----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Brown" <cbrown at michiganlegal.org>
^^^^^^^ CB: Used comparable to the characterization of a rural working class _area_ as "redneck" is not the only way that white, leftists shouldn't use it. White leftist will likely lose all ability to unite with hardly any Black people for struggle if they use the word so freely and easily. In other words, pace Justin, white leftists should be pc in their usage of it. Only use it in private with your close Black friends who are cool with you , or whatever. Rappers have not created a general license for white people to use the word inoffensibly. There's a lot of criticism among Black people of rappers for using it.
As to exacltly how it was used, its in posts from the last week or so. I thought of it at the time but I didn't say anything at the time.
As I say, I tend to defer to Kelley's judgment on the "r"word, as she has for a long time reported that as _part_ or her identity, as opposed to most others here. I think it's alright for people to discuss it with her,( and a number of worthwhile ideas have been put on the thread by Kelley and others) but I don't think they should be scolding her, rather discussing it in a comradely manner.
On the self-criticism, by using it and discussing it, Kelley may contribute toward ways of communicating with "rural working class" folks politically. How does anyone here really know that Kelley doesn't use it ( and the whole lingo she used on this thread)in an entirely appropriate manner with rural w.c. folks _and_ make better political "contact" thereby.
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Maybe people should calm down and have a look at UW prof. Lucy Jarosz' [who I had the *great* fortune to meet in early summer '99] essay in Antipode:
2002 Lucy Jarosz and Victoria Lawson, "Sophisticated People Versus Rednecks: Economic Restructuring and Class Difference in America's West," Antipode 34:1:8-27.
It's a great paper that raises lots of questions about class composition, self-description, ascription etc....
Ian