[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] [sftalk] The seduction of Neoliberal "anti-racism"

Sun Jul 14 19:43:37 UTC 2013

The MSM has accomplished their mission again with the Zimmerman verdict... that is to distract. If their coverage expanded to the connected issues of voter suppression, disproportionate numbers of blacks in jail and a suspect 'war on drugs', then the Zimmerman trial may have some value, but obviously this is not the case.  Its just sensationalism.  All I can say is that I hope it helps organize local activists efforts.

________________________________
 From: C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com>
To: Colan Holmes <colanholmes at gmail.com> 
Cc: "Roediger, David R" <droedige at illinois.edu>; "sftalk at yahoogroups.com" <sftalk at yahoogroups.com>; "<occupycu at lists.chambana.net>" <occupyCU at lists.chambana.net>; "peace-discuss at anti-war.net" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net> 
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2013 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: [OccupyCU] [Peace-discuss] [sftalk] The seduction of Neoliberal "anti-racism"

"Identity politics is not at fault though, capitalism is at fault." But what if identity politics is a cover for capitalism?

"...multiculturalism and diversity more generally are even more effective as a legitimizing tool, because they suggest that the ultimate goal of social justice in a neoliberal economy is not that there should be less difference between the rich and the poor—indeed the rule in neoliberal economies is that the difference between the rich and the poor gets wider rather than shrinks—but that no culture should be treated invidiously and that it’s basically OK if economic differences widen as long as the increasingly successful elites come to look like the increasingly unsuccessful non-elites."  [W. B. Michaels]

On Jul 14, 2013, at 1:42 PM, Colan Holmes <colanholmes at gmail.com> wrote:

While it may be theoretically possible to construct a capitalism of equal-opportunity exploitation, sociological studies on power, like those done by William G. Domoff or Hester Eisenstein, indicate that individuals from socially disenfranchised groups predominantly move into positions of wealth or fame by adjusting who they are so that they do not conflict with our capitalist system's social, historical, and institutionalized white, masculine, heteronormative values. As such, the struggle for equality of all types are connected.
>
>It is important for anti-capitalists to work alongside those who practice identity politics, as persons demanding equality, just as it is important for anyone defending the values connected to their race, gender, sexuality, etc to be anti-capitalist.
>
>
>This is not a disagreement with the observation that neoliberalism can, and I believe does, abuse identity politics to give exploitative practices a diverse image. Identity politics is not at fault though, capitalism is at fault.
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 8:38 PM, C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:
>
>Perhaps these remarks will encourage more of our friends to read Walter Benn Michaels; a recent interview is linked below.
>>
>>His account of the discussion of race and its relation to neoliberalism - beginning with his 2006 book, "The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality" - seems to me far from nonsense, much less "ridiculous on its face," as inequality in America grows at an accelerating pace. He's certainly right that we need to ask questions other than, "What color are the rich kids?"
>>
>><http://jacobinmag.com/2011/01/let-them-eat-diversity/>
>>
>>--CGE
>>
>>On Jul 12, 2013, at 8:16 PM, "Roediger, David R" <droedige at illinois.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> No brief on these matters for Tim Wise and I've never, minus  15 minutes of love for Harold Washington, supported a Democrat in my life, least of all these ones now on offer. (Nor it seems necessary to add in this context, a Republican). But the Benn Michaels nonsense that talk about white supremacy is now mainly just a prop for neoliberalism is ridiculous on its face. E.G.
>>> http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/12-2
>>> and
>>> http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/05/16/photo-what-if-trayvon-were-white/_jcr_content/featuredMedia/newsitemimage.newsimage.dimg/051612-national-trayvon-martin-what-if-he-was-white.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/05/16/photo-what-if-trayvon-were-white.html&h=353&w=628&sz=104&tbnid=t5BEq7w52KeWpM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=122&zoom=1&usg=__v593iHaWu3OewaIzpgaRWQTxGzg=&docid=bZ_EWLaxQmhcHM&sa=X&ei=kKjgUdWlMq254AP93oFo&ved=0CEwQ9QEwBg&dur=2979
>>>
>>> freedom now, dave roediger
>>>
>>> From: sftalk at yahoogroups.com [sftalk at yahoogroups.com] on behalf of C. G. Estabrook [carl at newsfromneptune.com]
>>> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 12:40 PM
>>> To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net
>>> Cc: sftalk at yahoogroups.com; <occupycu at lists.chambana.net>
>>> Subject: [sftalk] The seduction of Neoliberal "anti-racism"
>>>
>>>
>>
>>> Champaign-Urbana's local anti-war group, AWARE, has been from its founding a dozen years ago concerned with racism (AWARE = Anti-war Anti-racism Effort), principally for three reasons:
>>>
>>> [1] the overt and covert employment of racism - anti-Arab, anti-Iranian, and anti-Muslim [sic] - by the Bush-Obama administration in order to build support within the US public for imperial war in the 'Greater Middle East';
>>>
>>> [2] US support for Israel, a state based on racism, as its "cop on the beat" in the generations-long American attempt to dominate Mideast energy resources; and
>>>
>>> [3] the US economic draft ("volunteer army") - instituted after the revolt of the US conscript army in Vietnam - which coerces into a criminal war a disproportionate number of non-white Americans.
>>>
>>> But the rise in the 1970s of 'Identity Politics' - parallel to and connected with Neoliberalism, the counter-attack by the 1% on social progress in the US from the New Deal to 'the Sixties' - has led today to a reactionary anti-racism. Here John Halle anatomizes a few of its practitioners - race-fakers who might be compared to the labor-fakers of the Great Depression:
>>>
>>> <http://lbo-news.com/2013/07/12/1938/#comment-9643>.
>>>
>>> With thanks to Doug Henwood's LBO News. --CGE
>>
>>
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>>
>

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