Re: The Brenner debate is not "academic"

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:

> Carrol, this is as about as "academic" a debate as whether Martin Bernal's
> "Black Athena" is correct or not. If a debate on Bernal came up on a
> scholarly mailing list, it would of necessity deal with what you deride as
> "empirical" material,

Volume 1 of "Black Athena" raises political issues and is of great value
in tracing the development of racism in the west. I would certainly take
issue on a list of any kind with attacks on that volume. Volume 2 is in
fact *not* or great political interest except  in so far as attacks on it
are thinly disguised attacks on volume 1. In themselves the issues raised
in Volume  2 are of only academic interest, and attempts to make them
crucial political issues are in fact divisive, just as you and Jim on this
thread have in fact only created diversions from the real issues of
racism and eurocentrism. I am now dropping this thread because the
issues being chewed over are exactly the kind of issues which you,
ever since I first encountered you, have been attacking the relevance
of. They are academic and philosophical, not political.

Your recent replies to Brad on Pen-l exhibit the Lou Proyect I know
and respect, as do all your discussions of Yugoslavia and East Timor.
But you are on the verge of confusing the communist movement with
your ego.

Carrol