Theory cannot control or dictate practice. That does not mean that theory is not essential to practice.
There also needs to be a more conscious recognition of the need to use the same word to name quite different and even contradictory "things" [res] out there in the world. Certainly it is unavoidable in clear thought to use the word "racism" in such contradictory ways. It names BOTH what we cannot fight and what we must fight. We must use the word constantly in both of these senses.
Marv writes:
****I take it from your comments that the US left should be abstaining from the spontaneous protests which have erupted against the Zimmerman acquittal because they cannot possibly have any effect on public consciousness. Ditto for demonstrations and other forms of political action which have periodically been organized to protest against the disproportionate number of unemployed blacks in the job market. Also of no concern for American leftists, who need to understand that racism is not simply a matter of "personal attitudes".
Would you participate in these protests if you were satisfied they were typically organized by a broad spectrum of political opinion within the black and other minority communities and weren't the product of a "bunch of screaming leftists jumping up and down"?****(
Marv is essentially correct here. We must in f act as parts of building effective resistance to capitalism engage in more and more jumping up and down screaming "racist" But that jumping up and down must always occur in the context of mobilizing response to specific abuses. In the case of the Zimmerman affair the context is that of building relationships among black and white leftists. The verdict was a direct attack on Black Americans; I would suggest and analogy with Carter's silence in response to a letter from Romero: that silence was in effect signing Romero's death warrant. Silence on the Zimmerman case signs the death warrant of thousands of young black people in the coming decade.
But highly conscious leftists must also continue a theoretical analysis of the situation of Blacks in the U.S., and this theoretical analysis requires recognition of the way in which ideology operates. Such an analysis must recognize that Police Departments in the U.S., as police, are racist. Careful theory will critique what "racist" means in such a statement. Thanks, primarily, to Malcolm, SNCC, MLK, & the Panthers we made gains in this theoretical task in the '60s; most of those gains have been lost. It's time to recover them.
The essential problem of u.s. politics remains the Color Line.
Carrol
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