My dear friend can articulate this so much more easily than I: My general concern is that the left is relying on the same metalanguage of the right. I am told that the white man is a violent racist. I am told that the black man is a violent racist. These myths reduce our understanding of reality to universalisms--that is to say, the appearance of reality is reduced to generalisms which often go unquestioned because they are built into the very way we talk about human subjectivity. When thats the case, truth is determined most often by negating someone elses humanity. The someone else is determined simply by political affiliation. Solutions to large-scale social problems become very instrumental. For example, one reformist position is to put cameras on police officers. Michael Browns own family supports this position. And I do too. There is considerable evidence indicating that civilian complaints about police misconduct decrease when law enforcement incorporates cameras into their uniforms. So this might eliminate some of the more egregious cases of misconduct. But it leaves unchallenged the basic social relations of capitalism, the social division of labor, that are at the heart of the social unrest and inequality. Instead we get a simplistic narrative of white male racism and the ameliorative promise of limited wealth redistribution. Or we get a simplistic narrative of minority entitlement and the ameliorative promise of just reward for hard work. Left and right perform their politics in earnest and with enthusiasm around dinner tables, on Facebook, in protest marches, and in the voting booth. Meanwhile the fundamental power relations continue on, unabated. Brett Caraway
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:53:02 +0000
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