[lbo-talk] The paradox of southern racism

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Fri Jan 27 11:57:15 PST 2012


), should have learnt by now to both understand the lives of black people and worked out ways to live with them. However, despite their higher rates of poverty (and therefore, likely, dependence on welfare programs), white people in these very states seem to be the ones who respond enthusiastically to dog whistles (or direct attacks) tying welfare to black people.

Thoughts?

—ravi

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I've never been to a southern state, so I am probably talking out my ass. Oklahoma is about as close as I got, in the long ago. The simple answer (guessing) is a very hidebound system of class and caste, where blacks are at the bottom, with some allowed exceptions, and white trash (poor and uneducated) come just above. Much a do about manners and customs from the southern white bourgeoisie. The control of local politics are probably in the hands of some very few old families locked into corporate and or landed wealth of some sort.... Jimmy Carter comes to mind as a representative sample. His liberalism is pretty thin, while there is also a kindly intended paternalism that has its caste-class distinctions. This worldview is captured in the NGO movements that plaque Africa in particular.

Another example is the Clinton-Bush duo does Haiti, for its own good, of course...

CG CG



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