On Oct 13, 2009, at 3:31 PM, Voyou wrote:
> I'm not sure that's right. It's odd to characterize shag as arguing
> against orthodox Marxism, when one of the things she has been
> criticizing Michaels for is his non-Marxist understanding of class.
> Even
> if you re-interpret Michaels's point in Marxist terms, the problem is
> not over-emphasizing the base at the expense of the superstructure;
> the
> problem is considering race and gender to be parts of the
> superstructure
> while class is part of the base. Michaels's diminishing of politics
> structured around race and gender isn't an emphasis on the base, in
> fact
> it's the opposite, because race and gender are crucial parts of the
> base.
Lest I once more be accused of not debating, I'm going to respond to this. I don't think Michaels' point is that race and sex aren't important, but that a certain kind of politics - that practiced by some academics, foundation officers, people around Pacifica, the dwindling band of Obama enthusiasts - is interested in addressing only issues of race and sex while leaving class relations totally untouched. No one, least of all me, is arguing that x isn't lived through y or vice versa, but that elite liberals and even some Wise- ish leftists don't really give a shit about exploitation in the Marxist sense. They care about it sometimes in the colloquial sense - very low wage workers, which some foundations love - but not in the classical Marxist sense.
I've been attacked on this stuff by a fellow named Ludovic Blain, who self-identifies as an anti-racist activist. His day job is running something called the Close the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative. His job description:
<http://www.insightcced.org/about-us/staff-new/ludovic-blain.html>
> Ludovic Blain III joined the Insight Center in January of 2009 as
> Program Manager of the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative
> (CRWG), a national effort to close the racial wealth gap for the
> next generation. The initiative includes the Experts of Color
> Clearinghouse, a resource that brings together and showcases the
> asset-building work of experts of color, and serves as a conduit for
> organizations seeking people with asset-building expertise for
> speaking engagements, program assistance, or filling staff and board
> positions. He’s developing strategies to inject Clearinghouse
> members into the public dialogue and policy discussions.
This is exactly the sort of thing that Michaels talked about in the NLR and LRB articles: the problem isn't the unequal distribution itself, but the fact that it's color-coded.
Doug