[Marxism] The State of Racism

[Anthony Boynton]

The State of racism in 2007-08-11

I think maybe we should move on from talking about the
Barry Bonds issue, to talk about the underlying
issues. The most important of these, in my view, is
the state of racism in the United States ... and the
world, today.

Racism is down, but not out. In the 20th century it
took four big hits: the defeat of Naziism in the
Second World War, the rise of rock n' roll, the legal
victories of the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist
movements in the United States, and the destruction of
apartheid in South Africa.

In the United States, racism is officially not
acceptable. Republican and Democratic Party politicans
avoid words like "Nigger" and even "Negro". Condeleza
Rice is the Secretary of State, so was Collin Powell,
and Thomas is on the Supreme court.

Barack Obama is a leading candidate for the
presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. Rap
is the underlying beat of Walt Disney movies.
Television and movies even have mixed race couples who
hold hands and kiss and ...

Racism really has suffered major reverses in the last
half century. In a sense, the fact that white baseball
fans want to kill Barry bonds, but don't call him a
"nigger" in public is a step in the right direction,
but they still call him nigger at their neighborhood
bar, at the backyard BBQ, and they still would like to
kill him.

Racism against black people has gone largely gone
underground (to a large extent racism against Arabs
and Latinos has replaced it as the more publicly
acceptable kind of racism, justified in terms of "the
war against terrorism" and "defending the nation's"
borders.)

BUT a deeper look easily reveals that racism is still
a very powerful force in terms of hiring, firing,
promotion, education, health care, and just about
every thing that matters in the real world. 

"Integration" exists at every level of US society, but
most people still live in white or black
neighborhoods, Latin or Asian neighborhoods, have kids
with someone from their social group, help their
friends and family move get the job, get the
promotion, etc.

The great majority of Black people and immigrants are
still at the bottom of society. Now some individual
members of those groups can "rise" to "join" white
society. But it is still an Anglo-Saxon male dominated
society: as social groups black people and immigrants
are doomed to remain at the bottom of US society as
long as capitalism exists.

And that means racism will continue to exist too.

We tore the racist fabric of capitalist society, but
it is still basically the same fabric.

Racism is not just irrational hatred. It serves social
functions for capitalism. It is the justification of
the oppressors for their unjustifiable acts of
oppression, it is the expression of thier fear of the
oppressed, and it is a way of dividing the oppressed
against themselves.

As long as oppressors and oppressed exist, these three
reasons for racism will keep old forms of racism
alive, and continue to breed new forms.

We won some battles over the last decades, but we also
lost some very big ones on other fronts. In terms of
racism we need to defend the victories we really did
win. They are a very real basis for us to fight for
increasing levels of human social equality. Defending
those past victories will help us fight for new ones,
for exmaple in the current struggle for immigrant
rights.

Part of this is identifying the undercurrents of
racism which are trying to raise up to the surface,
identify them and attack them before they grow into
something more malignant. 

When we look at the tremendous anger at Barry Bonds we
should ask ourselves, what's the big deal? I mean
almost all of the sports journalists and fans consume
legal drugs of one sort or another...beer, cigarettes,
aspirin, AND a lot of them consume illegal ones,
especially marijuana and methamphetamines. 

Why is it that this anger is almost completely
confined to white fans?

We should see the attacks on Barry Bonds for what they
are, the undercurrents of racism trying to rise to the
surface. 

It is more or less the same when racist winds blow
from the ivory towers. Whenever theories of the
genetic superiority of the English ruling class float
out of the tower window, we should recognize them for
what they are, and shoot them down.

There are two other big issues related to the Barry
Bonds threat that might be worth discussing: one is
professional sports itself. The other is the "war on
drugs" of which the steroid and doping scandals are
just a minor aspect.

But, more later. Anthony






       
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