On another list, I said this:
Fredrik deBoer says,
"Left-wing publishing, for good and bad, is defined in large measure
by a particular social and cultural group. And that group has little
use for issues of class that aren’t ancillary to issues of race and
gender. Just check the publishing records of the popular left. Find
how many of them concern, say, the destitute white underclass of the
Appalachian mountains. You won’t find many!"
Michael Yates said:
"This seems patently false to me. I asked deBoer about it and he admitted
that this is overboard. But then why say it except to make points
against the person to whose essay deBoer's piece is directed? And
what might the "popular left" be? Popular to whom? "Defined in large
measure"? "A particular social and cultural group"? "the Appalachian
mountains"? Not much specificity here. Those mountains go from southern
NY to Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. That's a pretty big area
(and about 25 million people) to be writing about "the destitute
white underclass." What is an "underclass" anyway?"
Joseph Catron replied, in part:
"Sure, anything you can say will be a generalization. That's why,
as opposed to deBoer, I'd count a certain approach to it as an
active bias, not simple disregard.
'
Then again, you can't say much about urban black America, or
Indian reservations, without generalizing either. People still
manage to find intelligent things to say."
To which Michael Yates:
"Joseph Catron says we can't say much about people on Indian
reservations or urban black people. Well, that's not quite true.
We can say what unemployment rates are at Pine Ridge or what
fraction of people have diabetes, etc. Or we could take the
poverty rate among blacks in Pittsburgh. Etc. There is plenty
we can find out from census data. So when you write something
like deBoer did, he could at least give a concrete example.
He could look and discover that certain counties in Eastern
Kentucky are among the poorest in the country, with high incidences
of poverty, unemployment, obesity, and other things. And the race
of the residents. If you don't try to be at least somewhat
specific in trying to make some more general point, no matter
the venue in which you are writing, then what you have is
really what I call "bar talk." Great for twitter and facebook
maybe but not if you claim to be a writer whose field is social
science. deBoer is young, so he'll hopefully learn this.
Carrol can't stand vague and therefore meaningless words.
Nor can I. But to each his own, I suppose.
And isn't it a stereotype, the very thing deBoer is decrying,
to write about a white underclass in the Appalachian Mts.
Under what class? The white people in Pigeon Forge, TN are
working in the scores of motels, restaurants, and other
tourist businesses. Dollywood along must employ hundreds
of people. Even those out poaching ginseng in the national
park are working. Even people peddling dope are working.
There are plenty of places where life is harsh, but it is
not the case that no one tries to do anything about it."
____________________________________
Let me add a couple more points. The article deBoer criticizes
is by Peter Frase, a graduate student like deBoer (deBoer
might now have obtained his PhD). Frase's essay is remarkably
self-referential and gives no hint at all that the author has had
experience with the things he is writing about. deBoer, on the
other hand, criticizes a group of people (not concretely identified)
who attended fancy colleges and are condescending toward poor
white people. How does he know this? He makes claims that are
unsupported.
Between the two essays, if you can call them that, there is
not an abundance of substance. As an antidote to this stuff, read
Alexandra Early's article on mrzine about why Salvadoran kids are
coming, unattended, to the U.S. Clear language, good examples,
some personal experience, etc. Or look at what someone like
Nastarin Mohit (whose father, an Iranian dissident, used to
come to the Wed. lunches at Monthly Review) is doing.If I had to
bet, I'd say that these two young women and many others like
them will do good things in terms of trying to build radical forces
to challenge capitalism. The grad students, well, I am not too
optimistic about them. But, quién sabe?
Finally, there have been many acts of racial solidarity in those
Appalachian Mts., notably among coal miners in the United Mine Workers.
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