--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Acceptable to whom? Are you referring to the owners
> of the record
> companies, the people who buy the records, or
> members of this "social group"
I should have put acceptable in the quotation marks. What I meant is that it is not seen as abnoxious when black musicians send these messages (undoubtedly, this is linked to stereotypes of this being as "normal" behavior of this group of people). Can you imagine the uproar if the same lyrics were sung by a white band, let alone.
But the main point was to give an example of Marx's concept of lumpen playing a reactionary role in a modern society. Another example may be the militia or minutemen who terrorize the working class of Mexican origin - again, reactionary to the bone, albeit not necessarily playing into the hands of capitalists who benefit from cheap Mexcican labor. Again, they may be perceived as "acceptable" because they seem to be "protecting" the US working class, but in fact they undermine working class solidarity.
Wojtek
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