Re: Left Racism vs Million Man March

[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx (Doug Henwood)]

At 9:09 PM 10/19/95, cdavidson@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>1. It seems that more than a few of the opponents of the MMM on
>this list are forgetting their ABCs. The world is not only divided
>between exploiter and exploited classes; it is also divided between
>oppressor and oppressed nations.

Are black Americans a "nation"? That makes no theoretical or empirical
sense at all.

>examples: The Fruit of Islam has been equated with the KKK;
>Farakhan has been equated with Hitler; the NOI has been equated
>with the white miltias (if not considered worse); the Million Man
>March has been equated with the PromiseKeeepers; the MMM has
>been equated with the Nuremberg rallies; etc, etc. German fascism,
>the KKK, the Militias, the Gingrich "Revolution"--all these are or
>have been movements of different classes and strata of the "great"
>nations to defend or restore their domination, plunder and
>privileges. The last time I looked, no African-American movement,
>left or right, was trying to enforce its domination, continue its
>plunder or defend its privileges over and against white Americans.

An ideology of racial essentialism, sexism, and homophobia, combined with a
paramilitary force make militia/KKK analogies seem pretty apt to me.

The social base of the militias and KKK are mid- to downscale whites. They
don't dominate too many people, do they? In fact, a good bit of the
psychololgy of such movements is to seek compensation for their very lack
of status.


>3. Farakhan and the NOI are attacked as segregationists. What a
>joke. I grew up in a Pennsylvania mill town that was 30% Italian,
>30% Serb, 30% Black and %10 Hillbilly. All my life, just about
>every white working class and middle class family I know, including
>my own relatives,  has made it one of their prime goals in life to
>keep themselves and their children as far away from Black people
>as possible. It didn't matter who was the prominent leader of the
>day among blacks--Randolph in the 1940s, King in the 50s and 60s,
>Jesse and Farakhan today--they found some reason to hold them in
>contempt.

So when white people aim to keep blacks away, it's bad, but when blacks aim
to separate themselves from whites, it's good?

Will someone explain to me why Black is capitalized but not white? This is
a stylistic tic that I see in lots of left writing. Staffers at the
Guardian and Crossroads couldn't explain to me why they did it - they just
did it.

Doug

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Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
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