On Aug 3, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Julio Huato wrote:
> Doug Henwood asked:
>
>> Do you approve of this piece of nonsense, or are you forwarding it the
>> way a pathologist might want to share an interesting lesion (a "fascinoma,"
>> I once heard) with colleagues?
>
> I have stated my own views on Obama. This, however, is a viewpoint
> that I respect. I believe that these views reflect the needs of
> comrades who are involved in working class organizing, particularly in
> African American and Latino settings. Of course, people in other
> settings (e.g. in these lists, which are not to be dismissed or
> underestimated) have different needs. But these political activists
> have to relate to very specific groups of people, folks who support
> Obama for raw ethnic and racial reasons and who start from a very high
> level of alienation. I'd be curious to know how you address or bypass
> these sentiments in an effort to help these people get organized.
I don't know, but what you're talking about is part of the structural political problem of the U.S. "Raw ethnic and racial reasons" and "a high level of alienation" means "not a clue about what's going on." This is a POV to understand, I suppose, but "respect"? I know you can't tell people who believe these things that they're fucked, but they are, so how do you make the point?
Doug