[PEN-L:11425] Re: Re: Re: Response to Darity

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rod Hay wrote:

> Since Mat brought up the political issue, I will respond. I want a politics
> that emphasises the universal nature of human society--the common elements.
> "Identity politics", "anti-imperialism" etc., finds enemies where there are
> none. All whites are the enemy, all Americans are the enemy. All men are the
> enemy, etc., All the time reinforcing the division that this society puts
> between people.

As I have indicated, I am uncomfortable with a politics that bases itself
too much on empirical arguments over earlier history. (That is, I agree
with the contemporary politics of Lou, Mat, Jim B but I am not happy
with their conviction that to support those politics they must support
certain empirical conclusions re 16th, 17th etc centuries.)

But this proposition of Rod's does show that their objections to his
politics are richly grounded. A "universal politics" is simply another
name for support in practice of eurocentrism and western imperialism.

It is simply bizarre to affirm that anti-imperialism finds enemies where
there are none. And clearly he is utterly innocent of the debates that
swirl about the term "identity politics" -- even the mere dictionary sense
of the term is a matter of debate. But as used here it sems to refer
to the black liberation movement. (This is *not* my sense of the
term.) And if so, if he rejects the legitimacy and necessity of an
independent black liberation movement in the u.s., then he in fact
supports racism.

The "universal nature of human society--the common elements" names
nothing whatever and to desire a politics grounded on such a concept
is to deny the possibility of politics.

Carrol

Note: I myself think of "identity politics" as having reference to the kind of
individualistically based loose coalitions advocated (for example)
by Stanley Aronowitz or Laclau and Mouffe. It is often (though not
always) associated with what is called *Radical Democracy*. But
that is another topic or collection of topics.