[Marxism] Obama and Some Black Workers

[Haines Brown]

> The other day we were talking about history and politics- he has a
> fairly, how should I put it?  undeveloped Black nationalist take on
> things- ie white people just want to attack, steal and destroy
> everything in the world, slavery in Egypt wasn't so bad, etc.

Sorry to pick up on a minor point, but was this person's so-called
Black nationalist outlook really so "undeveloped"?

It is a fact that on the whole the exploiters of the world today (US
and European imperialism, for example), are largely white. This does
not imply that their exploitation of people of color is _because_ they
are white, but race is nevertheless an important fact because of the
role of the colonization and enslavement of people of color for
primitive accumulation and for a justificatory ideology.

That is, if you observe that those who are exploited are of color and
the exploiters are white (a generalization that, of course, is crude,
but not unrealistic), is it not natural to describe the exploiters as
white? For the solidarity needed to resist that exploitation, it is
natural to identity on the basis of the one factor that distinguishes
you as a group. One's Black nationalism is a real effect of a white
racism that is also very real; one can't discount that racism by
implying there is no good reason for Black nationalism.

As for the point about ancient Egypt, let me first suggest that
Afrocentric history is NOT at all the same thing as Black nationalism,
although many people may adopt both views. The former employs the
subjectivism that is inherent in empiricism to redefine the frame of
history in a way that is truer and more meaningful for a Black
person. If one accepts empiricism uncritically, there's obviously
nothing wrong with that, and in fact it is inevitable. The problem
with Afrocentric history is not that it is biased, but that it is
empiricist. Black nationalism, on the other hand, is not an outlook so
much as a course of action shaped by the fact that progress is
impossible in the framework of white American society because its
racism is endemic. 

Second, while Afrocentric history has certainly been guilty of
excesses, it is a fact that slavery was not burdensome in ancient
Egypt. First of all, Egypt, unlike Greece, Rome and ancient India, is
not classed as a "slave society" at all. There were slaves, of course,
but relatively few in number and who were members of the ruling
political community, such as elite war captives. Joseph offers an
example. Hollywood delights in the crack of whips over backs of slaves
building pyramids. This is pure fiction. The labor (except for slave
architects, etc.), was non-slave farm labor who in the non-growing
season when pyramids were built were only too glad to get pyramid work
for a variety of mundane reasons, such as a better diet (honey and
beer) and housing for a while.

It is all too easy for white folks to dismiss Black nationalism or
Afrocentrism as the result of a lack of intelligence. This is
obviously racist and ignores the many falsehoods and exaggerations
that presumably more intelligent whites swallow concerning their own
history. I'm as ready as the next person to criticize Black
nationalism or Afrocentrism when it is factually wrong or offers
self-defeating interpretations, but we can't in the process miss the
important contribution of both to Black consciousness and to
historiography.

I make a mountain out of the molehill here because I hope it
illustrates how easy it is to be confident that our views are both
obvious and true, but on closer inspection seem anything but that and
may reflect deeper weaknesses in our outlook of which we are entirely
unaware.
-- 
 
       Haines Brown, KB1GRM