[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Fwd: [ExComm] Fwd: News-Gazette coverage

[C. G. Estabrook]

I'm not sure that Mort's analysis is quite right, but it has been my experience of 
AWARE from the beginning that the group has been more comfortable 
condemning racism than the USG's war policy tout court (perhaps particularly 
that of the Democrats).

And racism of a particular kind, that (even its "unconscious" variety) of which 
African-Americans are the victims. Racism central, not incidental, to the conduct 
of the war is largely ignored -- notably USG support for (a) the officially racist 
state of Israel and (b) racist propaganda against Arabs (and Muslims -- they 
aren't too careful).

I posted a while ago the opinion that one of the most important political books 
published in the US recently was Walter Benn Michaels' "The Trouble with 
Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality." Michaels is a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of 
"Our America." 

The New Yorker summarized his book as follows: "Michaels diagnoses America's 
love of diversity as one of our greatest problems. Not only does it reinforce 
ideas of racial essentialism that it claims to repudiate; it obscures the crevasse 
between rich and poor. Michaels, a scholar of American literature, suggests that 
the growth of economic inequality over the past few decades is the result of a 
deeply ingrained and unchallenged class structure. Scrutinizing current events 
and religion, he argues that our fixation with the 'phantasm' of race promotes 
identity over ideology, and he rejects the idea that meritocracy prevails in 
America's elite universities. A believer in the power of progressive politics, he 
calls for a debate in which class, rather than identity, would be at the fore."

I'll post some more about his argument, which recapitulates in greater detail a discussion about identity politics conducted on this list 4 or 5 years ago.  -CGE
 
---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 21:30:45 -0500
>From: "Morton K. Brussel" <brussel at uiuc.edu>  
>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Fwd: [ExComm] Fwd: News-Gazette 
coverage  
>To: Marti Wilkinson <martiwilki at gmail.com>
>Cc: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
>
>   I believe, Marti, that you are not talking from
>   experience in attending AWARE activities. Yes, the
>   demographics you ascribe to AWARE "membership" are
>   valid, but you seem unaware of efforts by AWARE to
>   include minority, African-American, viewpoints and
>   to engage in common pursuits and interests. It seems
>   that unless an organization is mostly populated by
>   African-Americans, there will not be a sustained
>   attendance by the latter. It may be due to class
>   (economic) differences, cultural differences,
>   religious differences, educational differences,
>   historical differences, etc., but it is a general
>   problem to blend smoothly the
>   interests/participation of blacks and whites.  It
>   seems that among African-Americans, grosso-modo,
>   that racial problems/conditions/interests are
>   foremost, above those of foreign affairs or (even)
>   civil rights, and that concern is not reflected in
>   an organization like AWARE, where race is very
>   important, but not dominant. As you imply, the
>   matter of comfortability with ones cohort is
>   essential. 
>   Some thoughts,  --mkb
>   On May 1, 2008, at 4:39 PM, Marti Wilkinson wrote:
>
>     AWARE has no "leadership" positions
>
>     I stand corrected - however in any organization
>     there are going to be people who stand out as
>     natural leaders and this may be where the
>     criticisms you are addressing is derived from.
>
>     However, it's an observation that most of the
>     individuals I have seen at AWARE meetings are
>     predominately white and middle class. While there
>     are a few individuals who attend both AWARE and CU
>     Citizens for Peace and Justice the general
>     demographics of AWARE doesn't have a strong
>     minority presence. At least not in what I have
>     observed. In order for an organization like AWARE
>     to be more effective in addressing issues of
>     racism and defamation the group needs to have a
>     more diverse representation of people at their
>     meetings.  Just saying that 'everyone is welcome
>     to come' is not good enough.  Some of the
>     literature I've read regarding critical race
>     theory and social justice movements supports that.
>     In particular writers like Thomas Nakayama, Stuart
>     Hall, Raka Shome, and other individuals have made
>     some very astute observations on this issue.
>
>     Click Here We must learn to live together as
>     brothers or perish together as fools.
>     Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
>     On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Karen Medina
>     <kmedina at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>       >minorities really
>       >   have not been invited to be part of the
>       leadership
>       >   of the peace movement.
>
>       I'm not at all sure what you mean by leadership.
>       AWARE has no "leadership" positions.
>
>       And no, Carl is not our "leader" as Bob Naiman
>       seemed to indicate in a post about a month ago.
>       -karen medina
>       a white, middle class, overly educated,
>       middle-aged female with nothing better to do on
>       Sunday evenings.
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