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Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 15:33
As Paula Deens face is plastered across our television screens and the media, as the dark shadow of the Trayvon Martin case hangs over the United States, we are forced to confront the issue of race, the hypocrisy it proliferates and the ominous position it places Humanity in.

The case of Paula Deen is based around her use of a derogatory word in the distant past and is today reprimanded harshly for it with her show being pulled and her products being stripped from the shelves of Wal-Mart, while derogatory terms used against whites by blacks is kicked to the curb like a flea ridden, emaciated puppy and forgotten. In addition, terms like “cracker” are not seen as derogatory by the black community, as seen in the testimony of a female witness in the Trayvon Martin case. This kind of hypocrisy and ignorance only leads to more unnecessary racial strife. Why is it okay for one race to be openly and wantonly racist but it’s not okay for the other race to be so? I posit this question to ALL races and no one specific. Every race is guilty of the above so to single out any one race is ridiculous and unjust.

Another example of racial hypocrisy is Jamie Foxx and his comments surrounding his experience of starring in Quentin Tarentinos film D’Jango Unchained, which goes, “I kill all the white people in the movie! How great is that?” Now, think about if a white person said the same thing, but in reference to black people none of us would hear the end of it. We would see Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton coming out and blasting the person who said it while the media dragged that persons name through the mud and rightfully so, because jokes about killing ANY race is disgusting no matter who is making the joke. Period.

Aside from the obvious abhorrence towards Jamie Foxx’s ill-conceived jest, what else is bothersome about this and other racially charged innuendos is that it taps into the racial fetishism that plagues this country. What I mean by “racial fetishism” is two-fold in its definition. First, as in mythological parlance, it’s an item imbued with divine power. This can be seen in how “sacred” race tends to be to some people based on ideas passed down to younger generations backed by no evidence. And second, race is treated as an object of fixation, but instead of sexual joy it’s the elation an individual or group feels for being a part of that race. What positive things does racial fetishism give to the Human Race? Nothing, but negatives like racial nationalism which in turn creates strife amongst Humanity, ignorance and even the worst of all situations; genocide. You don’t have to look hard for examples when you can easily find information on Nazi Germany, the attempted genocide of the Irish (based on the Anglo-Saxon vs. Celts whom were seen as inferior and even sub-human), the Rwandan Genocide, the American Indian War and others. So, to those who believe racial fetishism is harmless, look at these few examples and think more on it. It’s dangerous thinking and it can result in the death of many.

As always, though, the racially minded naysayer will still say that minorities can’t be racist due to the lack of power minorities have (which is contradicted by Obamas rise to power where a majority of minorities voted for him) within the white power structure thus providing no teeth for minority based racism. This is no more than an attempt at justifying racial hatred by minorities for whites in general. There is no rational reason to believe that since one group has no power it’s okay to be ignorant and racist. Will the same be said once the Hispanic population overtakes the white population? Will whites then be excused to be racist dullards? Of course not, we all acknowledge the fact that racism is pure evil. Being a racist dullard is not empowering, but reverting to primitive tribalism. It’s the subversion of rational, logical thought in favor of Neanderthal brutishness.

Solutions, from those who honestly want race relations to be improved and even progress from it’s current stalemate, need to be placed on the table before calling for extreme measures that could result in state sanctioned deaths. We need to find peaceful solutions by all people united in effort. One solution I provide uses science and can be done by everyone. So, ask yourselves, what would YOU propose to do in order to improve and progress race relations peacefully? Think for a moment on that question before reading on.

The Evolution Solution

Since the solidification of the Theory of Evolution into science fact (despite the “theory” moniker, it is backed up by mounting evidence) in the mid-1800’s by Charles Darwin in his groundbreaking work, On the Origins of Species, we have been further enlightened about our origins as a race (the Human Race) outside of conventional religious thought. We now know that not only do we share ancestry with apes, but with all of life! More importantly, though, is our shared ancestry with each other.

All modern humans share their ancestry from Africa, which is evidenced by Mitochondrial Eve (Humanity’s shared mother). So essentially we all, regardless of your sub-race (Black, White, Hispanic, Asian…etc. I will from here on out refer to racial labels as sub-race considering we are all of the Human Race), are Africans! I believe this is an exciting illumination on the Human Family that we are all a part of! However, I can’t blame anyone who doesn’t share in the enthusiasm considering the ubiquitous racial fetishism that infests this country and the world. This is why a new paradigm in education is required to quash racial fetishism entirely.

Setting aside the fossil record being evidence of our shared ancestry, one doesn’t have look no further than our own DNA! Genetically, there is nothing vastly different between white DNA and black DNA, other than the obvious superficial qualities. If black and white DNA differed even by half a percent than we would not have bi-racial offspring such as our President Barrack Obama and a majority of multi-generational Americans who can trace their bloodlines to black, white, Asian, Native American ancestors. The mythology of purity by the racial fetishists is simply that, a myth. Purity of race is nothing more than numbskull romanticism at it’s worst. It’s better not to entertain such hubris but to allow it to die and decay out your mind.

Here is what I propose as a solution to this problem we all face. I propose that in any class or classroom agenda that deals with race will also have an addendum to its curriculum revolving around Evolutionary Theory in conjunction with an emphasis on our shared African origins. What will also follow is teaching Racial Rejectionsim and it’s positive merits. The merits are as follows:

• That no sub-race is superior nor inferior to each other

• Improvement of relations between all Human Beings regardless of the sub race they consider themselves

• Collective cooperation without biasness and prejudice in order to innovate in varying career fields

• The true and absolute desegregation of Human Beings

• The security and safety of all Human Beings being drastically improved

• The equal focus on improving rural, suburban and urban areas due to zero racial favoritism

Positive merits will abound in many areas as well, which are all equally important. Racial recognition will be denounced as an atavistic (primitive) idea that we all need to cast aside in order to progress our society. It will eventually be regarded in the same light as patriarchal attitudes and how we regard racist whites today. It’ll be taught as well that we won’t miss this primitive throwback of an idea due to its divisiveness and the evil it created.

Education remains the key factor in vanquishing the age-old foe of racial fetishism from our collective consciousness. It will indeed be a hard and rocky road for all of us to travel because it does require all of us to destroy the racial ideas we all tend to hold and to situate ourselves into a new way of thinking, of rejecting race entirely in all of it’s forms. The Old Guard racial fetishists will try to continue infecting the younger generation with their primitive ideas, but eventually progress will be victorious.

When you actually think about it, racial fetishism only serves the interests of the elite in power in positive ways. It serves as a function of control over the population by effectively dividing and conquering the People. It creates easy to control groups of people by constantly antagonizing them along racial lines. In other words, they keep the People going for each others throat and they can do what they please with their abuse of power. However, once that leash is severed a true unity of the People will occur destroying the power of the elite.


Racial Rejectionism and What It Means to Be One

Racial Rejectionism will be the main philosophy that governs our understanding of our Human Family. We will no longer be driven by rabid hatred towards each other because of beliefs in silly little racial myths. Instead, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc will view each other as brothers and sisters united by common ancestry and ambition towards true progress of society! We will no longer look down on each other nor blame each other for our failures in life. We will have to actually own up to our mistakes, pick ourselves by our bootstraps and trudge forward to improving our own individual lives.

You, the reader, have gotten this far and are probably still wondering how, with the problem of dealing with others who can’t escape racial fetishism, will you ever be able to reject race? It’s all about will power, the power of simply denying the prominence we place on race and not even recognizing race in any of it’s varying forms. We must reject ALL racial labels on the grounds that since these racial labels we give ourselves are sub-racial in context. Since the term “sub-race” brings forth racist imagery its even more reason to rise above these race labels. We are Humans and we should regard ourselves as such. Anyone who calls you by your race label can and should be regarded as a racist due to the fact that it’s setting you aside as something different from Human. A racial rejectionist remembers, always, that racial fetishism wallows in the filthy dark dungeon of ignorance and not in the brightness of enlightenment. Racial rejectionists also realize that this ideal is the epitome of liberation and progress for all Human Beings!

And if this doesn’t convince you perhaps having a stable country and world appeals to you. Cohesion between the peoples of any country is necessary for it’s economic success and ultimate survival. Once cohesion decays within a country it ends up falling apart. History can attest to this with the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire in it’s beginning required that all newcomers become Romanized (i.e.: learning and adopting the Roman Culture, the language and establishing a Roman identity) in order to stabilize the growing Empire. Once that cohesion died away, so too did the Roman Empire leading to a Dark Age where advancement in technology slowed to a minimum and basic necessities such as sanitation, clean water and an abundance of food was at a minimum that eventually led to plagues. The cohesion of the People is at the very heart of racial rejectionism because it recognizes the need for people to be united and not divided by petty things like race. Once we cast aside the shackles of racial fetishism a Golden Age for Humanity will begin allowing for infinite possibilities!

So lets all be Racial Rejectionists and throw away the bondage racial fetishism places us in! We can no longer be enslaved by such primitive passions if we wish to have a world full of abundance, liberty and peace! It will take time, but eventually we will be victorious!

#FF0000
23rd July 2013, 17:37
Only the biggest babies in the world are offended by "cracker" and one rich black guy becoming president doesn't mean that there isn't still racism in a society (having some women in some positions of power doesn't mean sexism doesn't exist anymore, does it?)

Nothing you're saying here is novel. You just took a long time to say what out-of-touch white people say all the time, if we just ignore racism, it will go away! But "not seeing race" is not a solution. If anything, it's an attempt to evade the messy business of dealing with deep-seeded, structural racism in our society and in culture. It's an 'easy way out', and it's one that pretty much only white people have as an option, because they aren't faced with the reality of structural racism. That's why you get to cry about Jamie Foxx and not things like, you know, lack of access to educational, occupational, housing, health, benefits, and other resources that white people generally have greater access to.

So, yeah, race obviously doesn't exist as a biological thing, but it is a social force with a lot of weight and baggage that we still have to deal with. And if someone's plan for "ending racial strife" doesn't explicitly involve engaging directly with these issues, then it's just feel-good bullshit.

EDIT: Also that is not all the Paula Deen thing is based around -- the case was about the constant abuse and humiliation of black workers in a restaurant she managed. The case was brought forward by a white woman, as well.

Rational Radical
23rd July 2013, 17:56
You seem to be new here,and also to revolutionary politics in general. We call your statements color blindness and false equivalency,being called a cracker(mind you which isn't a reference to a saltine or whatever) derives from cracking the whip on a slave which means it describes a relationship between oppressed and oppressor. It is no where near the level of being institutionally and systematically treated like a nigger. In regards to the Jamie Foxxx comment he was obviously joking but the whites he killed were associated with slavery and the capture of his wife. This is straight out of a right wing textbook of color blindness and white privilege.

Sam_b
23rd July 2013, 18:05
So lets all be Racial Rejectionists and throw away the bondage racial fetishism places us in! We can no longer be enslaved by such primitive passions if we wish to have a world full of abundance, liberty and peace! It will take time, but eventually we will be victorious!


I'm sure it is very, very easy for white middle class people to say (not that they actually do it) this. It also comes from a position where they have never been treated like second class citizens, disenfranchised, enslaved, murdered and slandered for their skin colour; and frankly it is both outrageous as it is patronising to pretty much tell hispanic and black people that race somehow doesn't matter and that the big problem is that everyone looks at things in terms of race.

As the poster above points out, this post is complete white privilege. Equating calling someone a 'cracker' with the likes of Nazism, genocide and so on is unbelievably offensive is mind-bogglingly stupid in the extreme. Really, what were you thinking?

I also don't really see why this has been posted in philosophy, except that OP is trying desperately to write in the same style as Baudrillard and uses a smattering of 'big' words.

Rational Radical
23rd July 2013, 18:09
I'm sure it is very, very easy for white middle class people to say (not that they actually do it) this. It also comes from a position where they have never been treated like second class citizens, disenfranchised, enslaved, murdered and slandered for their skin colour; and frankly it is both outrageous as it is patronising to pretty much tell hispanic and black people that race somehow doesn't matter and that the big problem is that everyone looks at things in terms of race.

I also don't really see why this has been posted in philosophy, except that OP is trying desperately to write in the same style as Baudrillard and uses a smattering of 'big' words.
Nothing worse than big words to justify a stupid / ignorant position

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 22:24
I'm sure it is very, very easy for white middle class people to say (not that they actually do it) this. It also comes from a position where they have never been treated like second class citizens, disenfranchised, enslaved, murdered and slandered for their skin colour; and frankly it is both outrageous as it is patronising to pretty much tell hispanic and black people that race somehow doesn't matter and that the big problem is that everyone looks at things in terms of race.
Oye, first off I'm Hispanic and I'm certainly not Middle Class. I work three jobs just to pay for rent, internet service and drive my car to and from my jobs. And can you honestly say that you and your family had the experience of almost being kicked out of your town because of your race? When I was a kid I had that experience. Thankfully, the township messed up and faced a lawsuit on their hands if they didn't back off. So for 20+ years we stayed and made their lives a living hell just by simply being there. God forbid the crusty old white folk had a little brown in their midst.

Second, in America, we can't have a discussion about social issues without discussing race. We've brainwashed into this bourgeois way of thinking. Hell, even Morgan Freeman says that in order to defeat racism we must not talk about race in a December 15, 2005 MSNBC interview. Now, is he being patronizing to blacks? I think not.

I have no idea what your race is nor the perspective you come from, but at least now you have mine. Break the chains of racial fetishism. It is indeed liberating.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 22:32
You seem to be new here,and also to revolutionary politics in general. We call your statements color blindness and false equivalency,being called a cracker(mind you which isn't a reference to a saltine or whatever) derives from cracking the whip on a slave which means it describes a relationship between oppressed and oppressor. It is no where near the level of being institutionally and systematically treated like a nigger. In regards to the Jamie Foxxx comment he was obviously joking but the whites he killed were associated with slavery and the capture of his wife. This is straight out of a right wing textbook of color blindness and white privilege.
Actually, I'm not new to revolutionary politics. My fathers a Marxist and my mothers a Left of Center Liberal who advocated animal rights and environmentalism.

I know what cracker means and where it comes from, but I do thank you for the brush up on ethnic slur origins.

In regards to Jamie Fox, like I did state in my posting that it was a jest, but a ill-conceived jest none the less especially in a country so divided by race.

And what right-wing textbook are you speaking of? Since I care little about right-wing politics it would help to see what ideas they have that align with this because all I've ever experienced from right-wingers are xenophobia, homophobia, racism, and Bible Thumping theocratic ideals. So since you seem to the bastion of knowledge about right-wing political playbooks you can direct me towards this hypothetical "right-wing textbook".

I thank you in advance.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 22:34
To the Moderator:
There seems to be some concern over the placement of this article in regards to topic, so if you must, please move it to where you believe it should be properly placed. Thanks.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 22:40
And to cool down everything, or at least attempt to, I'm not here to get into a battle of the wits, which is senseless and counter-productive, but to learn from others. I don't know everything nor will I ever. However, I can suck up some knowledge from my fellow human beings and learn more. You two seem to be good people whom are exceptionally passionate about their beliefs. I like that. Who knows, maybe together we can hash something better together than I've outlined.

BIXX
23rd July 2013, 22:54
Oye, first off I'm Hispanic and I'm certainly not Middle Class. I work three jobs just to pay for rent, internet service and drive my car to and from my jobs. And can you honestly say that you and your family had the experience of almost being kicked out of your town because of your race? When I was a kid I had that experience. Thankfully, the township messed up and faced a lawsuit on their hands if they didn't back off. So for 20+ years we stayed and made their lives a living hell just by simply being there. God forbid the crusty old white folk had a little brown in their midst.

Second, in America, we can't have a discussion about social issues without discussing race. We've brainwashed into this bourgeois way of thinking. Hell, even Morgan Freeman says that in order to defeat racism we must not talk about race in a December 15, 2005 MSNBC interview. Now, is he being patronizing to blacks? I think not.

I have no idea what your race is nor the perspective you come from, but at least now you have mine. Break the chains of racial fetishism. It is indeed liberating.

Morgan Freeman is not an authority on all minorities, or even and authority on the black population for that matter (despite his voice helping me sleep at night :laugh:).

And while I do believe it is possible to have racist views/feelings against whites, I feel that these views have no real power, and certainly, they are not structurally aided. So, really, just because it is possible does not mean it is able to cause the kind of harm we've seen against minorities.

It's important to understand that, as a lot of white folks will try to say "there can be white racism!" As an excuse or whatever, but what "white racism" entails is only in the minds of individuals. It has no ability to harm anyone.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 23:01
Morgan Freeman is not an authority on all minorities, or even and authority on the black population for that matter (despite his voice helping me sleep at night :laugh:)
After all it is the voice of god!

I see what you and others are saying and I do admit that I could've written this out better, but time isn't a luxury I have these days and it was written, proofread and finalized in one night.

Off topic: Have you watched any of the Through the Wormhole series Morgan Freeman hosts? It's pretty amazing!

Ace High
23rd July 2013, 23:10
I think Human Liberation Front has a better point than you all are giving him or her credit for.

I'm pretty sure they are aware that the capitalist elite is made up of racist white people who oppress the other races. That is quite obvious. But, it isn't racist to say that whites also don't deserve to just be gunned down in the streets because of it, right? Human Liberation Front is simply trying to give different examples of racism. Although, the Jamie Foxx thing was not a good example. First of all, Mr Foxx was obviously joking. Second of all, the white people in Django Unchained definitely did deserve to die, so. But anyway, that wasn't OP's point, they were just giving examples of racism against every race. Of course we all realize that black people and other minorities are treated as second-class citizens in this country both economically and socially. That is obviously the big problem. But still, are they not allowed to point out racism against whites as well, however infrequent it may be? Racism is racism after all.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 23:15
I think Human Liberation Front has a better point than you all are giving him or her credit for.

I'm pretty sure they are aware that the capitalist elite is made up of racist white people who oppress the other races. That is quite obvious. But, it isn't racist to say that whites also don't deserve to just be gunned down in the streets because of it, right? Human Liberation Front is simply trying to give different examples of racism. Although, the Jamie Foxx thing was not a good example. First of all, Mr Foxx was obviously joking. Second of all, the white people in Django Unchained definitely did deserve to die, so. But anyway, that wasn't OP's point, they were just giving examples of racism against every race. Of course we all realize that black people and other minorities are treated as second-class citizens in this country both economically and socially. That is obviously the big problem. But still, are they not allowed to point out racism against whites as well, however infrequent it may be? Racism is racism after all.

Thank you for the constructive criticism that I enjoy seeing. I have to admit defeat on the Jamie Foxx bit. Otherwise, you got the idea.

Btw, I am a he.

Sam_b
23rd July 2013, 23:16
Oye, first off I'm Hispanic and I'm certainly not Middle Class.

Fair enough. This doesn't take away from the fact that you have advocated a liberal argument.


And can you honestly say that you and your family had the experience of almost being kicked out of your town because of your race?

To be honest this is completely and utterly relevant. I have never claimed or said anything of the sort. I'm interested in your argument. What I'm not interested in is getting into some off-topic competition to see who is oppressed more (winner gets taken more seriously as an activist guys!).


Second, in America, we can't have a discussion about social issues without discussing race. We've brainwashed into this bourgeois way of thinking. Hell, even Morgan Freeman says that in order to defeat racism we must not talk about race in a December 15, 2005 MSNBC interview. Now, is he being patronizing to blacks? I think not.

Are you fucking joking? Trayvon Martin's murderer has just got off scot-free, Marissa Alexander is in a Florida jail, non-white communities continue to be disenfranchised and we somehow should ignore why minority communities are targeted by the elites? I'm sorry, but you cannot see social issues in some sort of separatist vacuum. Why do white people earn proportionately more than black and hispanic people? Why are black and hispanic communities disproportionately represented in government? But no, we can't talk about those issues right? Giving an example of a millionaire actor does not cut it.


Break the chains of racial fetishism. It is indeed liberating.

Liberating for who, that is the question.

Sam_b
23rd July 2013, 23:17
Human Liberation Front is simply trying to give different examples of racism

As has been explained countless times on this forum, there is no such thing as "white racism"

Ace High
23rd July 2013, 23:20
As has been explained countless times on this forum, there is no such thing as "white racism"

Well, I disagree, but I feel like I am going to look like some kind of racist if I try to argue that there is. But what I WILL say is that white racism has no effect on anything except for isolated murder cases. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist though. However, white racism is so insignificant because the system is inherently racially biased towards whites.

Sam_b
23rd July 2013, 23:23
"There is anti-white prejudice but minorities don't have the political or economic power to exercise this. Racism is not the act of an individual it is a system created by a power structure. That is why there is no such thing as non-white racism."

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1761749&postcount=236

You're not going to look like a racist if you disagree. There may be isolated cases of prejudice or bigotry towards white people, but racism, as I think this quote sums up pretty well, shows that there is a power structure involved.

Ace High
23rd July 2013, 23:27
http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1761749&postcount=236

You're not going to look like a racist if you disagree. There may be isolated cases of prejudice or bigotry towards white people, but racism, as I think this quote sums up pretty well, shows that there is a power structure involved.

Oh wow. Actually, that makes perfect sense. Ok well according to that definition, white racism does NOT exist then. I wasn't aware that it had to be inherent in the system to be called racist.

Btw I promise I am not being sarcastic, that quote actually did kinda blow my mind.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 23:28
Fair enough. This doesn't take away from the fact that you have advocated a liberal argument.



To be honest this is completely and utterly relevant. I have never claimed or said anything of the sort. I'm interested in your argument. What I'm not interested in is getting into some off-topic competition to see who is oppressed more (winner gets taken more seriously as an activist guys!).



Are you fucking joking? Trayvon Martin's murderer has just got off scot-free, Marissa Alexander is in a Florida jail, non-white communities continue to be disenfranchised and we somehow should ignore why minority communities are targeted by the elites? I'm sorry, but you cannot see social issues in some sort of separatist vacuum. Why do white people earn proportionately more than black and hispanic people? Why are black and hispanic communities disproportionately represented in government? But no, we can't talk about those issues right? Giving an example of a millionaire actor does not cut it.



Liberating for who, that is the question.

Balls, I suck at this quoting thing at the moment so bear with me.

First, I'd like to tackle your response that starts with, "Are you fucking joking.." I'm not one to joke about serious issues especially when it comes to the divisive nature of the human race, but I'm not saying that we shouldn't talk about race. What I implied is that it's part of who we are.

Second, you and I are on the same page. I could care less about winning an argument. That's just stupid.

And third, how would you improve this article, thesis...whatever you want to call it? I'm all about collective collaboration and consensus. I'm interested in your ideas as well.

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 23:31
You're not going to look like a racist if you disagree. There may be isolated cases of prejudice or bigotry towards white people, but racism, as I think this quote sums up pretty well, shows that there is a power structure involved.

I concede, that does make sense (not being sarcastic). I just have to start brainwashing white people. First stop, Stormfront!

The Garbage Disposal Unit
23rd July 2013, 23:46
Hey OP,
I think the big problem with what you're putting forward is that is doesn't really engage with where "race" comes from in material terms. Race isn't something that emerged out of a scientific misunderstanding (though certainly "science" has been used as justification), but out of class relations. "Whiteness", in particular, is a distinct product of the emergence of capitalism, and when we talk about racism in a North American context we're talking about white supremacy (even in instances of "reverse racism" they're contextualized but entrenched white supremacist relations).
Your example of British colonialism in Ireland is a good starting point - there is a time not-so-very-long-ago where the Irish weren't white (we could also pick Slavs, Italians . . .). Obviously, it's not like they weren't the same colour in the 1800s, so what changed? The answer is that their relationship to capital, and specifically the white supremacist power structure of capital, changed. It wasn't a question of people choosing to "Stop talking about the Irish" or a selective "Racial Rejectionism" vis-a-vis the Irish. It was a material change (related to the necessity, for capital, of establishing material divisions in the working class, and policing the growing urban black population).
Of course, the odds of a similar material change happening for those currently coded "black" or "brown" is extremely unlikely: the value of having a colour-coded underclass for free prison labour, or a precarious workforce of people coded "illegal" (regardless of their actual individual status) is too great for capital. Consequently, we need to look to a revolutionary solution aimed at smashing the conditions that create whiteness as a material force.
Not talking about it is like hoping if we could seek speaking within the discourses of capital, that capital would collapse. This is, on the face of it, a more ridiculous proposition, but only insofar as (I suspect) you have a materialist class analysis. Turn that same analysis on to the question of race!

BIXX
23rd July 2013, 23:52
http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1761749&postcount=236

You're not going to look like a racist if you disagree. There may be isolated cases of prejudice or bigotry towards white people, but racism, as I think this quote sums up pretty well, shows that there is a power structure involved.

While that does make sense up to a certain point, why is it that racism requires a power structure to favor whites rather than just being a belief? I mean, to me that is somewhat similar to saying atheism requires power structures to favor atheists. I was under the impression that racism was "the belief that race determines someone's worth". Can you explain this to me?

Human Liberation Front
23rd July 2013, 23:52
Hey OP,
I think the big problem with what you're putting forward is that is doesn't really engage with where "race" comes from in material terms. Race isn't something that emerged out of a scientific misunderstanding (though certainly "science" has been used as justification), but out of class relations. "Whiteness", in particular, is a distinct product of the emergence of capitalism, and when we talk about racism in a North American context we're talking about white supremacy (even in instances of "reverse racism" they're contextualized but entrenched white supremacist relations).
Your example of British colonialism in Ireland is a good starting point - there is a time not-so-very-long-ago where the Irish weren't white (we could also pick Slavs, Italians . . .). Obviously, it's not like they weren't the same colour in the 1800s, so what changed? The answer is that their relationship to capital, and specifically the white supremacist power structure of capital, changed. It wasn't a question of people choosing to "Stop talking about the Irish" or a selective "Racial Rejectionism" vis-a-vis the Irish. It was a material change (related to the necessity, for capital, of establishing material divisions in the working class, and policing the growing urban black population).
Of course, the odds of a similar material change happening for those currently coded "black" or "brown" is extremely unlikely: the value of having a colour-coded underclass for free prison labour, or a precarious workforce of people coded "illegal" (regardless of their actual individual status) is too great for capital. Consequently, we need to look to a revolutionary solution aimed at smashing the conditions that create whiteness as a material force.
Not talking about it is like hoping if we could seek speaking within the discourses of capital, that capital would collapse. This is, on the face of it, a more ridiculous proposition, but only insofar as (I suspect) you have a materialist class analysis. Turn that same analysis on to the question of race!
Excellent insight! Destroy the capital inequity via equal redistribution of wealth and goods aka abundance. Sincerely, I find this a better way of tackling the whole race issue now than simply rejecting race or not talking about it.

Human Liberation Front
24th July 2013, 00:04
While that does make sense up to a certain point, why is it that racism requires a power structure to favor whites rather than just being a belief? I mean, to me that is somewhat similar to saying atheism requires power structures to favor atheists. I was under the impression that racism was "the belief that race determines someone's worth". Can you explain this to me?
I might be wrong, but here it goes. Racism is more of a power structure where the apparatus is owned and operated by whites while minorities haven't that apparatus. Now the "belief that race determines worth" is more or less racial nationalism. While superficially they look similar, they are two separate heads of an ugly beast. Look at Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party, both are black nationalist groups, but since they don't have the power apparatus that whites do they can't impose racism on a society.

However, due to my slight ignorance on the issues of race because of my color-blind upbringing, I might be wrong.