====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
Jim Webb is tragically stupid here: he goes through an interesting argument that underlines the class oppression of white Southerners (the Scots Irish are his favorites--here appearing as "Irish Protestants"), and it's quite striking and convincing. He even talks about the ways in which the key class dynamic of the American South consisted of the white ruling class setting the black and white working classes against each other. Then, when it comes time to point the way toward a resolution, what does he give us? An attack on Taft-Hartley, that would allow black and white and immigrant to organize economic equality by organizing labor in those hidebound "right-to-work" states? A review of those rare but bracing moments like the Southern Tenant Farmers Union that brought together poor blacks and whites together fighting against white agrarian capitalists? Some other vision of poor blacks and whites and immigrants coming together? No, all he can find to complain about is "government-directed diversity programs" and the classic nonsensical capitalist ethic of "enabling opportunity for all." Webb's essay, like those of Walter Benn Michaels, help to explain why poor whites remain poor whites; poor blacks, poor blacks; and poor immigrants, poor immigrants. For more hope, see Studs Terkel's interview with a former Klansman, C. P. Ellis: http://www.bestcyrano.org/terkelEllisIntervu.htm ************************************************************ Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end. Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes. Memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away. Mr. Webb, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Virginia. > Message: 8 > Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:10:44 -0400 > From: Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> > Subject: [Marxism] Senator Webb channels Walter Benn Michaels > To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > <marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu> > Message-ID: <4c49f744.50...@panix.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703724104575379630952309408.html > > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
