[Peace-discuss] Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy Movement and Race

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

I'm afraid that it's a textbook [...] case of Walter Benn Michaels'  
The Trouble with Diversity.

(For those who came in late - i.e., after 1968 - see the interview  
with Michaels at <http://jacobinmag.com/winter-2011/let-them-eat-diversity/ 
 >.)

On Nov 30, 2011, at 3:14 PM, David Green wrote:

> Almost exactly a year ago, the AA department hosted a discussion  
> about Tea Party racism, which gave Obama a huge pass. This year,  
> they apparently choose not to give OWS a pass. Their topics are anti- 
> racist in the most trivial ways imaginable.
>
> DG
> From: C. G. ESTABROOK <cge at shout.net>
> To: David Johnson <dlj725 at hughes.net>
> Cc: Peace-discuss List <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>; sf-core <sf-core at yahoogroups.com 
> >
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 2:53 PM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy  
> Movement and Race
>
> David--
>
> Why are you participating in this "identity-politics" diversion?
>
> Forty years ago, when it looked like issues of economics and  
> inequality might actually penetrate the limits of allowable debate  
> in American politics, liberals (and the Democrats - always a  
> business party) hastily substituted diversity for equality as their  
> announced goal.
>
> Not that diversity isn't a good thing. But the US political  
> establishment was using it to take the place of demands for economic  
> equality. (And in the meantime they launched neoliberalism, which  
> enforced economic inequality at a rapid and accelerating rate -  
> that's what the Occupy movement opposes.)
>
> In subsequent years, we heard much about the "trinity of oppression"  
> - class, race, and gender.  But class is not like the other two.  
> Conflicts of race and gender can in principle be solved by  
> reconciliation, if not easily. But conflict between exploiter and  
> exploited cannot - one or the other must be liquidated (the social  
> role, if not the physical persons).
>
> We all of course oppose racism, for political and personal reasons.  
> But it's a great error to use that opposition to undercut the Occupy  
> Movement.
>
> Regards, Carl
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:03:20 -0600
>> From: Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com>
>> To: Peace List <peace at lists.chambana.net>
>> Subject: [Peace] Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy Movement
>> 	and Race / Tuesday, December 6, 2011 7-9:30 P.M. Department of  
>> African
>> 	American Studies 1201 West Nevada Street, Urbana, Illinois
>> Message-ID:
>> 	<CA+0uwiaf2p5ap5Z+RHEm0=Tc2zFEzJLCbpL9Nu=EH9FXVsrsTQ at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>>
>> Universalism and Particularity: The Occupy Movement and Race
>> Over the last 90 days the Occupy Movement has focused attention on  
>> the
>> capitalist class? 40 year
>> devastation of the working and middle classes. In the 1960s,  
>> corporate
>> executives made 26 times workers,
>> by 1980 it rose to 32 times; and in 2009 it was 263 times. Led by
>> young largely white college graduates
>> Occupy is part of a worldwide movement that is challenging global
>> class disparities. Yet, as inspiring as the
>> Occupy movement has been, like previous U.S. radical movements it
>> seems mired on the rocky shores of
>> race. Is the Occupy movement doomed to repeat the errors of the past?
>> Can it move beyond seemingly
>> universal ?colorblind? reformist proposals and engage the
>> particularities of racialized oppression and chart
>> a genuine struggle for a multiracial democracy?
>> Tuesday, December 6, 2011
>> 7-9:30 P.M.
>> Department of African American Studies
>> 1201 West Nevada Street, Urbana, Illinois
>>
>> Chair: Helen Neville, Departments of African American Studies &
>> Educational Policy Studies
>> Panelists: * Abdul Alkalimat, African American Studies and Graduate
>> Program in Library and Information Sciences
>> * Gene Vanderport, CU Socialist Forum and Illinois Educational  
>> Association
>> * Jermaine Light, Socialist Forum
>> * David Johnson, Labor Notes and Vice President of the United  
>> Electrical Workers
>>
>
>
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>

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