Found a pretty interesting quote makings its rounds as a meme on Facebook:
"I think the problem is that many people in America think that racism is an attitude. And this is encouraged by the capitalist system. So they think that what people think is what makes them a racist. Racism is not an attitude.
"If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.
"Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you’re anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude.
"You cannot be a racist without power. You cannot be a sexist without power. Even men who beat their wives get this power from the society which allows it, condones it, encourages it. One cannot be against racism, one cannot be against sexism, unless one is against capitalism."
--Stokeley Carmichael
Of course, Stokes was also famous for uttering "the proper position for women in the civil rights movement is prone," but maybe he grew up or attended some consciousness-raising seminars in between the two quotes.
Either way, Vive le Galt!
Sorry man, I can't take Carmichael seriously. He's said too much stupidity.
Yeah, as I tried to indicate above, Kwame was a mixed bag.
Nonetheless, I pretty much agree with this one. Fits in pretty nicely with the commie links above that "White skin privilege is a dangerous counterpart to the point Michelle Alexander makes in The New Jim Crow that capitalism individualizes racism in order to prevent people from fighting it collectively. As Alexander suggests, we need to understand racism as a social structure that needs to be torn down by mass movements, like the prison walls themselves."
"The only position for women in SNCC is prone": The Musical Interlude
Also, Bookmarking to read later
I really gotta get my shiznit together and prep tonight's game.
Hmmm. So, I'm fully aware that I am often just talking to myself, but, nonetheless, Paizo messageboards have long provided me with the opportunity to get my thoughts on "paper" and argue with others and thus refine my understanding of a variety of things from Keynsianism to white skin privilege to Stealth rules. Yay Paizo messageboards! (Okay, I lied, I still have no idea how Stealth works.)
Anyway, I was unaware that the infamous statement about women in SNCC was said in jest while the comrades were drinking and that Stokes had a pretty good track record of encouraging and supporting the role of women in the civil rights movement.
I hereby apologize to the ghost of Brother Toure.
Well, this is a gaming forum....
An AMAZING stealth rpg. Seriously, best stealth mechanics I've ever seen in a game, hands down.
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Vive le Galt!
As you might imagine, it was difficult to decide which thread to troll with this delightful little video from RT.
EDIT: There are many delights in this video, but my fave is that they have the wrong state highlighted for Utah.
Ah, Pravda rises again.
I'm sorry, what's that, Alex?
A joke I saw on Facebook:
You must be a white guy Marxist trying to write about intersectionality, because you're all class!
Hee hee!
(Edited)
Found a pretty interesting quote makings its rounds as a meme on Facebook:
"I think the problem is that many people in America think that racism is an attitude. And this is encouraged by the capitalist system. So they think that what people think is what makes them a racist. Racism is not an attitude.
"If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.
"Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you’re anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude.
"You cannot be a racist without power. You cannot be a sexist without power. Even men who beat their wives get this power from the society which allows it, condones it, encourages it. One cannot be against racism, one cannot be against sexism, unless one is against capitalism."
--Stokeley CarmichaelOf course, Stokes was also famous for uttering "the proper position for women in the civil rights movement is prone," but maybe he grew up or attended some consciousness-raising seminars in between the two quotes.
Either way, Vive le Galt!
Um, interesting, but objectively untrue.
You sure can be racist without power. I'm wondering to what depths of navel-gazing academia one must reach before reaching a conclusion that poor, marginalized white folk can't be racist.
I absolutely agree with your point, Abe, but I think Stokeley's quote is still pretty interesting.
Also, and I hope you already know this, Carmichael wasn't an academic.
I absolutely agree with your point, Abe, but I think Stokeley's quote is still pretty interesting.
Also, and I hope you already know this, Carmichael wasn't an academic.
Nope, didn't know that.
I don't know much about any of this stuff, honestly. Just enough personal experience with racists to know that wealth/power doesn't correlate neatly.
Again, I completely agree it would be completely ridiculous to assert that only the wealthy and powerful can be racists (or sexists for that matter). I'm also not sure that that is what Stokes was trying to say. It would be pretty weird, given what must've been his daily experiences in the sixties, to try to claim that poor whites couldn't be racists.
I hesitate to say anything else about him, because I can't find the context of the quote (all I get is page after page of tumblr memes), and despite his radness, his black nationalist and pan-Africanist politics are rather distant from my own. (Not to mention his later claim that the CIA gave him cancer.)
[Presses Preview]
Uh-oh, I've written and re-written this post so many times I see Comrade Jeff has jumped into the fray. Let's see what he had to say...
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Also, and I hope you already know this, Carmichael wasn't an academic.
Nope, didn't know that.
I don't know much about any of this stuff, honestly. Just enough personal experience with racists to know that wealth/power doesn't correlate neatly.
Also, sorry about the know-it-allishness of that post. Wasn't really my intention, but it comes out sometimes when I'm not careful. I'm a pretty conceited bastard.
Historically, poor, marginalized white folk had power. At least over black folk. That's what kept them from feeling so bad about being poor and marginalized. At least they were white can could look down on somebody.
"Even whites who lynch blacks get this power from the society which allows it, condones it, encourages it." The lynch mobs had the power because the police and juries wouldn't punish whites for murdering blacks.
OR again, since actual lynching isn't much of a problem these days "If a white man wants to discriminate against me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to discriminate against me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power."
And of course there...
I'd add in a bit about how racism has been used by the American ruling class and that, from Bacon's Rebellion to Operation Dixie the consciously-fostered race divide among labor is the key reason that the United States has never developed a viable Labor/Socialist party like in the rest of the industrialized world.
I'll also throw in a couple of more links:
Boston: Poor whites can obviously be racists
Good book about Boston busing
Commie propaganda: Slavery and the origins of racism
Defeat of Reconstruction and the Betrayal of Black Freedom--Only part one, alas. If I'm correct, this is the same guy who runs the Anti-Caste website I've been promoting in the Gender/Sex Politics thread.
On the stealth rules, it may help to think of them some sort of Zen koan. We are not meant to understand them.
What is someone stealithing? What is the sound of one hand clapping.
But master, one hand cannot clap...
Exactly my pupil.... you are indeed learning
Fascinating info re: busing in Boston.
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Twenty years after school desegregation was stopped in its tracks by belligerent white racists, busing is still a huge issue.
The last mayoral election was, among other things, largely about "neighborhood schools." I.e., Boston's white working class can no longer afford to send their kids to parochial school and want back into the public schools. There's been attempts over the past two decades to get rid of busing, which is still in effect even though the school system is majority minority. I don't think I need to tell anyone that Boston is not a majority minority city.
Robbery and stealing by embezzlement or scamming are treated differently because of the risk of violence.The something is money. A man can be sent to jail for life in New Jersey for robbing a pizza joint. A buisnessman who scams millions and deprives thousands of their life savings may never see jail time.
It's almost as if there's a completely different legal standard in this country, depending on race or something!
The financial ruin wrought by Bernie Madoff is known to have driven at least a couple of people to suicide, and many more to long term misery.
Should that weigh in the assesement?
Amount of money makes a difference as well... Anyway, I was explaining the law, not justifying it. :)
Most states make a distinction for the type of far ranging scheme as he had, number of victims (remember they can charge you for each act separately), amount of money, etc. But some don't. Depends on cooperation and the charges as well. For a crappy example see "Wolf of Wallstreet."
[Facepalm]
Forty years. I wrote an article about it for Workers Vanguard back in the nineties, so "twenty years after busing" is still imprinted in my brain.
Most of the article was edited out of all recognition. I think maybe one or two sentences I wrote got through unscathed...
Found a pretty interesting quote makings its rounds as a meme on Facebook:
"I think the problem is that many people in America think that racism is an attitude. And this is encouraged by the capitalist system. So they think that what people think is what makes them a racist. Racism is not an attitude.
"If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.
"Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you’re anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude.
"You cannot be a racist without power. You cannot be a sexist without power. Even men who beat their wives get this power from the society which allows it, condones it, encourages it. One cannot be against racism, one cannot be against sexism, unless one is against capitalism."
--Stokeley CarmichaelOf course, Stokes was also famous for uttering "the proper position for women in the civil rights movement is prone," but maybe he grew up or attended some consciousness-raising seminars in between the two quotes.
Either way, Vive le Galt!
There's a kernel of truth buried in some bull@$iznit, there.
Oh, and OHFWA
In Soviet Russia, spouse beats YOU.
I still like it. I realize there's some polemical excesses in it and I wish I knew what context he said it in and I wish he had thrown in the qualifier "merely" a couple of times, but I still like it. For example "Racism is not merely an attitude" would be a lot easier proposition to defend in an argument than "Racism is not an attitude."
On the stealth rules, it may help to think of them some sort of Zen koan. We are not meant to understand them.
What is someone stealithing? What is the sound of one hand clapping.
But master, one hand cannot clap...
Exactly my pupil.... you are indeed learning
Bart Simpson answered that.
In Soviet Russia, spouse beats YOU.And tears off the front of your car to boot!
Nono, the BACK of the car is the boot. The front is the bonnet.
Huh. It's from a 1993 speech at the University of the District of Columbia.
I'll stop calling him Stokes and start calling him Kwame.
Nono, the BACK of the car is the boot. The front is the bonnet.In Soviet Russia, spouse beats YOU.And tears off the front of your car to boot!
Not in Soviet Russia! Makes it more efficient to dump bodies. Just speed towards the lake, pop the boot open, and slam on the brakes.
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And a false equivalent "why don't we talk about this" post gives me five in a row.
BINGO!
That's a tough nut to crack, Andrew. It's hardwired into our brains to favor attractive people. As for obesity, well... I'd rather not get into that, as it gets very complicated (with cultural sedentary habits, socioeconomic position versus greedy food manufacturers, etc.).
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So when will address the privilege that comes from being fit and/or attractive? Those are unfair advantages over the obese and/or homely.......
An international planned socialist economy would provide for all of the material needs of the homely and would, in many instances, obviate the privilege of the attractive in all except for sexual matters. There's only so much communism can do, alas.
As for the obese, the elimination of private profit from agribusiness would wean the American population of such toxic crap as Dorito's, Taco Bell and Hot Pockets, and invest in healthy, organic, nutritious food that I don't know anything about because I like Dorito's, Taco Bell and Hot Pockets. I hope they wean us slowly.
Vive le Galt!
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Communist food re-education gulags....
This is why you want the Fabians in charge we will ween you off slowly, very slowly.
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You can get my pizza when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
If you take my pizza from my cold dead hands, I will rise as one of the undead, eat the pizza anyway, and then take your liver as interest.
If a white man hates a black man, it is racist. If a black man hates a white man, it is ... smart.
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Actually, it isn't.
Closer to home, there is a large, sad history of civil rights veterans, like Stokely, turning from the liberal integrationist perspective of MLK, etc. to hardened black nationalism (not that I'm saying Stokely hated whitey...to be honest, I don't know what happens to him after he goes all pan-Africanist). On the one hand, like I can't really blame the "white skin privilege Maoists" for their mistaken belief that the white working class was bought off, I can't really blame the mid-sixties black radicals for hardening up; otoh, impediments to cross-racial class solidarity do go both ways. The most notorious example was probably the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement which organized black auto workers on a black nationalist basis. They were so effective in winning their demands, that white workers flocked to join them but were turned away because "whites should go organize their own community." Unfortunately, there was a lot of this in the late sixties and early seventies.
It was very, very stupid.
Gay, Straight, Black, White
Same Struggle, Same Fight
Workers of the World, Unite!
So when will address the privilege that comes from being fit and/or attractive? Those are unfair advantages over the obese and/or homely.......
I'm not a fan of the privilege perspective primarily because it leads to inane comments like this one. It's a great way to point out a problem and start a fight at a bar or rally in but not the best way to go about instituting genuine social change. One can't manufacture sympathy or a conscience, especially in those who have already made up their minds. A better way needs to be found. Something more inclusive and less accusatory.
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Freehold, I'm not saying you're wrong about finding a better way to engage people, but if we stopped doing everything that lead to inane, dismissive comments we wouldn't be able to discuss anything at all, ever.
True. But there is no need to continue down a path that encourages it. I hope to find something soon.
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Besides fit and and/or attractive is one thing, but height is another. You can always hit the gym and put on some make up and dress nice, but there isn't much you can do about your height.
Sure there is. You can do what half a generation of young chinese women have done: extend your femurs and lower leg bones surgically. They do it to get a better salary. It works. And it should, too. There is a very strong correlation between higher salary and being taller. Someone claimed that if you adjusted for height, women were overpaid, but I have no idea if that is true.