>>> Wojtek Sokolowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 06/01/99 03:31PM >>> At 03:13 PM 6/1/99 -0500, Yoshie wrote: >Rod Hay wrote: >>I don't believe in racial guilt. And I don't believe that any social group >>has a monopoly on virtue. My ancestors were poor scotish crofters. If they >>received any benefit from slavery, it was not apparent in their income. The >>point is that all past modes of production were based on exploitation. Are >>all descendants of the exploited (the large majority of the population in >>most modes of production) to be compensated. >>A much more reasonable political goal would be to design programs that >>create opportunities for those that don't have them now regardless of their >>background. I think the work of William Julius Williams is instructive on >>this question. >>It is a class issue not a race issue. > >The failure of black reconstruction after the Civil War made it inevitable >that exploitation would continue to be a racial as well as a class issue. >The residential segregation, school funding inequity, the war on crime, the >retreat from affirmative action, and so on have perpetuated the racial >stratification of the working class. ((((((((((((((((( Wojtek to Yoshie, I think these type of arguments can make a good AAA or psychotherapy session, but are completely counterproductive in a political discourse aiming at bringing a social change. Suppose that what you're saying is 100% true and we, the white pigs, are collectively guilty as charged. Then what? What are we supposed to DO? Colletively hang ourselves, or go back where we came from (where is that exactly anyway?). (((((((((((((((((( CB: The remedy sought by the reparationists is for money damages, not physical punishment. What good would this discussion be in a psychotherapy session ? This demand has very radical politicaleconomic implications. Slavery was integral to capitalism. This demand cannot be understood without understanding the exploitative nature of capitalism, quite an important political lesson. ((((((((((((( Frankly, I think this is a liberal guilt trip that may create good market for shrinks and other helping professions, but otherwise is completely divisive esp. the working class. Can you fill me in about any progressive course of *action* or policy direction flowing from this argument but not from other forms of progressive discourse? CB: This seems like a faulty historical class analysis, Wojtek. It is not the working class whites, but the big bourgeoisie who have all of the superprofits and interest from slavery. The $$$ remedy would have to come from the billionaires and millionaires, not the working stiff's, who don't even have the money. Charles Brown
