Re: Prof. combats ignorance about Islam, women

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

kelley wrote:

>  rather unsophisticated
> variants of multiculturalism, identity politics . . .

Those whose political experience mostly is from 1980 or so on
are apt to stretch the term "identity politics" too far. I don't know
when the term (or the idea) first appeared, but I never heard
it used in the 1960s or 1970s. The political concepts that
arose during the 1960s-70s regarding black leadership or
black autonomy had much more to do with studying the history
of the U.S. left (for two centuries) than with anything remotely
similar to what came to be called identity politics.

About the NOI. I presume that like all mass organizations (religious
, political, or merely broadly social) it has a more complex internal
balance of attitudes, forces, etc. than would appear from outside.
(The black students  in my classes who responded
positively to the MMM did so  from a variety of motives.)

This (presumed) internal variety is relevant because of a second
practical point: In practice the battle against the NOI (and I agree
there must be such a battle) must be fought within the "black
community" (and that community will define itself). I'm afraid
that outside attacks on it will only strengthen Farrakhan. (If you
follow the BRC maillist you will know that there are strong
attacks on the Nation from within the Black community.)

Looking backwards, one can see that all the new "M-L" groups
of the '70s were mostly wrong from the start -- but it is of some
empirical interest, I think, that the one of them that lasted the
longest (LRS) was the one that had mostly non-whites and
women in its leadership.

Someplace I believe Lenin says that anarchism is the price the
working class pays for its sins of opportunism. Groups such as
NOI, along with the many red-baiters over on femecon-l, are
part of the price marxism pays for its historical sins of racism
and sexism.

For me to write a long criticism of Barbara Bergman (the chief
femecon-l red-baiter) here on m-fem would hardly bring about
the revolution, however virtuous it might make me feel. I think
that attacks here on NOI are just as fruitless.

Carrol