that support the empire:
****** Occupation as Reparations?
Danzel van Zyl is a Black South African lawyer currently working with the Africa Program of the International Human Rights Law Group, in Washington, DC. He takes exception to our insistence that the U.S. has no right to impose _anything_ on the Iraqi nation.
"It seems that you are supporting the unequivocal return of US troops from Iraq.
Doesn't the US have a moral obligation now to restore Iraqi society at least to the status quo ante? Why can't the US troops stay to at least form part of a larger UN force? Reality is that Iraq needs to be rebuilt. I know it's a catch-22 situation, but the Iraqi people need the world community now more than ever. There's a price to pay for bad policies like pre-emptive warfare. The price tag for America is numbered in human lives. And that's the price that the US must be willing to pay. By bringing the troops home, the US will default in servicing their debt to the Iraqi people and the world community."
Attorney van Zyl appears ready to accept U.S. occupation of Iraq as a kind of reparations, a curious concept. The actual American "reconstruction" blueprint, of course, is designed to establish U.S. corporate and military dominance of Iraq. Morally and under international law, the U.S. has no right to "rebuild" Iraq to American specifications. The U.S. had no right to invade, and none to stay. Period. This is not an American conversation to have. Nor can the U.S. invader choose which Iraqis speak for the sovereignty of the nation. That's the drunken Indian "chief" strategy, through which much of the "West" was "won."
The U.S. did commit a crime, but it cannot choose convenient and profitable methods of atonement, especially while the crime is still in progress. A sovereign Iraqi government would likely repudiate many of the arrangements now being made by the U.S. on their nation's behalf. However, we are certain they would accept a multi-billion dollar check for reparations, if offered.
Van Zyl's employer, the International Human Rights Law Group, is a decidedly upscale outfit. Its board is comprised of partners from such high-powered political firms as Covington & Burling, Arnold & Porter, and Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.
<http://www.blackcommentator.com/59/59_email.html> *****
>[lbo-talk] Race & Opinions
>Grant Lee grantlee at iinet.net.au, Wed Feb 18 00:51:32 PST 2004
<snip>
>>Exceptions exist -- for instance, there are some Blacks, Asians,
>>and others -- mostly richer and more conservative than others of
>>their races -- who feel the same way about race as most whites
>
>If you are saying that the standard mode of bourgeois people of
>colour is to pretend that race is "not an issue, I would disagree.
>It may be true of people in professional/managerial positions, but
>there are plenty of examples of ethnic minority entrepreneurs using
>race as a networking/marketing/political device and/or in
>rent-seeking from liberal/social-democratic states (c.f./e.g. my
>recent post on the riot in Sydney).
Sure, pork-chop nationalists exist, but I've always felt that some white leftists' attitudes toward them are a little out of proportion to the size of the problem. When white leftists begin speaking against pork-chop nationalists more often and more vociferously than against white supremacists and imperialists, it's a sign that they are back to upholding the White Man's Burden. -- 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/>