[lbo-talk] White supremacy (Was Tim Wise.)

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Jul 9 12:34:39 PDT 2013


There is a severe problem of naming here. The word "Racism" only makes sense as referring to an ideology, and it is nonsense to speak of "figting" an ideology: one needs rather to destroy the material base of the ideology. But the "problem" of the "Color Line" remains as central to u.s. politics as it was when Du Bois wrote a century ago. It is NOT a "problem" of personal opinion or personal prejudice. Prejudice is what needs to be explained; it explains nothing.

I leave to others working out a better vocabulary for the discussion.

I haven't read anything by Wise in over a decade or two, but what I gather is that he is concerned with "changing minds and hearts". That's a shuck.

Carrol


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Marv Gandall
> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 2:17 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] White supremacy (Was Tim Wise.)
>
>
> On 2013-07-09, at 11:13 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> > On Jul 9, 2013, at 10:43 AM, Marv Gandall <marvgand2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> A 2010 study reported income inequality up fourfold since the Reagan
> years.
> >
> > That's not mathematically possible. Measured how?
>
> I don't know. I tried to link to the Brandeis study, but the link appears
to be
> broken. Maybe you or someone else will have better luck.
>
> Here's a reference to the study:
>
> http://policyforresults.blogspot.ca/2010/06/racial-wealth-gap-increases-
> fourfold-in.html
> Wednesday, June 16, 2010
>
> The Racial Wealth Gap Increases Fourfold in One Generation
>
> In a recent research and policy brief, the Institute on Assets and Social
Policy
> (IASP) at Brandeis University discusses its finding that the racial wealth
gap
> has increased fourfold over the past generation, from $20,000 to $95,000.
>
> IASP's data highlight a significant growth in assets among white families
> between 1983 and 2007, with the greatest wealth accrued to highest income
> whites. During this time period, however, high-income African American
> families' wealth grew only 25% as much as middle-income white families'.
>
> The disparity in income growth was accompanied by a disproportionate
> increase in the negative wealth, or debt burden, of African American
families.
> In each year of the study, at least 25% of African American families had
no
> assets.
>
> The expanding racial wealth gap indicates that public policies to support
> family asset-building and economic mobility are not fully addressing the
> problem. The data show that job achievement alone cannot predict family
> wealth holdings; universal policies do not necessarily translate to
universal
> wealth-building outcomes. To close the racial wealth gap, IASP argues,
asset-
> building policies must be revisited and targeted to families of color
whose
> economic security has remained more tenuous than their peers in the
> workforce.
>
>
> > There is now a nontrivial black professional/managerial class. Such a
thing
> barely existed just a generation ago.
>
> Sure. I noted that the culture is now more tolerant and opportunities have
> opened up for educated blacks. But that's no indication that, as you put
it,
> "this notion of white supremacy is way way out of date - which, of course,
> doesn't stop people from robotically reciting it as if nothing has changed
> since 1957."
>
> You don't agree that white supremacy is an ongoing structural feature of
US
> capitalism? You really think the concept lost its validity after the
passage of
> the Civil Rights Act by the Johnson administration in 1964?
>
> Here's a contemporary example of how it's being expressed in Detroit, CB's
> home town. The wealthy white suburbanites would rather the city gut black
> working class pensions and other benefits rather than sell off parts of
its art
> collection in the Detroit Institute of Art. The city should do neither,
but you
> get the point.
>
> Should Detroit sell its art?
> Motown steps on Degas
> The suburbs and the city disagree
> The Economist
> Jul 6th 2013
>
> ONE of the masterpieces in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is James
> Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold". Ominous dark shadows are
> punctuated with the light of fireworks falling to Earth. It is an "urban,
> ephemeral, indescribable spectacle", says the blurb. It is "a pot of paint
> [flung] in the public's face", harrumphed John Ruskin, a Victorian critic.
It
> could also be a metaphor for the rise and fall of Motown, not least since
it is
> one of many works the bankrupt city may sell to pay off its debts.
>
>
> Detroit has one of the finest art collections in America, including works
by
> Van Gogh, Degas, Matisse and Bruegel the Elder. Murals by Diego Rivera,
> commissioned in the 1930s, show muscular workers cranking out cars in a
> Ford factory.
>
> Many of those factory jobs have now left. (Some have gone to Rivera's
native
> Mexico.) Detroit's population has collapsed. With a shrunken tax base, the
> city cannot service its debts of more than $17 billion, or $25,000 for
every
> resident.
>
> Desperate times call for harsh measures. Kevyn Orr, the city's emergency
> manager, who was appointed this year with almost dictatorial powers to
turn
> the city's finances around, has ordered an inventory of the treasures in
the
> DIA. These were valued at $1 billion in 2004; they may be worth more now.
If
> Detroit formally declares bankruptcy, they may be sold. That would be
> controversial.
>
> Many affluent suburbanites hate the idea. The suburbs that encircle
Detroit
> are politically separate: suburbanites neither pay city taxes nor send
their
> kids to crumbling city schools. But they do like to visit the art museum
from
> time to time. Only last year, they voted to pay a special tax to subsidise
it.
>
> Even more appalling, for many suburbanites, is the prospect that the
> proceeds would bail out what they see as a corrupt and incompetent city
> government. In March a former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was convicted on
> two dozen charges, including racketeering and bribery. The city council is
in
> chaos: its president has gone missing, amid allegations of an
inappropriate
> relationship with a high-school boy. A third of the council seats are
empty.
> "You start to get numb. This week it was the DIA, last week something
else,"
> says Paul Tyll, an engineer who lives in the suburbs and voted for the DIA
tax.
>
> Race aggravates matters. The city is 83% black. Adjacent Oakland County is
> 77% white, and more than twice as rich. Suburbanites are glad that the
> governor of Michigan has appointed an emergency manager to sort out the
> city. In a poll, 78% of voters of Oakland County approved, against only
41% in
> Detroit itself.
>
> The DIA is unusual in that it is directly owned by the city. Art museums
> elsewhere are typically owned by non-profit foundations. So whereas other
> struggling rust-belt cities with great art collections, such as Toledo and
> Cleveland, probably could not sell them to repay their creditors, Detroit
> probably can.
>
> Scandalised out-of-towners are eager to prevent this. Michigan's attorney-
> general says that the artwork is held in trust and therefore cannot be
sold.
> State legislators are proposing a law that would block a debt-driven
sell-off.
> Even if Mr Orr has the law on his side, creditors and art-buyers may be
wary
> of getting tied up in court. Art-lovers hope that the red tape that helped
> wreck Detroit's economy might save its art collection.
>
> Paintings or pensions?
>
> Were the city to sell its paintings, it would lose some of its allure for
residents
> and tourists alike. Annemarie Erickson, the DIA's chief operating officer,
> argues that art can "empower all of us". But many residents will grasp at
> anything that means their pensions might be paid, or the streetlights
might
> start working again. "I earned that pension," says Robert Jones, a retired
> police officer who now helps run a car park outside the Detroit Tigers'
> baseball stadium. "Paintings?" asks Carl, a ticket-scalper outside the
same
> stadium: "What do I need with paintings?"
>
>
>
>
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