An interesting note from another List, PSN, Progressive Sociologists Network.
Date: 07 Feb 1994 23:41:57 -0700
From: SPECTOAJ <@cunyvm.cuny.edu:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: A Campaign Against the "Violence Initiative"
As many of you are aware, there is a strong push to demonize
deviance and rebellion. In particular, there is a misuse of the rhetoric
of genetics to promote what is essentially a theology, a return to the
idea of original sin, predestination, and other medieval superstitition,
but with the seemingly scientific halo of biology. Specifically, the
psychologists are again looking for a "gene" --- not to reduce 'In
"intelligence" down to one dimension, as Jensen, Herrnstein,
Eysenck, etc. tried to do, but this time, to reduce "violence",
including, presumably, rebellion.
The main force behind this political move does not have to do with
advances in science. It has mainly to do with the impending social crisis
which is directly tied to capitalism's developing economic crisis. In other
words, just as it is wrong to separate out "nature" from nurture when dis-
cussing human "traits", it is also wrong to see the development of
so-called "scientific" theories as being the "NATURAL" unfolding of
scientific progress, when in fact, they are the result of the developing
political environment.....
I don't have the time, or the facility with this one line at a time,
no corrections allowed typing editor, to go into all the nuances. There are
several pieces of literature coming out about this. Dr. Peter Breggin of
Maryland is the main authority on this. One excellent piece of literature
is put out by the International Committee Against Racism, P.O. Box A3338,
Chicago, that gives some important details about this campaign, as well as
political analysis. They'll send it to you if you write them.
This is a serious issue. It is not just some crackpots. The current
head of NIMH is the main mover behind this. They are playing on the fear of
crime---which is NOT the number one issue. More children die of poor capitalist'
health care than from gangs, for example---but crime is the issue that allows
the right wing to form a united front with the liberals. The NIMH head
actually compared urban youth (presumably black) to hyper-agressive
monkeys!!!!!---yes, you read it right. Again, I could go into great detail
on this post, but it would be much better if you get the pamphlet from
Chicago and try to contact Breggin, or others to get up to date info on this.
The danger is not simply that they plan to start drugging thousands of
'urban youths---which they might. That is bad enough. What is worse is that
the theory that there is a gene for violence and urban youth have a lot of
those genes, can also be used mostly in an ideological way, so that suburbanites
and those who don't know, can now have a reason to casually dismiss the negle
ct
the police brutality, and so forth on the grounds that the system has no other
way to deal with these subhumans. There are hundreds of millions of dollars
being earmarked for research around this. Because there have been some
remarkable breakthroughs in understanding genes and disease, the promoters
of this Violence Initiative are trying to hitch a ride on that bandwagon and
get people to support their theory based on the prestige that is currently
going to biologists studying diseases. The combination of fake
benevolence (we want to cure these people), and fear of violence have roped
a number of liberal social scientists into defending the research.
Of course, they are not proposing that the ("white", European)
participants in mass violence in Bosnia are somehow suffering from a
sudden upsurge in this genetic disease, or that U.S. pilots in Vietnam
had genetically caused low levels of serotonin in their brains when they
fried hundreds of thousands of innocent people, but...somehow, they
seem to want to focus it on urban youth.
In any case, it is important for sociologists, especially "progressive"
sociologists to help build a campaign against this crap. Let them howl that
we want to suppress science in the name of "political correctness." In
fact, it is the overwhelmingly dominant "political correctness" that is the
root of the attempt to claim that urban youth have a biological defect!
We should work for resolutions in all the sociology, and other
disciplines, associations that we can. These people are essentially trying
to say that social science has a new discovery. In effect, we are letting
them speak in our name. Certainly resolutions could be introduced at
SSSP, at regional meetings, within sections of the ASA, and even at the
*ASA* itself. It probably would not pass at ASA, but if enough people
introduce resolution and try to make an issue of it, it can educate literally
THOUSANDS of professors and others in the field, who in turn can work to
oppose the rising tide of this racist movement. If we work to make a big
issue out of this, we cannot lose. If we don't, we well might lost.
The post-modern amnesia that many people suffer from can cause them to
forget that there have been massive retreats in the past and that
anti-human mysticism, sometimes posing as science, has sometimes reappeared
and pushed the scientific community backwards for a while.
Already one sociological organization has passed a resolution against
the Violence Initiative. The Association for Humanist Sociology, at its
convention in New Orleans this past autumn passed the following resolution:
<Stop the "Violence Initiative"
The federal government, through the National Institutes of
Health, is spending millions of dollars, with tens of millions more
being considered, to try to prove that biological brain defects in
urban youth is an important cause of urban youth violence. Many
people are concerned and frightened by urban violence, especially
youth violence, and are looking for a quick, easy answer.
Historically, government authorities have often tried to shift
blame for social problems onto the victims, often using anti-
scientific arguments with pseudo-scientific language to support
their political purposes.
The National Youth Violence Prevention Initiative includes
such projects as blood tests on siblings of arrested youth,
prenatal genetic screening, and drug treatment for youth suspected
of having an unscientifically defined "Conduct Disorder". The
danger of this program goes far beyond the youth who will be
victimized by these experiments. This program gives a falsle,
scientific-sounding way for people in society to dismiss the very
real causes of this serious problem and instead place the blame for
violence in the biology of especially black and Latin youth.
Other, more serious forms of violence are often inflicted by
certain corporate, governmental, military, and police authorities,
yet no study would dare propose that those perpetrators are
biologically defective and might need drug therapy. And besides
opening the door to intense racist discrimination, this program
actually will do nothing to solve the continuing problem of urgan
(type, make that "urban") youth violence.
Youth violence has significantly intensified in the past
thirty years. The biological make-up of people does not change
that quickly. But urban decay, drugs, and especially unemployment
and despair have all grown significantly in the past thirty years.
We call on the federal government to stop funding all programs
that promote the racist, unscientific theories that violent crime
is caused by the biological make-up of urban youth. If those millions
of dollars were spent rebuilding the economy and providing jobs,
that would be a solid constructive first step towards
eliminating urban violence, family violence, and the violence of
economic deprivation.
We also call on members of the Association for Humanist
Sociology to become better educated about these government policies
and to become active on campuses, in the work place, in the
community, in the media, and in other professional associations to
expose the dangerious, unscientific, racist nature of the programs,
and to deny those political advocates the scientific image they
need to implement and legitimize their program.
*END***END***END****END****END of AHS RESOLUTION*************
Other resolutions don't have to be word for word. There is a
petition being circulated at AAAS in February. There is also talk of
newspaper ads, signed by thousands of academics and profesionals denouncing
this campaign. if one is developed, the ad can be used as a resolution, with
various bodies endorsing it, as well as individuals endorsing it.
There are a lot of possibilities. But the first step is to read up
more about it, and prepare some kind of resolutions, which can be amended
later, but some kind of resolution to present to the various association
meetings this spring, especially this summer, and afterwards. And feel free
to FORWARD this letter to other relevant LISTS, so that we can build this
campaign. Is
Isn't this one of the kinds of things we got involved in
"progressive sociology" for, when we were starting out?
Let's start stirring some things up. (P.S.--if you don't think
this is serious, check out the series in the Chicago Tribune
on this about a month and a half ago---4 days of front page
stories with headings like "The Monster Within"!!!)
Anyhow, lets start spreading the issue around, and lots of people
will pick up on it. Have a teach-in, call a press conference,
contact community groups, and especially, for now, make plans to
raise it in a way that can't be dismissed, in various academic
associations.
And if anyone has any ideas about developing this campaign, feel free
to contact me, or better yet, post it on the list so that hundreds
of people can think about it and help make this campaign happen.
********* Alan Spector
Dept. of Behavioral Sciences
Purdue University Calumet
Hammond, IN 46324
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Let me know what you think.
