[Marxism] (fwd) Obama v Palin : A Story Of Two Americas

[Les Schaffer]

[forwarded for Einde]


Charles Brown wrote:
>
<snip>

> CB: In a word, class inflected by race in US history turns, some
> things, like the very problematic idea of "elitist",  into their
> opposite.  White people, including white working class people,  have
> long called Black people who manage somehow to achieve in life according
> to the standards of American society, uppity N's.  A Black person who
> goes to Harvard is not an elitist relative to white people, workers or
> petit bourgeois. The main elite in the US is still the white race, so ,
> white workers even cannot "call" Black Harvard graduates "elitists"
> without falling into  the historic white elitism of calling Black
> achievers "uppity". All white people of any class are in an elite
> relative to Black people, and they think so.  Crying that Obama is an
> elitist relative to poor whites  is phony self-victimization. Obama
> hasn't and doesn't do anything that is acting superior to poor white
> people.  Get it ?
>
> The following article nails this point very well.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/opinion/22observer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 
>
>
While being aware of the depth racism in American society I'm not 
American and have only been there twice many years ago, so I'm quite 
willing to admit that my understanding of the full ramifications is 
defective.

I thought a long time before I posted that message precisely because of 
my doubts about my interpretation of teh articloe. I do know that a 
Black person has to be so much better qualified than a White person to 
be even considered for a position at any level.

Nevertheless I still find the idea that attending Harvard or any other 
elite university is somehow a positive characteristic disturbing in a 
Marxist forum, which is why I decided to post my doubts about the mode 
of argumentation.

In some of the arguments against Palin I feel there is some unconscious 
element of class contempt - as if a Harvardman will at least know which 
knife and fork to use to eat fish at a formal dinner whereas Palin or 
her husband are bound to commit social gaffes on a regular basis. This 
is why I feel somehow it is a mistake for SOCIALISTS to emphasise that 
Obama and his wife went to Harvard, whereas as Palin and her husband 
didn't.

There are many much better arguments against Palin - including her 
extremely reactionary political positions, her apparent abuse of power 
to follow a personal agenda, her disturbing brand of religious 
fundamentalism and her quite palpable ignorance (i.e. lack of knowledge) 
of the outside world.

Einde O'Callaghan