[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[Ken Urban]

The second made some interesting points on topics that I've noted in the
past. There are some people who feel superior to others (even though
they claim to be helping).  Well-intentioned missionaries are a prime
example of this, "We're going to help those savages find God".  Or the
absurd idea that middle class urban college graduates know how people of
color should be running their lives (I've run into this in local left
groups).  

I liked the idea that whites should not expect to be thanked for
helping with social issues, although it seems impolite not to say
thanks. I'll put the emphasis on _should not expect_.  Again, if you're
do AWARE work as a resume/CV-building exercise, you should be examining
your motives more carefully.

I don't see AWARE doing this, and would protest if they did.  

I think we should move to topic to "what should AWARE be doing in
particular" and "what groups are out there that AWARE can form ties with
in our anti-racism efforts".

>>> "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu> 07/14/03 10:56AM
>>>
I'm surprised at how bad these articles are, Mike.  First, they're
virtually incoherent.  E.g., what are we to make of sentences like,
"Blind
cultural chauvinism among white anti-authoritarians is still the
superiority of money and alienation over that of free expression and
real
choices"?  Does that imply that far-seeing cultural chauvinism among
white
anti-authoritarians will represent the triumph of free expression and
real
choices over money and alienation?  No, that's gibberish too.

Second, insofar as one can make sense of them, they're false -- and
contradictory.  The first ("Against Half-Assed...") seems to suggest
that
authority itself is the problem and dismisses class (or seems to --
it's
hard to tell) with a typically wild-assed definition: "Class is an
abstract way to separate and define people according to social and
economic production roles -- which are themselves based on
non-concrete
things like numbers, laws, morals, hierarchy, etc. -- reinforcing
peoples'
repression (limiting and misdirecting peoples' full potential or
desires
and needs that authority and economized life can't satisfy) and
acceptance
of any oppressors/manipulators and their system of organizing and
interpreting life."  We're assured that "Class has functioned this way
for
thousands of years."  We're nevertheless given what seem to be
suggestions
about how all anti-authoritarians can work together.

The second article ("The White Anti-Racist is an Oxymoron...") on the
contrary asserts that the problem is "a global order in which white
supremacy and European domination are at large."  This author writes
marginally better that the first but seems preoccupied with
dread-locks
and book deals.  Her prescription contradicts that above.

I'm sympathetic to anarchism, but it takes thought and discussion.
Chomsky
(who calls himself an anarchist) quotes a French anarchist of the
1890s:
"anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything" --
including,
he noted, those whose acts are such that "a mortal enemy of anarchism
could not have done better." [See his "Notes on Anarchism"
http://zmag.org/Chomsky/index.cfm.] 

Authority needs to justify itself, but some can (e.g., my authority to
prevent my six-year-old from playing in traffic).  The problem is
class
authority, that of the US economic elite and its allies elsewhere.
This
authority can be exercised by people of color (e.g., Powell and Rice)
and
hardly benefits all whites -- witness the vast number of poor and
oppressed whites, even in the US.  Of course racism (which I would
distinguish from prejudice) exists in many forms, and it is not easy
to
see how it works, in part because charges of racism (notably
anti-Semitism) are often used nefariously.

But these articles do not aid the discussion much, it seems to me.

Regards, Carl
 

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 msimon at uiuc.edu wrote:

> Below are the links to the two anti-racism articles passed out
during
> this Sunday's meeting.  They will be discussed at the following
> meeting so please read!  Even if you won't be there, please read!  
> Please read!  If you feel extra adventurous look at other stuff on
the
> APOC site, there's a wealth of information.
> 
> "against half-assed race and class theory practices"
> http://illegalvoices.org/apoc/knowledge/articles/ideas/wong.html 
> 
> "the white anti-racist is an oxymoron..."
> http://illegalvoices.org/apoc/knowledge/articles/ideas/nopper.html 
> 
> Peace, Mike
> 



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