Re: racism and the Oscars

[JOEFREEMEN@xxxxxxx]

>Also, dismissing the conversation of the Oscars has some validity, however,
>claiming to " Jump...to the proletarian revolution " is also a mistake. By
>dismissing racism in American society and claiming that the proletarian
>revolution is somehow separate is forgetting that a great deal of
>"proletarians" have to deal with racism and may instead choose a nationalist

>route instead of a class form of resistance because of opinions such as
>that. Marxists have a responsibility to seek to understand the problems of
>racism as they come up in popular culture not hide from them.


>Just a reminder racism (or the end of it for that matter) is not dependent
>on a few PEOPLE being in positions of power or influence. Racism is
>institutional. That being said, actresses and actors do not represent and
>end to racism when 70% of prison inmates for example are minorities.


>Lastly, the objectification of women is a by-product of institutionalized
>sexism. So it strikes me as odd when Marxists (I have just joined the list
>so I don't know if all of you are ) would make a comment such as this:


>Joe Freeman wrote:


>I have not seen "Monster Ball" but understand that Ms. Berry took off her
>clothes, which is enough for me to see it when it appears in theaters in my
>area and give a thumps up for the Oscar.

>Women have enough trouble accomplishing their goals without being accused of

>"sleeping with someone" to be in their position. By degrading the quality of

>her performance to her taking off her clothes ( especially someone who is on

>a revolutionary web-site ) it re-enforces those ideas of a woman's worth
>solely lying in her physical attractiveness to heterosexual men.

>Comradely,
>biggertomasz




Bigger Thomas? That's wicked and a toast to a Native Son - Wright On. The
concept of race has been discarded and discredited as an authentic conception
of humanity decades ago. The Negro People are not a distinct race and do not
suffer from racism. I do use the word racism every now and then - but not
often, as a compromise to the backwardness of our working class. Color
discrimination - white chauvinism, is an old form in which the material
bribery of the Anglo American people has expressed itself. White chauvinism
is not dead and still exists but not in the same qualitative dimensions as in
say the 1900s in America. Discrimination is still battled relentlessly. Halle
Berry comments for example were directed against color discrimination and
white chauvinism.  Nevertheless, there has been changes in American society
that cannot be dismissed.

What is incorrectly called "institutional racism" - in my opinion, is the
structure of exclusion in American society that effected the mechanics of
allowing successive waves of "European immigrants" to relocate in America
while holding the slaves and their descendant at the "bottom of the social
ladder." What has been called the "second class citizenship" status of the
Negro people is a historical phenomenon housing economic logic. What is
involved after the "Civil War" - that is after the formation of the Negro
People and the defeat of the slave oligarchy, is the compromise of Wall
Street with the old slave holding South, the defeat of Reconstruction,
compelling the freemen into peonage and the further growth and expansion of
the industrial infrastructure, manned by the newly arrived immigrants.

This structure of exclusion is rooted in patterns of immigration that took
shape well over a century before the formation of the Negro people formed and
grew up (evolved) in connection with the expansion of the world market and
the need for labor in America. Imperial colonization always involved profound
class factors. In another historical period the ideological rationales and
ideological categories shifted.  Shift happens. Class factors began to be
codified in a form of exclusion based on the most identifying characteristic
of the slave and their descendant - color. Slave labor had provided cotton to
the international market and was an economic category of extreme importance.
The economic relationship did not "spontaneously create ideology" but drove
the ideology of color discrimination in the hands of the slave oligarchy and
later the imperialist bourgeoisie. The Negro People were forced back to a new
slavery with the defeat of reconstruction. The emergence of Wall Street
imperialism and its inevitable link-up with the remnants of the broken slave
oligarchy - broken armies of state reaction, terrorist outfits like the Klan,
the lumpen proletariat (freaking Jay-Hawkers . . .man) and was the framework
in which white supremacy was recast as white chauvinism, under the direction
of Wall Street imperialism. Slave oligarchy = white supremacy and Wall Street
imperialism = white chauvinism.

The October evolution put an end to a historical era. A new possibility
opened up which refined political boundaries and class dominance.

Not a " Jump...to the proletarian revolution " but the inexplicable fusion of
the national as the national-colonial question and its subsequent evolution
and fusion as a question of proletarian revolution, that is, the systematic
fight against all forms of capital at every phase in the quantitative
evolution and decay of commodity production This meant that no matter what
the state of development of the industrial infrastructure, if you were a
communist of the Stalin type, you had the honor of inheriting the unrelenting
battle against every form of capital no matter what the zig-zags, blunders,
set-backs, quantitative dimensions in productive capacity, compromises on the
basis of the various class configuration of the non-sovereign peoples,
bad-lack, bad calls and bad breaks.

Generally speaking and as applied to the context and through the lens of the
proletarian sector of the Negro People, no significant changes in the plight
of the non-sovereign peoples, colonies, semi-colonies and budding
neo-colonial areas opened up until the mechanization of agriculture and
further quantitative expansion of the industrial infrastructre took place
with the opening and ending of the Second Imperialist war. What this meant
was to fight and die on ones feet and not on thy knees.

In continental America the unrelenting struggle against violence and terror
intersected with the needs of a sector of capital and produced the social
movement called the Civil Rights Movement. Change and expansion in the
quantitative configuration of the industrial infrastructure had taken place.
What has unfolded over the last half century is the more than less systematic
elimination of legal segregation and real segregation.  There have been some
material changes in American society. Classes however, change on the basis of
changes in the mode of production. I am not a front man for "Negro" capital
or the labor aristocracy. It's a pure proletarian thang wit a twist.

Discrimination must be resisted and battled. I am not a player for protecting
an employer who discriminates on any basis or a management structure, or some
cop that enjoys beating the cramp out of you, or some knucklehead that say
you can't live were your money takes you. However the so-called Negro
Question is intractable and cannot be resolved in the framework of capitalist
property relations or for that matter on the basis of the existing industrial
infrastructure. Discrimination must be fought but the proletarian masses
(pick your color) can forget about upward mobility under capital. The path
ahead is disintegration and reconstitution on the basis of a new mode of
production.

The Negro Question is the question of social revolution and appears in front
us as the question of social revolution spoken of by Marx, i.e. a revolution
in the mode of production.

Equality on the basis of social deprivation or debasement in unacceptable to
any sector of the proletariat. The route that many proletariat take will
depend on the morality of the social movement and the degree of clarity on
how and why issues of material well being have to be fought for on the basis
of the material survival and enhancement of a class - the working class. What
is clear to everyone and verified in all statistics describing American
society is that integration or desegregation cannot create or bestow equality
on the Negro masses or women for that matter. It is not simply a question of
the "thinking" of the Anglo American people or men, although people get
stupid.  We are not dealing with "racism in the mind of man" as such but a
historically evolves social position within capital or rather a social
position within a historical evolved industrial infrastructure. Politics
cannot change a historical configuration. A fight to place your brother at
the bottom of the social order instead of you is blasphemy.  A political
projection that contains this logic is not "racist" but criminal contempt for
the working class. . This has to be stated.

Changes in that, which is fundamental to the existence of the industrial
infrastructure must occur first, for a qualitative reconfiguration.  Yes
there have been changes but there has been no changes in the social position
of the Negro masses relative to their counterparts amongst the Anglo-American
people. The reason is not "institutional racism," which in my opinion is
another ideological formulation that basically says the Anglo-American people
as a people are stupid. The question cannot be reduced to "thinking" and
simply the "force of habit." Individuals do suffer from stupidity and I still
personally experience spontaneous moment of sudden incomprehensibility, which
usually pass in an hour or so and leaves me weak. The word "racism" needs to
be stricken from the language of Marxist. One can only face discrimination
and violence in the historical period. Go to your union, the government, your
coworkers, Civil rights groups, an attorney and whoever if you are facing
discrimination on the job. Call me up and we will fight the evil. What I am
clearing the air about is the new configuration of the class struggle. It's
tricky, but I am not a player for identity politics.

Millions have fought and died to make a better world, when qualitative change
in the mode of production simply was not possible. That's no excuse not to
get into the "heat tank." One still must fight or be reduced to a slave, so
that you have the honor of looking for a job. It a contradiction that can
only be resolved on the basis of revolution in the mode of production and the
fight to reconfigure society on a new basis. We face a historically evolved
systemic relationship that presented itself as intractable until qualitative
changes in production began to take place. This is the new feature in the
national-colonial question.

An entire mode of production has to be discarded (a qualitative
reconfiguration) and a new one constructed. This does not mean abandoning the
fight for fairness but raising it as a class question.  There is no justice
for the Anglo American workers living on the edge of poverty. A real vision
of justice for all never dies. It lies latent until a new round of social
struggle brings it forth to illuminate and guide the movement again. A deeper
vision of possibility has opened up and Oscar is simply another indicator of
the intractability of the Negro Question.  The ground has to be prepared for
class assertions of the proletariat, unfettered by outdated conceptions.

The reason Denzel and Halle made world news is because of an ideological
shift underway and every politically thinking person on earth understand that
the social position of the Negro People is critical to any changes in
American society. Halle calls for more women of color in cinema and I am a
player for that, but uuhh . . . you got millions of actors, writers and
artist who can't get paid. Halle and Denzel get paid. Now Denzel is the man
and his "Alonzo" in "Training Day" was over the top - even with outdated
stereotypical garb. Anyone that can maintain that much gold on their neck for
a significant period of time, has been elevated in their class station.
There is that unpleasant matter about battling all forms of capital. The
Negro Question is fused wit the question of social revolution.

Comrade biggaT,

Halle Berry did not have to take off her clothes. I respect her as a human
being but care nothing for her performances. I will see her because she gits
naked and that ain't no political question as far as I am concerned. Sharon
Stone did not have to open her legs for the big screen. Jamie Lee Curtis is
called "the body" in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe - who I fell in love wit
decades ago, created some powerful images in America. Denzel has gotten damn
near naked on the big screen and Michael Douglas has no problem with having
his birthday suit shown on the big screen. Burt Reynolds - who as been
through the meat grinder, took it all off years ago and got an Oscar
nomination for a crappy flick about porn. Only in America.

I will not mention naked women or anyone else nudity if it is understood as
debasement.

Joe Freemen



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