Let's start out this way. Whites do not exist; only Blacks exist. Edwards was a presidential candidate. Obama was a black presidential candidate. This is even clearer if you go back to coverage of the 1988 primaries. Say in a conversation you are trying to identify a person at a party both of you attended. You say, "the tall woman in a red dress," but if that tall woman was also black, this description will not work most of the time. You will have to identify her as black.
The struggle for a minimally decent society in the U.S. is at its core a struggle against racism. Marx recognized that; why can't lbo posters. The worker will never be free in a white skin until workers in a black skin are free. It is impossible to "fight poverty" in the us. Without grounding that fight in a fight against racism. It is impossible to fight torture in the prisons without grounding it in a fight against racism. Without seeing the centrality of racism in u.s. life it is impossible to mount a really significant struggle for or against any thing. The defense of social security should first of all be a struggle against racism. And so forth.
But let me emphasize again that this topic should not have come up in discussions of OWS except within particular Occupations. OWS is a process, a process raising again the possibility of a U.S. left. It is a beginning stage. Only its positive attributes are relevant because it is those features that we must build on.
It probably was racist to ask why there were not more Blacks in OWS. Perhaps it is really difficult to see this for those who have not been personally involved in mass work. For those without that practice, "racist" must continue to be an utterly destructive comment: To be "racist" is to be sub-human, so how dare you call me racist. But seeing Blacks as somehow different; seeing them as Black Americans instead of Americans is both unavoidable AND racist. So to engage in practical politics one has to be continually discovering and correcting racist responses in oneself. It's not evil; it's not even something to be distressed by; it's simply history; part of the terrain on which we struggle. If a person feels deeply offended at having some act or word be labeled "racist," then that person should probably get out of the kitchen. Now just as most whites (all?) find it difficult to see race historically, so, even more intensely do most (all?) Blacks. If, feeling this way, a black person is also not politically conscious, he or she is apt to blame white persons in their vicinity for being racist. That is unfair; it is destructive: but it has to be realized that it isn't that person being unfair: It is history. Get in the habit of seeing all 'evils' as not evils but history. Doug got fucked over at WBAI, and had those running the station been politically conscious that would not have happened. But really, it should be seen as history; as something history not people have done are doing.
Because you can change history but you can't change people except by changing history.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of shag carpet bomb Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 9:50 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] occupy the hood
because, historically, the struggle for a half decent society within captialist society has always been waged by murdering the bodies and/or culture of group(s) of people in order to attain it.
Speaking of Plato! Why, there it it is. Isn't it wonderful lads and lassies? See it, over there? Use the spy glass or squint if you must. Look! Yes! There it is! The Form of the Half Decent Society floating in the Heavens. Great Scott. Let us aim for it! Let us have Good Intentions! Eyes forward lads and lasses! March! March! Look to the Form of the Half Decent Society!
<> On Dec 16, 2011, at 5:59 PM, Julio Huato wrote: <> <>> In the U.S., it is the fight against the prison <>> industrial system, for jobs, for public schools, for public health <>> care, better and more public housing, affirmative-action government <>> spending, etc. as it is concretely led by Black people. <> <> The scope of the prison-industrial system is greatly exaggerated, but <> of course mass imprisonment isn't. That aside, you list specific <> things, all of which are admirable, and most of which would benefit <> people of all colors. So why phrase it as a battle against "structural <> racism" when it's also about a struggle for a half-decent society? <> ___________________________________ <> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk <>
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
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