[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] An apposite comment on the Zimmerman demonstrations

[C. G. Estabrook]

It is when attending to race, etc., is used as an excuse for not attending to class (as has been the case with American liberalism - notably the Democrats - since the 1970s).

"...a lot of them think of themselves as being on the Left and they think it’s especially inappropriate for people to come along and tell them that the thing they like best about themselves, their anti-racism, is not in and of itself a left-wing commitment..."
--Walter Benn Michaels, "Let Them Eat Diversity" <http://jacobinmag.com/2011/01/let-them-eat-diversity/>


On Jul 15, 2013, at 5:57 PM, Paul Mueth <paulmueth at yahoo.com> wrote:

> All deference to the Dougmeister . . . 
> The discourse at mon. demo here included calls for building cross-race (and class) coalitions. And working on local issues like the no jail expansion project and racial justice task force. . .
> 
> Race and Class ! ! 
> Is that so difficult. . .??
> 
> Sent from my iPhone 3GS, It doesn't chat!
> 
> On Jul 15, 2013, at 4:50 PM, "C. G. Estabrook" <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:
> 
>> I think we also have an example here of "the extraordinaire eagerness of American liberals to identify racism as the problem, so that anti-racism (rather than anti-capitalism) can be the solution" (Walter Benn Michaels).  --CGE
>> 
>> On Jul 15, 2013, at 3:40 PM, Laurie Solomon <ls1000 at live.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> I can completely concur with Henwood’s statement and would even generalize it to most of the protest demonstrations, commentary, etc. that liberals, progressives, or whatever they have been named or call themselves have engaged in with respect to most – if not all – the various issues that they have advocated.  At best, most of their activities have been no more than the symbolic polictics of self-expression and testimony with little translation into actually effective action.  And like Henwood, I don’t know the answer to the question of how one translates one into the other; nor do I really see much sign that people are even attempting to deal with the issues involved in the question with respect to this or other topics.
>>> 
>>> From: C. G. Estabrook
>>> Sent: July 15, 2013 3:23 PM
>>> To: Peace Discuss
>>> Cc: sftalk at yahoogroups.com ; mailto:occupyCU at lists.chambana.net
>>> Subject: [Peace-discuss] An apposite comment on the Zimmerman demonstrations
>>> 
>>> Doug Henwood writes,
>>> 
>>>> "...I understand the reasons for protest completely. But then what? How are protests in New York and Los Angeles going to change Florida law or police practice? How do we get beyond the politics of self-expression and testimony to something that's actually effective? I don't know the answer to this, but I don't see much sign that people are even asking the question."
>> 
>> 
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