|
|
AfroCubaWeb
|
|
Colonized ProgressivesThese past few years, there has been a tremendous increase in the expressions of white supremacy, not only in the US, but across the planet, in South America, Central America, Europe, even India, partly driven by fundamentalist Christians and Hindus. Time to step up our self critique and evolve a stronger response. Far too many progressive analyses about Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, the US, India and many others fail to mention the significant numbers of afrodescendants in those places and their impact on politics. This silence extends to the US 2020 elections, in spite of the very in your face white supremacy of the current regime. Rewriting the United States’ past (and future): The 1619 Project and its critics 1/17/2020 People's World: "The attacks of the ultra-left writers of the “World Socialist Web Site,” formulated on the grounds of a faulty and narrow version of Marxism, are perhaps more regrettable—especially because they distort an analytical approach that holds the potential for better understanding and changing the world in which we live. The legacy of Black advocates of socialism whose work was characterized by an understanding of how the dynamics of race oppression were central to the functioning of capitalism—figures like W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Claudia Jones, William L. Patterson, Angela Davis, and many more—is lost or twisted in these sectarian screeds." If Progressives Want to Win, They’ll Have to Talk About White Supremacy 2/21/2020 The Nation: "My research has found that nearly half of Democratic voters are people of color, and a dramatic drop-off in African American turnout in 2016 was a principal factor in Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Conveying the urgency of the fight against white supremacy could be critical to propelling the kind of turnout that will help Democrats win in November."
White progressives shouldn't be smug about racism. We could be doing much more
to end it. 11/29/2018 USA Today: "True, our mouths, hearts and votes are
generally in the right place. But our “money” often isn’t — our decisions on
where we live, worship and send our kids to school, whom we include in the
communities we form, and how we leverage the advantages of our white majority
status for the benefit of others." Why White Liberals Are So Unwilling to Recognize Their Own Racism 8/2/2018 Slate: "We’re taught to think of racism as individual acts of intentional meanness across race. That it’s always an individual, it has to be conscious, and it must be intentional. That definition exempts virtually all white people from the system that we’re all in and that we’ve all been shaped by. It is the bedrock of our country. That changes the question from “If I’m racist,” [to] which most white people would answer “No,” to “How is this manifesting in my life?” Because it is. It’s on me to figure out how." Progressives in Venezuela tend to be more aware of these dimensions than most, as discussed in The racial conflict in Venezuela. |
The
New York Times 1619 Project and the racialist falsification of history 3/1/2021 World
Socialist Web Site
If Progressives Want to Win, They’ll Have to Talk About White Supremacy 2/21/2020 The
Nation: "My research has found that nearly half of Democratic voters are people
of color, and a dramatic drop-off in African American turnout in 2016 was a
principal factor in Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Conveying the urgency of the fight
against white supremacy could be critical to propelling the kind of turnout that
will help Democrats win in November."
Dear Left, You're Missing The Mark 2/20/2020 Democracy in Color: "We talk
about how the Left is missing the mark at this moment with its troubling silence
on Trump’s white nationalism, which is the key to and cornerstone of his
continued power. By failing to make this their top priority issue—and keep it
front and center—the Left, including all current Democratic primary candidates,
risks throwing away their best chance at winning this November. We also hear
what our special guest, Maurice Mitchell, formerly a key leader in the Black
Lives Matter movement and now National Director of the Working Families Party,
has to say on this topic, the party’s support of Elizabeth Warren, and much
more."
Rewriting the United States’ past (and future): The 1619 Project and its critics 1/17/2020 People's
World: "The attacks of the ultra-left writers of the “World Socialist Web Site,”
formulated on the grounds of a faulty and narrow version of Marxism, are perhaps
more regrettable—especially because they distort an analytical approach that
holds the potential for better understanding and changing the world in which we
live. The legacy of Black advocates of socialism whose work was characterized by
an understanding of how the dynamics of race oppression were central to the
functioning of capitalism—figures like W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Claudia
Jones, William L. Patterson, Angela Davis, and many more—is lost or twisted in
these sectarian screeds."
The Racist, Imperialist War on Venezuela 1/31/2019 Black Agenda
Report: "The same forces that resist Black community control of police and
schools in the United States seek to overthrow any government in the formerly
colonized world – that is, non-white nations -- that claims the right of
self-determination and national sovereignty. U.S. imperialism is inseparable
from white supremacy – which is why the United States has paid no domestic price
for its role in the deaths of at least 20 million people since World War Two --
six million in the Congo, alone. U.S. “liberals” and “progressives,” much like
their counterparts in Europe, speak endlessly of democracy at home while
supporting their War Party abroad."
Why the Black Alliance for Peace opposes U.S. intervention in Venezuela 1/28/2019 Mundo
Obrero: "There can be no equivocation in the face of injustice and the
psychopathology of white supremacist ideology that is unable to respect the
rights and humanity of people of the Global Majority — Black and Brown people
who are the ones who suffer from these imperialist adventures mobilized by the
U.S./EU/NATO axis of domination. The idea of a benevolent hegemon might be a
comforting myth that assuages the conscience of left and progressive forces who
engage in open class/race collaboration with the white supremacist,
colonial/capitalist patriarchy that is the Western European project. But for
those of us relegated to what Frantz Fanon called the “zones of non-being,” we
cannot afford any illusions about the nature of what we are up against."
Capitalism and Race Redux 1/4/2019 Counterpunch: "Slaves weren’t enslaved
based on identity, and neither was it the basis of genocide committed against
the indigenous population. The concept of race didn’t exist until a half-century
after the establishment of American slavery." [Profoundly wrong in every
respect, as we know from antiquity and from the example of India. Why were
Africans enslaved in the Americas and not the Irish? Why were indigenous people
exterminated in the Americas when this was not a practice during wars in
Europe?]
Growing up in a ‘progressive’ country that celebrates blackface 12/22/2018 gal-dem:
“The only people who think in a racist manner are the people who think Zwarte
Piet is racist, because it’s not meant to be racist”
Do America’s Socialists Have a Race Problem? 12/20/2018 New Republic: "At
one point, Tur-ha Ak, a black organizer with Brooks’s Anti-Police Terror
Project, asked to speak. As his turn approached, the young man who was chairing
the meeting asked if Ak was a member. A number of white people had spoken before
him, including Forrest Schmidt, 42, who was attending his first DSA meeting.
“None of us had our credentials called,” he said. “Nobody said, ‘Are you a DSA
member?’” When Ak responded that he was not a member, the chair asked him to
take a seat. The room erupted. The procedural rules were racist, Ak proclaimed,
raising his voice over a cacophony of protests and chants. “The energy,” Brooks
recalled, “turned into that of a white mob.” She decided to take the floor. “My
name is Cat Brooks,” she said. “I’ve been organizing in this city longer than
most of you have lived here.” In a brief, piercing speech, she accused the
largely white crowd of being gentrifiers and then walked out, leaving members
confused and outraged."
“To Live in France Means to Become French”: Fascism, Parasitism, and the Yellow
Vests 12/9/2018 LOOP: "Against the wishful thinking of the “left” of the
oppressor nations, the correct political orientation toward France’s “Yellows
Vests” is decidedly not to see in them the seeds of an impending socialist
revolution. In this, we will be proven correct: contradictions between the labor
aristocracy and the haute bourgeoisie are not expressions of developing
proletarian consciousness or a the development of a revolutionary situation. The
fury of the French labor aristocracy over increased commodity prices, income
taxes, and retirements are coupled to their rage over immigrants not speaking
French, over the police not receiving high enough wages, and over what they
perceive as insufficient economic nationalism."
White progressives shouldn't be smug about racism. We could be doing much more
to end it. 11/29/2018 USA Today: "True, our mouths, hearts and votes are
generally in the right place. But our “money” often isn’t — our decisions on
where we live, worship and send our kids to school, whom we include in the
communities we form, and how we leverage the advantages of our white majority
status for the benefit of others."
Zwarte Piet, or: The Illusion of the Netherlands’ Progressive Image 10/21/2018 Medium: "Despite
the fact that police in the Netherlands have repeatedly been shown to engage in
ethnic profiling, despite the fact that various investigations have uncovered
rampant discrimination in the housing market and the job market, despite the
fact that the far-right populist Geert Wilders got the second most votes in the
most recent election, despite the Minister of Foreign Affairs recently going on
record saying multicultural societies are doomed to fail, and despite strongly
objecting to having a figure that is wearing literal blackface be altered to a
less stereotypical appearance, the Dutch still champion themselves as a land of
progressive ideals, where race is all but an afterthought."
White Anarchism: An Exploration into Characteristics and Colonialist Roots of
White Anarchism 10/7/2018 Medium: "You either believe that Anarchism and
it's formulations of anti authoritarianism and anti statism are the absolute
ends goals and proceed to elevate the process above all else OR you believe that
Anarchism and it's formulations are the best and most likely means to achieve
the global liberation of all people's and proceed to elevate the actual
liberation of people's above all other considerations."
Before you accuse someone of racism, look in the mirror 10/2/2018 News &
Observer: "Harvard political scientist Ryan Enos looked at how whites in Sen.
Elizabeth Warren’s backyard behave when minorities appear in their homogeneous
communities. As reported in The New York Times, Enos published a book titled
“The Space Between Us,” suggesting that “the ideological commitment of liberals
in these and other similar communities may waver, or fail entirely, when their
white homogeneity is threatened….Enos demonstrates that the liberal resolve of
affluent Democrats can disintegrate when racially or ethnically charged issues
like neighborhood integration are at stake.”"
Even progressive academics can be racist. I’ve experienced it firsthand. 9/11/2018 WaPo: "Inevitably,
their point of contention isn’t that I’m a civilian studying warfare; instead,
they’re curious why I don’t study African cases or employ critical race or
gender theories in my analysis. It’s as if they believe that just because I’m a
black woman, I need to filter everything through the lens of my identity. It’s a
presumption that disrespectfully disregards the full scope of my intelligence —
and my ability to examine a world that exists beyond the borders of my own
selfhood."
Why White Liberals Are So Unwilling to Recognize Their Own Racism 8/2/2018 Slate: "We’re
taught to think of racism as individual acts of intentional meanness across
race. That it’s always an individual, it has to be conscious, and it must be
intentional. That definition exempts virtually all white people from the system
that we’re all in and that we’ve all been shaped by. It is the bedrock of our
country. That changes the question from “If I’m racist,” [to] which most white
people would answer “No,” to “How is this manifesting in my life?” Because it
is. It’s on me to figure out how."
I’m Tired of Enduring the Abuse and Pain That Makes Me a ‘Strong Black Woman’ 5/24/2018 The
Root: "Six years ago, a white male boss bullied me. He was the executive editor
of AlterNet, a left-leaning magazine. He shot down any idea I had that
explicitly discussed race, made me feel like I was incapable of doing my job,
and that I should be grateful that he had even hired me. When he fired me, he
did so over email. My co-workers accused him of sexual harassment in an article
published in BuzzFeed in December 2017. I applauded their bravery, saw this as a
victory. I had not been sexually harassed, I was fine. I quietly wondered why no
one asked me if I had been harassed?"
The Progressive Racism of Margaret Sanger 4/16/2018 Abort73: "If by 'unfit'
is meant the physical or mental defects of a human being," she wrote, "that is
an admirable [position], but if 'unfit' refers to races or religions, then that
is another matter which I frankly deplore."1 If Margaret Sanger had been the
racist many of her detractor’s claim, it’s unlikely that Martin Luther King Jr.
would have accepted the inaugural Margaret Sanger Award, bestowed on him the
year Sanger died, or spoken of her in such glowing terms."
Bernie Sanders struggles with new path to black voters 4/6/2018 AP: "As
with Sanders’ comments on Obama, some of the rub is as much about emphasis as
substance. Seated with Lumumba, the senator was asked about the marginalization
of black LGBTQ citizens. He shifted the question to people “you didn’t talk
about” like “people working two or three jobs” and “people who spend 50 percent
of their limited income on housing.” He repeatedly turned discussion of fighting
racism to fighting poverty. “If all I hear about is ‘the working class,’ and it
seems he’s talking to just one segment, then it’s easy to feel he’s not talking
to me,” said Williams, the Georgia Democrat, explaining that she cannot
“separate my blackness” from where she fits in the economy."
Smack a White Boy 3/18/2018 MerriCatherine: "All of us who have
participated in this action have interacted with white anarchists for good
amounts of time in our organizing and/or lives. Our relationships with these
folks have varied. But let us tell you this, not one of us has been unaffected
by the racism within the movement. Don’t think these are isolated instances.
White supremacy plays a role in everything. The anarchist scene reproduces the
same oppressive social relationships we face throughout society, and furthers
the notion that oppression does not exist within the movement. This silences
many."
How White Nationalists Hide in Academia 1/4/2018 Truth Out: "As "The Case
for Colonialism" created a public backlash, 15 members of the editorial board of
the Third World Quarterly stepped down in protest of the article's publication.
Though the Editor-in-Chief Shahid Qadir insisted that the article had been
through a double-blind peer-review process, it was later discovered that it had
been rejected by reviewers and the board members who requested copies were not
given them."
A Marxist case for intersectionality 8/1/2017 Socialist Worker: "There are
two quite distinct interpretations of intersectionality: one developed by Black
feminists and the other by those from the "post-structural" wing of
postmodernism. I want to try to make the differences clear in this article, and
explain why the Black feminist tradition advances the project of building a
unified movement to fight all forms of oppression, which is central to the
socialist project--while post-structuralism does not."
A Marxist Critiques Identity Politics 4/26/2017 Seattle Weekly: "One of
them came about in the somewhat indiscriminate attack on various politicians,
including Bernie Sanders, which was taken up very quickly by the Democratic
elite as a way to totally discredit him by saying that he ignored race—that any
kind of politics that breaks from the Hillary Clinton brand is necessarily
racist and sexist. So then you get this bizarre phenomenon where Hillary Clinton
is tweeting about intersectionality, and it’s very easy to get a lot of fans on
social media and at universities by using that word. That was kind of an amazing
moment which showed just how non-threatening this discourse is to the American
ruling class."
Progressives: the New Race Realists 2/17/2017 Those who can see: White
supremacist world view.
The progressive movement’s horrible racist history 3/21/2016 NY Post: "An
influential 1916 best-seller, ‘‘The Passing of the Great Race” — celebrating
Nordic Europeans — was written by Madison Grant, a staunch activist for
Progressive causes such as endangered species, municipal reform, conservation
and the creation of national parks. He was a member of an exclusive social club
founded by Republican Progressive Theodore Roosevelt, and Grant and Franklin D.
Roosevelt became friends in the 1920s, addressing one another in letters as ‘‘My
dear Frank” and ‘‘My dear Madison.’‘ Grant’s book was translated into German,
and Adolf Hitler called it his Bible. Progressives spearheaded the eugenics
movement, dedicated to reducing the reproduction of supposedly ‘‘inferior”
individuals and races."
10 Ways White Liberals Perpetuate Racism 9/1/2015 Huff Post: "These are
tough questions. It hurts to know that my words might have invalidated another,
and that I may have contributed subtly to racism. For a 40-something White
liberal, I’m acknowledging I have more to learn. Millennials seem know that in
the smallest of words is where the greatest of pain lies. Only through continued
growth, awareness and acknowledgement that #wordsmatter can something as ugly as
racism be overcome."
 |
El
Partido de los Trabajadores y la extrema derecha en Brasil 10/20/2018 Cuba
debate: [Otro análisis en el que la izquierda mantiene la invisibilidad de los
afrodescendientes, esta vez en Brasil. ¿Cómo se puede hablar de la elección de
un nazi sin mencionar que el país tiene 50% de afrodescendientes? Muchos de
ellos votan por un hombre que aumentará las masacres policiales en las favelas,
que ya se están ejecutando a un ritmo mayor que los asesinatos policiales en los
Estados Unidos.]Iceland's
"Anti-Trump" Prime Minister Joins Sanders-Varoufakis Open Call for Global
Progressive Alliance 12/5/2018 Common Dreams: "Icelandic Prime Minister
Katrín Jakobsdóttir this week announced her support for Progressive
International—the just-launched global movement calling for all progressives to
fight together for a "shared vision of democracy, prosperity, sustainability,
and solidarity." A brainchild of the U.S.-based Sanders Institute and Europe's
DiEM25—groups founded by Jane O'Meara Sanders and former Greek Finance Minister
Yanis Varoufakis, respectively—the Progressive International's open call was
unveiled Friday at the inaugural Sanders Institute Gathering, a three-day
congregation of hundreds of progressive leaders tackling issues including
"full-throated economic populism," Medicare for All, and a vision "for a world
that works for the children of this world, not for a handful of billionaires.""The
Paranoid Drive for Military Intervention in Venezuela 9/6/2018 Counterpunch: "Previously,
the warmongering “humanitarian” interveners went straight to looting but, over
time, they refined their rhetoric and began to talk about trade and investment
opportunities, increases in GDP and other more subtle forms of robbery."
Intersectionality: A Marxist Critique 11/14/2018 Black Agenda Report: How
to make Afrodescendants and women invisible in a Marxist context - "To assert
the priority of a class analysis is not to claim that a worker is more important
than a homemaker, or even that the worker primarily thinks of herself as a
worker; indeed, based on her personal experience with spousal abuse or police
brutality, she may well think of herself more as a woman, or a black person. It
is to propose, however, that the ways in which productive human activity is
organized—and, in class-based society, compels the mass of the population to be
divided up into various categories in order to insure that the many will be
divided from one another and will labor for the benefit of the few—this
class-based organization constitutes the principal issue requiring investigation
if we wish to understand the roots of social inequality."
On Embracing Intersectionality and Decolonization to Foment Personal and
Societal Change 4/9/2018 Truth Out: "My choice of a complex identity as a
Deaf Black Indigenous Womxn of Color (DBIWOC*) means that I equitably
acknowledge and embrace the Afro-Cuban and Native aspects of myself along with
the resilient experience of being a Deaf womxn. As a womxn, I am gender fluid
when it comes to clothes, and I am a queer when it comes to relationships. It
means I would be with a person because of the soul attraction and the way they
carry themselves."
Before there was ‘intersectional feminism,’ there was the Combahee River
Collective 3/1/2018 WaPo: "In a 1977 statement defining their goals, the
women wrote: “The most general statement of our politics at the present time
would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual,
heterosexual, and class oppression, and see as our particular task the
development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the
major systems of oppression are interlocking.” Today, the concept is called
“intersectionality” and is the source of debate in the news media and on social
media among women of color who say that mainstream feminism is still too
centered on the experiences of privileged white women."
A Marxist case for intersectionality 8/1/2017 Socialist Worker: "There are
two quite distinct interpretations of intersectionality: one developed by Black
feminists and the other by those from the "post-structural" wing of
postmodernism. I want to try to make the differences clear in this article, and
explain why the Black feminist tradition advances the project of building a
unified movement to fight all forms of oppression, which is central to the
socialist project--while post-structuralism does not."
Will Conflict over the Centrality of LGBTQ Issues Drive a Wedge in the
#BlackLivesMatter Movement? 8/14/2016 Atlanta Black Star: "However, for
some Black activist groups, this poses a problem. Some, including Black
nationalists and cultural nationalists, believe that the movement for Black
liberation should place race first, and that LGBTQ issues have no place. And
they disapprove of the intersectionality of race and sexual orientation that is
promoted in the movement. The division was brought to the fore in Atlanta, where
a man named Sir Maejor Page was booted from the official local Black Lives
Matter chapter — Black Lives Matter Atlanta — and formed his own nonprofit
organization called Black Lives Matter of Greater "
Black feminism and intersectionality 12/1/2013 ISR
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/roger-white-post-colonial-anarchism
What motivates Trump voters? A lot of progressives could not understand that it was patriarchalism and white supremacy.
Bernie Sanders and the Black Vote, 2016 Primaries A tale of failure through adherence to progressive principles.
News of the Racial Conflict in Venezuela
Noticias del conflicto racial en Venezuela
White Supremacy and Patriarchy in India: a neglected field of study that could give a much greater time depth to our work,
The Christian Right: driving the rise in white supremacy
White Supremacy Pages on AfroCubaWeb
Antifa: targeting white supremacists
[AfroCubaWeb] [Site Map] [Music] [Arts] [Authors] [News] [Search this site]