[PEN-L:3625] Re: Re: Race as a "construct"

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Doug Henwood wrote:

> If race isn't a (social) construct, what is it? Biological?

Preliminary: I have long since ceased to have any opinions
on postmodernism, and don't even know if it exists or not.
But on race as a "(social) construct," the opposite is not
biological but historical. Or, rather, since "social construct" and
"historical construct," may have the same reference in the
vocabulary of some, let me say that any theory, no matter
how it expresses itself, that holds that racism can be
attacked by changing ideas, is wrong. Racism can be affected
only by an attack on the material (social) conditions that
generate it.

One of the tragedies and/or ironies of the split between Lou and
Doug is that on this point (that facts + good rhetoric can change
the world) they are in such complete agreement, and it is the
weakest part of the thought of both of them. Both of them insist
on seeing sectarianism/dogmatism/marxist weakness as  causes
(or partial causes) rather than  symptoms and effects of the weakness
of the working class and the strength of capital.

Carrol