Challenging the Black & Feminist Talented Tenth (was economicstats...)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>The horrors of U.S. capitalism are clear and overwhelming enough even on
>the stats as they come to us, no matter how twisted. So why this endless
>argument about the margins of the substance we know without haggling?
>
>Carrol

In my case (I don't speak for John Halle), I have a modest political
proposal: to challenge the black & feminist Talented Tenth
(represented, for instance, by NAACP, NARAL, etc.).  I've been
annoyed by the Nader/Green campaign's lukewarm & lackluster responses
to the challenges from liberal blacks & feminists.  I think that the
Nader/Green campaign should have properly studied economic stats;
demonstrated that _black & feminist Talented Tenths have indeed
economically benefited from the Clinton years whilst the poorest
blacks & women suffered from them_; and argued that _economic
polarization among blacks & women_ can account for their Yellow Dog
Democrat/Third Way political stance that has failed, nay refused, to
punish the Dems for the wars on crimes & drugs; the abolition of
AFDC; etc.  To fully de-legitimate the Democratic Party, it appears
that we must, among other things, push the wedge between black &
feminist elites and those whose interests they claim to represent;
and I think it is possible to do so without sounding sectarian, by
emphasizing empirical facts & building grassroots bases among blacks
& women unclaimed & unrepresented by the Talented Tenth.  This tactic
is of necessity divisive & will be initially unpopular, but the CP
used it successfully in their aggressive bid to represent the
Scottsboro Boys, exposing the NAACP's unwillingness to defend the
possibly guilty (horrors!) in the South & in the process even winning
over former black nationalists, former NAACP supporters, etc.  I
don't know if Nader & the Greens are up for it, though, for I think
that Katha is correct to say that the CP had a lot more "moxie,"
partisan discipline, organizational savvy, etc. than Nader/the
Greens, David McReynolds/the SP, etc. do.

Yoshie