[lbo-talk] Michaels, Against Diversity

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Oct 6 10:02:33 PDT 2009


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Oct 5, 2009, at 3:58 PM, Alan Rudy wrote:
>
> > In re: audience... are those folks working with the poor and
> > imprisoned
> > going to hear Michaels much differently than me? does he ever
> > engage folks
> > working within ten miles of his office?
>
> Do you have to show your activist credentials to offer a critique?
>
Definitely not. In fact one should never ask what the "credentials" of a writer are.

But that is not what Alan asked, and you badly misconstrued his question.

Put it this way:

(1)Q critiques Group A

(2) Does Q know anythikng about Group A.

You don't have to be a MEMBER of Group A to critique it, but you do have to offer some evidence that you know something about it.

A whole book can't really be about a random collection of individuals, nor can it be about a group which it fails to identify as an actual group.

It is easy to make up (on the basis of two or three personally known instances) some large entity and write a scathing critique of it. But unless that entity is a signficant one with actual influence within a specified context, the critique is shadow-boxing.

Carrol



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