<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>An AWARE
post-mortem: The Reactionary Wages of Identitarian, Neoliberal Wokeness</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">David Green</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">July 28, 2020</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">This message addresses issues raised by a recent exchange on
the AWARE (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Urbana-Champaign) <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/305897426305" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Facebook</a> page, during
which Danielle Chynoweth and Elizabeth Simpson claimed that they had “co-founded”
AWARE (2001) but left “years later” because of “sexism” and “patriarchy.” The
post that they were responding to, from Carl Estabrook, promoted opposition to
abortion. Chynoweth also created a new post, stating: “I am calling for
everyone on this group to please leave it. Long ago AWARE is taken over by
sexists and should be abandoned. Good bye.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I will speak from experience, knowledge, and interpretation;
of course, I only speak for myself as someone highly if at times sporadically
involved for many years, until 2018, when I continued to assist in tabling at
the Farmers Market.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I will refer to more general perspectives on the current <b>Woke/Identitarian/BLM
“anti-racism”</b> scene, which has, unfortunately, nothing but dire
implications regarding what is still called the Left: a Left that no longer
includes either the working class or even cogently class-based, material
perspectives, no less “anti-war” perspectives. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">My general political perspective is best characterized by
this <a href="https://www.thebellows.org/on-strasserism-and-the-decay-of-the-left/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">article</a>
on the current “upper-middle class Left” by Swedish writer Malcom Kyeyune and this concise, clear 45 minute <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-653544961/sanders-2020-an-intermortem" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">podcast</a>
by Marty McMarty that is referred to in that article, which is a post-mortem of
the Bernie Sanders campaign and describes the evolution of U.S. political party/social
class formations since World War II. I would also refer to an important recent
blogpost by the political theorist, <a href="https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2020/07/14/the-four-centrisms/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Benjamin
Studebaker</a>, which very much informs my understanding of insidious Wokeness
in <i>ideological</i> categories and context. In addition, this article by <a href="https://www.thebellows.org/the-double-horseshoe-theory/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Michael Lind</a>
plausibly if schematically lays out the material <i>class structure</i> that we
have arrived at in the neoliberal era; nevertheless, the ideological categories
that Studebaker articulates only map onto the <i>capitalist</i> (top of the
horseshoe) class, broadly speaking; not onto the <i>working</i> (bottom of the
horseshoe) class. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In brief, I would argue that, of course, AWARE is not likely
meaningfully different than other localized, on-the-ground, material (as
opposed to virtual) anti-war organizations, whether newly formed or
pre-existing, that were activated by 9/11. These movements have receded or been
disbanded as American military presence in the Middle East, etc.—along with an
expanded volunteer army—has been normalized; as the neoliberal era has
proceeded from crisis to crisis, whether financial, environmental, or medical;
as capital accumulation and economic inequality has increasingly brutalized
domestic material life in the U.S.; and as domestic politics has increasingly
been characterized by submerged class conflict: “right-wing” populism and
“left-wing” Wokeness (upper-middle class identitarianism). The latter is
generated largely by the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC, or what Lind calls
the Professional Bourgeoisie), and has politically weaponized Wokeness in a
series of campaigns, since 9/11, regarding, sex, gender, immigration, and race—all
to the economic benefit of no more than 20% of the population, over-represented
in coastal urban regions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In that context, antiwar movements have obviously not only
taken the back seat but have largely been thrown under the bus. The apotheosis
of this trend, as I will argue below, is the one-two Woke punch that we see now
in relation to (corporate, foundation-driven, neoliberal) Black Lives Matter
and the panic-driven, anti-materialist transgender “movement.” The consummation
of this unholy matrimony was an event a few weeks ago in which, during a pandemic,
an estimated 12,000 (tightly) gathered in front of the Brooklyn Museum in order
to declare that “black trans lives matter.” One would be hard-pressed to
imagine anything more incoherent as a “movement” in relation to capitalism,
class struggle, economic justice, and opposition to war and empire. But this is
the point of Woke, “progressive” neoliberalism; that is indeed <i>exactly</i>
the point of what is surely a petty-bourgeois class project.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">From early on, as AWARE proceeded in a framework prescribed
by neoliberal American politics, and by a Woke academic and activist community
and context, it became increasingly clear that the “anti-racist” aspect of this
mission—as articulated by emerging local critics—was indeed in contradiction to
the anti-war aspect. This was determined by the fundamentally neoliberal nature
of “anti-racism” as has been well-articulated by <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-017-9476-3" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Adolph Reed</a>.
This contradiction played out nationally, ever more clearly during the
political ascendancy of Barack Obama; and locally, in very concrete ways, given
his presence as a Senator for this state and his “<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2005/09/29/illinois-anti-warriors-and-the-attractive-senator/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">controversial</a>”
visit to our community. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">After Obama’s election as President, AWARE limped on while
black lives (and wars) that allegedly now matter only got worse for nearly a
full decade, regardless of the “racial” background of the President. While
AWARE for all practical purposes ceased public operations (demonstrations,
tabling) last Fall, it’s only fitting that the coffin lid should finally be
closed shut not only during the pandemic, but during the current racialized
(and incredibly and under-reportedly <a href="https://medium.com/@mtracey/two-months-since-the-riots-and-still-no-national-conversation-12a7e3e4e006" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">violent</a>)
moral panic that calls itself Black Lives Matter; with its attendant moral
panics regarding gender and sex, intensified during the Trump Era for obvious (Democratic
Party) reasons, in ways that such panics could not be intensified during the Trayvon
Martin/Ferguson/Obama era. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I would only add, perhaps in a self-serving way, that the
anti-racism pertaining to what came to be called Islamophobia has arguably been
the most successful aspect of either the anti-war or anti-racism efforts. AWARE
made a distinct contribution to a community-wide effort. But this also has to
be qualified in relation to ongoing wars, continued Israeli occupation of
Palestine, and the inclusion of such anti-Islamophobic efforts into the current
panoply of neoliberal, “pro-immigrant” Wokeness in what is now, for all
practical purposes, and notwithstanding Steven Salaita and Cary Nelson, the
post-active Zionist era.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">AWARE’s function, from the start, was to bring the truth
about our nation’s wars to the local community. I feel that it did quite well
in this regard. We utilized many if not all of the local communal and media
resources available. I would stress<b> </b>that regarding the general
trajectory of AWARE over a period of 18 years, what happened was, for better or
worse, <b>nobody’s fault</b>. Therefore, it should not be the subject of
anybody’s <b>judgment</b>, least of all those who were essentially <b>non-participants</b>.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I doubt that AWARE has been any different in its trajectory,
for better or worse, than hundreds of other local organizations that arose
after 9/11. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the material conditions of the
American population do not currently lend themselves to an organized
working-class opposition to the forces of Capital and War. Moreover, such a
movement will never emanate from an academic community, not in 21<sup>st</sup>
Century America, not in any-century America.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On July 21<sup>st</sup>, <b>Danielle Chynoweth</b> commented
on the AWARE FB Page:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>I am one of the founders of AWARE along with Laura Haber
Mark Enslin (who conceived of the name) Susan Parenti (who started the first
demonstrations) and others. There were over 100 people at our first meeting at
the YMCA. I facilitated the first meetings. A few years in it was hijacked by
Carl and a few other white men who discarded the anti-racist and anti-sexist
roots. It became the Carl show. We formed CUCPJ to focus on the racism in the
militarized criminal justice system here at home while always remaining
connected to anti war.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>One day later</b>, I made two separate comments in a short
period of time:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>Could you be more specific? Or is your purpose just to
play the victim?</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>Danielle, you were nowhere to be found at meeting or
other activities, well before "a few years in." Therefore I can
hardly expect a specific answer regarding "other white men." Sorry
Danielle, I don't buy your slanderous Woke feminism. It's utterly disingenuous,
among other things.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Danielle responded:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>thank you for illustrating my point. and i sponsored the
anti war resolution before city council with AWARE, organizing intensively for
months while dealing with the slander of sexists</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I responded on the same day:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>You live in a fantasy world of victimization. If someone
challenges you on your exalted self-image, and calls you on your slanders, you
then accuse them of being sexist, or patriarchal. I've always found you to be
impersonal, condescending, and strangely detached from ordinary human
connection. You are a raging narcissist, and you depend on having people around
you who conform to your expectations of exaltation and obedience. That's not sexism
on my part. That's calling a narcissist a narcissist, and I could probably call
you worse, especially after the whole IMC post office fiasco. Yes, I'm sure you
organized intensively for months (re Urbana City Council resolution). Just like
Barack Obama in Chicago. What a sick joke. And of course, you pick up your toys
and go crying home, taking your supplicants with you. How predictable.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Danielle responded on the same day:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>I am calling for everyone on this group to please leave
it. Long ago AWARE is taken over by sexists and should be abandoned. Good bye.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Opening a different thread to reply to me, she stated in
large letters:</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>Cancel</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">She proceeded to tag several other people, including Aaron
Ammons, Rachel Storm Sandra Ahten, Stuart Levy, and Karen Medina.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">At that point, I commented: </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>Yes Danielle, marshal your forces; you are loved,
admired, worshipped, and feared.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the first thread, after my comments, <b>Elizabeth Simpson</b>
commented:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>I was also a founder of AWARE, and also ended up leaving
(MANY many years ago) because I found some members (enough to carry a majority)
to be questionably evasive about the anti-racism aspect, and because my
experience of it as being polluted by patriarchal and domineering (despite many
members who wished otherwise) made it not worth my time. At some point, it
could be really powerful to do a post-mortem about what worked and didn't, and
why, so that current projects can learn from its strengths and drawbacks,
especially the dynamic of so many folks leaving and those left not having the
wherewithal to continue, though we all remain committed to an anti-war stance
and for many, engaged anti-war activities. RIP AWARE. Many thanks to Stuart
Levy and others who really stuck it out for the good reasons.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I responded to Elizabeth:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>What has killed the antiwar movement in this country,
such as it is or was, is invoking cultural politics rather than class politics.
AWARE was no exception. Some more than others have been more blatant about
invoking cultural (identity) politics as a way of avoiding the capitalist basis
of war. No post-mortem is needed, saved you the trouble of a boring meeting.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I later continued my response to Elizabeth Simpson:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>groups like SURJ, which you promote in this community,
have exemplified the Woke Left's shallow, race-reductionist and white guilt
approaches to politics. That leads us away from any coherent analysis of
capitalism and war, and any understanding of the relationship between
exploitation and racism. Instead, we have aestheticized, performative virtue signaling
in what is basically a neoliberal, market-driven, therapeutic framework.
Performative virtue signaling is something you excel at, and I find it
irrelevant, cloying, and obnoxious. SURJ is ultimately reactionary, as is a
group like School for Designing a Society. It leads to nonsense like painting
over a historical mural in San Francisco. I have never known you to be
seriously involved in antiwar discourse or action in this community, or any
serious truth-telling in this community. Your accusations of
"patriarchal" etc. are pro forma, performative, thoughtless, and
off-base. You wouldn't know patriarchy if it bit your butt. You do not suffer
from patriarchy, but the "left" community, such as it is, suffers
from your Woke ignorance. Considering the source, I don't take your insulting
and ignorant comments personally. Neither do you deserve to be taken seriously.
Just rest assured that I don't.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the second thread, that had been started by Danielle,
there was also an interaction between me and Elizabeth Simpson, when she
intervened between me and Danielle, which ended abruptly when I told her:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> <i>fuck you</i>.<i><br>
<br>
</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Before moving on, I must say that I went to almost all the weekly
meetings between 2001 and 2005; I can recall neither Danielle Chynoweth nor
Elizabeth Simpson being at more than a handful of them. I suspect that,
combined, they attended less than a dozen. They played no role whatsoever in
organizing and participating in specific AWARE activities that I am cognizant
of, and I certainly would recall if I had had any positive or productive
interaction with either of them. They contributed no coherent perspectives,
factually, historically, or theoretically, regarding issues surrounding war,
foreign policy, the Middle East, etc. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I have no problem with their not finding AWARE to have been
their cup of tea; that’s their business, that’s their lives, and in lieu of
their recent intervention I would have no reason to address their slanders. But
after nearly two decades they both found it worthwhile, in tandem no less, to gratuitously
level false and ugly criticism of those willing to sustain their participation
in terms of time, effort, funding, and conscience; that included me, of course,
in terms of hundreds of hours and at least $2,000, and I will respond
accordingly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">At bottom it must be stressed, because they claim to be
“antiwar,” that they evidence no genuine interest in the topic or the “movement,”
beyond a checklist of moral virtue signifiers. That’s not a problem, I don’t
care. I do care that they somehow found their way to the AWARE FB page in order
to denigrate those who do; and all of this based on the alleged and implied
credibility of their now meaningless claim to have been “co-founders.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In relation to Danielle Chynoweth, I would add that I served
on the Board of the Independent Media Center for two years, 2011-13, with
Chynoweth. At no moment, before, during, or since, did I have any experience of
an even superficially normal friendly connection, the kind that people
experience routinely with their colleagues and co-workers. I seriously doubt
that I was the problem in this regard.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I haven’t really known Elizabeth over the years, but I’ve
been aware of her career as an <a href="http://cooperativeconflict.org/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">emotional
manager</a>. While I think that there
are huge ethical issues with this sort of process, I will leave that aside for
now. She also leads a group called Standing Up for Racial Justice. These are
the same folks who wanted to whitewash the famous <a href="https://ncac.org/news/san-francisco-mural-controversy-perspectives" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">San
Francisco murals</a>. SURJ’s “white privilege” approach, a la Tim Wise, should
have long been discredited. But in relation to <a href="https://barpodcast.fireside.fm/17" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Robin DiAngelo</a> and “<a href="https://barpodcast.fireside.fm/bonus2" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">white fragility</a>,” it’s back,
in the form of an intensified, white-administered version of “white-shaming.” That’s
what Elizabeth Simpson is about, beyond trying to shame men on the AWARE FB
page.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Beyond these individuals, I would note the general local
activist context, especially the <b>School for Designing a Society</b>, with
which Elizabeth Simpson is identified. While I have no interest in their work
as “activists,” I would in this context only assert that their work has nothing
whatsoever to do with politics, with the working class, and with the material
needs of the population. Woke activism of this nature is characteristically
affective, therapeutic, performative, and aestheticized. It is a distraction
from understanding the world as it is, in material terms. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I have no problem with people calling themselves artists or
therapists or activists, however performative these labels are. But they aren’t
serious political actors and shouldn’t claim to be. They are not part of any
coherent movement, and they’re not doing politics; far from it, they in effect
support the social order as it exists. This has never been clearer than during
the Trump era and, and it is also highlighted by the problems of the Sanders
campaign that are discussed in the podcast linked to above.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">It is not by accident that SDAS took up the issue of
immigration, which so easily lends itself to Woke activism. What follows is my
letter to the editor that was published in the News-Gazette from October of last
year.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">While immigration policy has historically been rhetorically
shaped by racism, it has been more fundamentally structured by globalized
economic exploitation and (since WW II) our foreign wars and geopolitical
alliances. During this four-decade neoliberal era, <b>immigration policies of
all administrations have been consistent with (i.e., supportive of) massive
redistribution of income/wealth upwards</b>, decline of unions, austerity, and
“free trade” policies that offshore jobs, suppress wages, and send economic refugees
north (NAFTA).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Compassionate policies towards immigrants are obviously
desirable. Nevertheless, such controversies obscure continuities regarding the
abandonment of American workers (and children), while stereotyping them
(especially African-American and rural folk) as “unskilled,” if not worse.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">When Jeffrey Brown advocates for increased immigration, he
promotes intensified immiseration of the working class; that’s what business
school deans do. When Mike Doyle of the Campus YMCA supports business leaders’
“Heartland” and “skilled immigrant” agenda, he displays his ignorance and
compromises his institution.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The well-publicized supporters of our “welcoming
community”—Bend the Arc, Solidarity Sundays, CU Immigration Forum,
Unitarian-Universalist Church, etc.—are oblivious to the class politics behind
their agenda. That’s because they’re immersed in class privilege, while
disingenuously claiming to have rejected “white privilege.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ironically, Thomas Garza of the Immigration Forum (read
Immigration Doctrine) stereotypes those who disagree with his views as
xenophobic bigots, thus revealing his own bigotry.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0.5in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Garza’s overtly anti-Trumpian electoral advocacy serves
establishment Democrats (anti-Sanders/Gabbard, pro-Biden, etc.). Thus, when the
Urbana Free Library endorses Garza’s annual awards program, it not only
displays inappropriate partisanship, it effectively supports Brown’s 1%,
Gies-driven, pitiless economic agenda.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I would emphasize the ability of immigration advocates to
deny the need and demand of the wealthiest among us for cheap labor, and its
relationship to the four-decade immiseration of the working class (black and
white, etc.) accompanied by the accumulation of wealth into very few hands.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Beyond that are the elitist and stereotypical assertions
regarding the “white working class,” the so-called “deplorables,” who are
easily and haughtily dispensed with in rhetoric and reality by those who claim
to embody “anti-racism” and use the phrases like “white nationalism” and “white
supremacism” all too loosely. Indeed, what we have among the Democrats and the
Woke, including locally, is the racialization
of the working class, in order to obliterate them from political consideration
as those who actually produce most of the items that still make this a rich
country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Meanwhile, blacks have literally nowhere politically to go,
aside from their ineffectual representation by black politicians. Immigration
activists work hard to get themselves to think and believe that immigration has
nothing to do with the black working class, to keep their ineffectual anti-racism
credible. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Again, if people want to support the well-being of
immigrants in this country and protect them from the harms that may be
inflicted upon them by our federal government, fine, I have no problem with
that, obviously. But it’s a charitable (bourgeois class project) “cause,”
that’s all it is. Just don’t pretend that it’s serious politics, no less “transformative”
politics.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The interlude that follows is transcribed from the
indispensable podcast <a href="https://soundcloud.com/whatisleftpod/police-brutality-state-violence-w-malcom-kyeyune" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">What’s
Left</a> (June 4<sup>th</sup>), immediately following the George Floyd and
reaction in Minneapolis; they are meant to re-iterate and expand upon my
previous arguments: </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Aimee Terese</b>: I usually have a few different drums
I’m beating at any given time. I’ve been beating the anarcho-liberalism (Woke) drum
for quite some time. I think for a lot of people it started to make a bit more
sense this week as we see these complete wing-nut anarchists, and also the
Hillary voters all using the same hymn book at once. A lot of people are having
trouble making sense of that, and I think basically the constituency of the
Democratic Party at this point is split between PMC (professional-managerial
class) and then a lot of desperately poor people of color. And so the anarchic
discontent, regardless of the class content of the proponents on the ground,
that’s always going to line up behind the PMC constituency of the Party because
<b>anarchism is inherently petty-bourgeois</b> in the way it operates. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">So that’s why you’re seeing all these rich liberals enjoy
the chaos, and ultimately—because the Democratic Party is in bed with Silicon
Valley, finance, and the Feds—they can reinvest in all sorts of surveillance
technology, an increasing mandate for the use of discretionary force by the
state. At the same time, the rich suburbanites can have their egos stroked with
this race-reductionist narrative, knowing that “it’s race not class,” that
they’re the good ones, the woke ones, and the NGO-industrial complex will see
another increase in jobs for activists, post-grads, organizers, politicians,
failed sons, all of that. None of this organizing takes on Capital. It’s a
self-reinforcing cycle that keeps most of the Democratic coalition occupied. As
long as they can keep workers divided along nationalist ideological lines, then
the repressive policing and violence and brutality is going to keep happening.
But they’ve managed to set up this anarchic feedback loop where the more this
happens the more this feeds its own circular dynamic. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Oliver Bateman</b>: The two worst things that we don’t
want to happen will happen: the rich will continue to feel good because it’s
not a class problem, in fact if they say the right words and donate to the
right things, they’ll be fine. If policing methods can be made softer but no
less harmful, not as visible, not going to create social media. You can see
this among the policing of the protests right now. A lot of the forces are
clearly being very careful; this is not like the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Atlanta fired two or three officers today for misconduct during the protest, so
they’re going to figure out ways to be just as repressive if not more, but with
a heavily overlay of Human Resources, and that’s what people are thinking about
right now. That’s where the minds are going.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Accusations of “sexism” and “patriarchy” are curious in this
current political context, in any event. As <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/24/wokeness-is-being-pushed-on-everyone/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Helen
Pluckrose</a> has argued, correctly I think, “Activists are not so worried
about women as a sex anymore. This is evident from all the <b>Karen memes</b>.
Similarly, activists feel gay men are not consistently being intersectional,
and have lost some of their interest in the gay identity cause. What we have
ended up with is race and transgender.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">This absolutely resonates with me in relation to recent
events. In 2016 I wrote a long article on Counterpunch regarding <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/24/rape-culture-the-hunting-ground-and-amy-goodman-a-critical-perspective/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">“rape
culture”</a> on college campuses. It was around then that the absurdities and
contradictions of Woke politics during the #resistance era became impossible to
ignore; it was around then that I was reminded of the capabilities of moral/sexual
panics: A black woman could accuse a black man of having raped her, in relation
to a case that had already been legally adjudicated against the plaintiff, on
Democracy Now, without Amy Goodman batting an eye; indeed, she validated it. Many
of the cases addressed in this “documentary” involved <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2015/02/trading-the-megaphone-for-the-gavel-in-title-ix-enforcement-2/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">black
men</a> accused of being rapists. “Feminism” was thus on the top of the gender/race
“intersectional” Woke agenda, so to speak.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Much has changed, as Pluckrose points out, and the
contradictions are impossible not to notice. Now we have the “Coopers affair.” A
white woman, Amy Cooper, reacted quite stupidly and disturbingly to a black man,
Christian Cooper, in Central Park; nobody was injured. But we are no longer amid
a “feminist,” “rape culture,” moral panic. We are amid a “Black Lives Matter” (+
black trans women) race panic. So this white woman, this “Karen,” has to be
punished and erased, with utmost derision and contempt, even though if this
were 2016 perhaps the “Hunting Ground” moral panic would have not only saved
her but supported her; certainly so if she were on a college campus rather than
in Central Park, where Title IX doesn’t apply.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">No, she must lose her job and career, from a Wall Street
firm no less (so, in a perverse way, the Woke don’t have to feel sorry for her,
as they pretend to be anti-Wall Street), and essentially have her life ruined,
with no questions asked regarding the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2020/06/01/Kyle-Smith-Central-Park-dog-Christian-Amy-Cooper-Covington-racism/stories/202006010003" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">proportionality
of her punishment</a>—and certainly not by “feminists” in the current context. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The red meat of BLM must be thoroughly grilled. This woman
did not deserve this. But this is what you get from Woke Corporate Human
Resources culture in the BLM era, along with all the “diversity training.”
Within a few years, we’ll move on to the next thing, with no improvement for
the vast majority of “black lives,” since the purpose of Woke neoliberalism is
to keep moving from one panic to another, while nothing about our economic
system changes, other than that it continues to get worse for the vast majority
of people of all racialized backgrounds.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>**********</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Notwithstanding all this, some folks, like the progenitors
of this missive, can still cram in a little “sexism” and “patriarchy” so long
as it stands apart from black, BIPOC, and transgender issues. But as <a href="https://blog.ninapaley.com/category/terfy/page/3/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Nina Paley</a> will
tell you, you have to be careful that your sectionals don’t get mixed up with
other folks’ sectionals in a non-intersectional way in the wrong place and at
the historically wrong panic time. In that case, your radical feminism becomes
the object of a moral panic, and you are cancelled. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The currently fashionable and apparently acceptable “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">Karens</a>” meme or
epithet is blatantly sexist and racist, which is to say <b>misogynist</b>, and
is now featured by black liberal Leonard Pitts, and perhaps others, in our
local newspaper, and more generally in Woke and twitter culture. It’s not the
least bit cute or funny; nor does it accurately describe female vs. male “managerial”
behavior (obviously). Who knows, maybe 1980s jokes about Jewish-American
princesses will also come back into fashion. Certainly, some of those college women
grew up to be “Karens,” in which case we can combine misogyny and anti-Semitism
for a neat intersectional twofer. Perhaps Leonard Pitts and others would be a
better target for bored local self-styled feminists than the defunct local
anti-war movement, especially as its “partriarchal” and “sexist” men enter
their dotages.<b></b></p></div>