In a message dated 12/8/2001 10:40:39 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Doug, > > Pardon me, but there is a readily identifiable > difference which exists now between African-Americans > and poor whites. Skin color. No matter how color > blind people would like to pretend they are, that fact > will always remain. And in this country, the white > people, no matter how poor they are, will always have > a leg up. I don't believe for a minute that my people > are looking to drive any wedges, and I can't believe > you really think so either. > I did not say that 'your people' are looking to drive any wedges between poor whites and blacks. I said that raising the demand for reparations is a tactic that could be used as a wedge to divide poor whites and blacks and isolate the black community. In my last posting to this list, I posed the question: Are the fundamental class interests of workers, including white workers, served by the oppression and super-exploitation of blacks? My answer: No, because workers, including most white workers can be more effectively and thoroughly exploited by perpetuating a racist system. I do not claim to be a colorblind person, nor do I propose "colorblind" solutions for racism. I support the struggles of African-American people against a racist system because I believe it is in my interests to do so. If I believed that it was in my interests to support the status quo, I would support the status quo. It is also my view that the problem isn't people with white skin as such. The problem is a color-based caste system that confers privileges on whites and influences the way that people feel, and think, and act. This color-based caste system is also part of a political and social system based on economic exploitation and nourished by racism, sexism, elitism and so forth: the capitalist system. > I agree, African-Americans should not look to > government to solve all their problems, because not > all of their problems stem from that. But reparations > are a different matter entirely. > Of course, not every problem can be solved by the government. However, African-American people cannot solve some of their biggest problems without making demands on the government. That's a point I made in my last writing on this subject. The demand for reparations is a demand on the government, is it not? > Calling for remedies in regard to fair employment laws > and housing should be on the agenda for everyone. > Yes, African-Americans are affected by those things, > but they are not only our issue, and again, don't > negate the call for reparations. > I didn't say that the only issues affecting African-Americans is unfair practices in the employment and housing markets. You are putting words in my mouth. > As for collective guilt, America has always loved to > share, spreading the guilt and financial burden of > Vietnam and other unnecessary wars. Why not pay the > price of reparations? Attacking African-Americans in > their own country; dragging us kicking and screaming > on a boat ride we had not intended to take; killing us > because we dared voice our discontent and fought back; > and making us build the "good old USA" using our > blood, sweat and tears. > I see some huge problems with the application of the concept of collective guilt and punishment. For one, there's no need to establish that the people who are being punished are guilty of the crime. This issue came up in relation to punishing people in the German government for systematically exterminating the Jews. Should everyone in a position to carry out "the final solution" to the Jewish question be executed without a trial? Should the entire population receive some sort of punishment, including opponents of Hitler's regime and non-Jewish victims (Gypsies, Trade Unionists, Communists, etc.)? Does it matter who made the decisions, who carried them out, who supported the policy, who opposed it, and who passively accepted it? > Truth of the matter, simply put, is this: Without us, > where would America be? It owes us BIG time. Life > and funeral insurance for the lynchings and cultural > genocide it maliciously committed. The slave labor it > relegated us to, never giving us a living wage, to me > equals back pay. Jim Crow, the bus boycott, the > riots, etc. Is there really a need to continue? > > Consider it a class action suit. > > Pamela Taylor > I think that we agree that a massive transfer of income and assets to the African-American population is called for. However, I am not convinced that raising the demand for reparations is an effective tactic. Why? There is the matter of whose income and assets you are going to go after. Who has enough money to pay the debt? Who is going to help you accomplish the transfer of income and assets? Can you rely on rich people, who happen to get the most benefit from the ongoing oppression and super-exploitation of African American workers? What's in it for them? Will moral arguments and guilt-baiting tactics work on rich white people? Can poor white people (and others not of African descent) be convinced that it is in their interests to support you? How could you convince them? Are there more effective ways to enlist their support than raising the reparations demand? - Doug Mann, Kingfield Doug Mann for School Board <http://educationright.tripod.com> are served by measures that improve the condition of African-American workers and bring about racial equality. What is the nature of the problem? Why were African People enslaved and brought across the Atlantic ocean in the first place? Why has the oppression of black people been perpetuated? Whose interests does it serve? Is it in the interests of the capitalist class to end racism, or to perpetuate it? But what you are proposing is not a class action suit. The oppression and super-exploitation of black people in America is ongoing. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
