Tag Archives: race

ADOS and Caste discrimination

Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Progress is being made on SB 403, a California bill to prohibit caste discrimination, despite the protests and opposition of upper-caste people of South Asian descent. However, I’d argue that African Americans who are descendants of U.S. enslaved people should find a stake in this legislation.

There is an argument to be made for African Americans who are descendants of antebellum slaves to claim a stance against caste discrimination. The slave status had a unique impact upon the immediate generations of those enslaved as well as their descendants, even to the present. Those who are descended from antebellum slaves cannot claim descent from willful immigrants who switched their prior nationalities to embrace that of the U.S. citizen. They also cannot claim to be indigenous, aboriginal or autochthonous in their historical ties to the land claimed by the United States. Instead, their ties to this nation are rooted exclusively in the enslavement of their ancestors on this land. 

Race, including biases and prejudices along such lines, cannot and does not explain this status and its implications upon this community. The ADOS movement correctly claims that “lineage” from the enslaved entitles this community to specific legal consideration distinct from more recent immigrants of African, Afro-Caribbean or Afro-South American origin. 

But the word lineage, arguably, does not exactly entail the historic socio-economic, political, environmental, ethical and institutional treatment of those who are of said lineage. Isabel Wilkerson’s thesis of the distinct position of the American descendant of slaves within an hierarchy of submission and exclusion as a “caste” position goes further to encompass this status position. 

It is therefore of interest to those who seek continued structural transformation to eliminate and undermine this system, to allow for more race-neutral avenues to enable total socio-economic mobility for African-Americans, to embrace the legal prohibition of discrimination against perceived lower castes of society in the United States. 

It would be in the interests of advocates for racial justice to also tackle discrimination on the basis of caste against the descendants of freedmen. By treating descendants of freedmen as a socio-economic caste parallel to an ethnic group, legal discussion of race can become divorced somewhat from the specific conditions visited upon these descendants as opposed to others who faced lesser acts of institutional discrimination. 

After offensive comment, Miami state senator fends off calls for resignation, condemnation

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

WTF

TALLAHASSEE — A Miami state senator is fending off calls for his resignation, a possible Florida Senate complaint and the condemnation of fellow Republicans after he oddly referred to six white colleagues as the N-word during a heated discussion with a black lawmaker, one of whom who he called a “bitch.”

As pressure mounts, state Sen. Frank Artiles plans to formally apologize to the entire Florida Senate on Wednesday and ask for forgiveness. He apologized Tuesday evening — after his alcohol-fueled racist language the night before was reported to Republican leadership, and the Miami Herald and Florida Times-Union began asking questions.

Artiles insists he is not a bigot and noted that he used the phrase to refer to white GOP senators, not blacks.

via After offensive comment, Miami state senator fends off calls for resignation, condemnation

It’s a trap.

Sullivan’s piece, rife with generalizations about a group as vastly diverse as Asian-Americans, rightfully raised hackles. Not only inaccurate, his piece spreads the idea that Asian-Americans as a group are monolithic, even though parsing data by ethnicity reveals a host of disparities; for example, Bhutanese-Americans have far higher rates of poverty than other Asian populations, like Japanese-Americans. And at the root of Sullivan’s pernicious argument is the idea that black failure and Asian success cannot be explained by inequities and racism, and that they are one and the same; this allows a segment of white America to avoid any responsibility for addressing racism or the damage it continues to inflict.

via ‘Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks : Code Switch : NPR

The Fusion Party in North Carolina

Politics, Uncategorized, , ,

I’m reading on how the Fusion Party in North Carolina brought together liberal Black Republicans and progressive, pro-labor White Populists against the planter elite-dominated Democrats for a short, amazing period before Democrats used “white supremacy” and violence to split the working class vote.

I think that this coalition approach might work in this era: progressive Berniecrats and liberal Democrats who respect each other’s autonomy without taking over each other.

The Democrats won’t fit all progressives, and many progressives who are focused on class issues will see the Democrats as a constraint. Both should be respected as separate parties, and we should negotiate a coalition between the two on good faith.

But this can’t be negotiated under the Democratic tent. The Democrats will have to come to the table, and not assume that they are the only legitimate party in this country.

Maybe we need the Fusion Party to come back to the South, and be the bridge to unite these groups in ways that the Dems in the South will be prevented from doing for the next several decades.

 

“What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization – and therefore force – is already a sick civilization, a civilization that is morally diseased, that irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one repudiation to another, calls for its [Trump], I mean its punishment.”

From “Discourse on Colonialism” by #AiméCésaire (with a swapping out of “Hitler” for “Trump”)

Trump vs. the Southside of Chicago

Politics, Uncategorized, , , ,

Trump’s rage on Chicago is the latest manifestation of conservative rage against Chicago’s gang violence.

The gang violence is largely concentrated in the predominantly-black Southside.

The Southside of Chicago has always been a destination for the working class.

The Irish working class settled there for low skill jobs, committed violence against each other in gang warfare and killed Black working class emigres in race riots because they competed for jobs. The Black working class of the Deep South migrated to the Southside for low skill jobs and committed violence against each other in gang warfare.

Guess which group had more ability to get out of that hood?

Guess who is still stuck in the Southside after the low skill jobs have left?

This desire for hamfisted martial law against the Southside will score him points among his White conservative supporters.

None of those supporters give a shit about what produces young Black men killing each other in the Southside. They want explosions.

Get out of the Southside while you still can.

White paternalism, unfettered by tact, is about to get more innocent Chicagoans killed.