[lbo-talk] lbo-talk Digest, Vol 1736, Issue 3

Eric Beck ersatzdog at gmail.com
Mon Oct 31 07:40:05 PDT 2011



>> There are many things I admire about Angela Davis, and I have warm
>> memories of being on a panel with her at Rethinking Marxism 2000. She was
>> wise and very gracious. But she reportedly told the OWS gathering at
>> Zuccotti tonight to: 1) identify with Troy Davis, and 2) study the Attica
>> prisoners for pointers on how to become a "dangerous class."

In the interests of civility and because self-control is not one of my virtues, I won't chime in with agreement and emphasis on Aren's excellent political points, but....

Doug, you like to complain about how people comment on things they've not watched/read, but here you are reporting on something you've not watched or heard. I know that because you say "reportedly" and because you misrepresent what she actually said: 1) she never says "identify with Troy Davis"; she says "honor," and she elaborates on what "I am Troy Davis" means and should mean, but she never suggests an uncomplicated "identify" with; 2) she says the Attica prisoners *became* a dangerous class when men of all races coming together to organize and fight against their common enemies; what you assume (symptomatically, I'd venture) to be a valorization of lumpen-ness is actually a lot more complicated than that.

Sounds like you were passed some bad information. It happens. But maybe you should think twice about passing it on *and* commenting on it (at least Jodi Dean only passed along a rumor) until you can verify. Just a journalistic suggestion.



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