[lbo-talk] Racism is normal (Bruce Dixon)

Charles Brown charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
Fri May 23 15:56:12 PDT 2008


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The mainstream corporate news media, upon whom we can always count to help us know what's really important and why, have recently discovered that campaign workers for Barack Obama are sometimes greeted with anything from snide racist asides to full-blown hateful screeds. When a Republican governor makes jokes about Obama ducking a bullet, and a Georgia restaurant owner sells T-shirts depicting Obama as a monkey, these occurrences dominate the news cycle for more than a week.

Corporate media's breathless focus on manifestations of individual racism feed a narrative long popular in white America, a narrative central to the Obama campaign. This narrative holds that racism is nothing more nor less than an anti-social habit practiced by backward individuals, like bad table manners or public flatulence. This narrative is of course, false and misleading.

^^^ CB: The racism dominating the monopoly media reports include a claim that "white bluecollars won't vote for Barry " , Barry is an elitist toward small town white working class people, Ferraro says Black man has an advantage in Presidential election cause he's Black (logical structure of current KKK propaganda line), Rev. Wright is a racist ( main Reganite racist line that "reverse discrimination" is the current main racism). " Women are voting for Clinton", ignoring that Black women are ,uhhh, women , and they are voting for Barry;or "only white women are women" ( http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2008-May/028569.html )

_All_ of these are examples of structural/institutional, not personal/individual racism. Structural racism is crucially racist patterns in institutions such as voting, ideologies, such as "reverse discrimination" or "liberals are elitists from Northeaster cities ( i.e. Jews/educated Blacks) held by large numbers of people. That's right. Racist Ideology, generalities, invidious stereotypes are institutional racism. That is each one of these examples are not just "anti-social habits" but white power, political "habits". Masses of white people Refusing to vote for Black people for positions of power is not like farting in public. It is a gerter (spelling) in the building of institutional racism. Millions of rural workers thinking that Jews and educated Blacks are the ruling class oppressing class elite, instead of the capitalist, is not like bad table manners. It is a stupifying lack of class consciousness that allows the real rulers to continue ruling the ruled.

Amazing fact in the current situation: Huge numbers of Whites ( women and men) _are_ voting for a Black candidate for President, thereby, maybe, substantially changing a racist structure/institution. Stay tuned to see how much that structure has changed.

Barry's campaign specifically does not feed a narrative complaining about either institutional/structural or so-called individual/personal racism.

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