This past week has been a rather painful week in national politics, dominated by the incredibly tedious and remarkably overplayed testimony betwteen the judiciary committee and Sonia Sotomayor. The comedians have gotten it right, basically showing that it has been a love fest between the Democrats and Ms. Sotomayor and a long stream of accusations of racism from some on the right side of the bench. It actually looks as if she will be confirmed with flying colors, only a few Republican senators actually voting against. And why not, she has an almost flawless record, and the accusations of racism are mostly because the GOP has nothing else. She is also moderate to the extreme, and it makes me wonder if Republicans aren't merely using this as a political platform to attempt to tread water in a tide of Obama.
The opinion makers have had a field day, from accusations of racism on the right, to accusations of being washed up white men on the left - none of which have much intellectual merit and amount to a national game of name-calling. But, what is interesting is that this is identity politics from the right, and the left is getting a dose of its own medicine with this, and they don't like it. Probably, the easiest accusation to level is the accusation of racism because all of us have inherent biases the play out in our personal and professional lives; the left has made a living accusing political enemies of racism, and it doesn't feel that good when the table is turned. This is not to deny the fact of dangerous, extreme racism, and more mundane, but still detrimental institutional racism, but the tit-for-tat that we have seen from the Sotomayor hearings is about what identity politics boils down to and public discourse of this flavor does very little for the real problem of racism, which is found more in the way institutions are run than in the way an obscure speech is given or even in a bad joke delivered. The latter are merely errors in judgment; the former are long term patterns of exclusion.
I would implore those who care about race to look at problems of exclusion more deeply than to jump at the opportunity to "expose a racist" with a tired and scripted narrative of public humiliation. Exposing racists does little more than ruining someone for a mistake and does nothing at all about systematic exclusion all too prevalent in our society, and the right's use of identity politics can give anti-racist activists a window into what their tactics actually look like.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Popcorn vs. The Future
Popcorn Sutton made moonshine in the 21st century, and the federal government did not like it. Backed by the support of a national, online, grassroots campaign, Sutton appealed his arrest, claiming shining as a traditional livelihood and his existential craft. Sutton was sentenced and subsequently committed suicide by ingesting the affluent of his hideously painted 79 Ford Fairlane.
Zoom out from the mountain melodrama to the broad reach of Western North Carolina – Cherokee, the reservation, the Asheville Metropolitan Area, and the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, and the inscriptions of violence and displacements, but also hope, music, and mountain culture appear vividly. Cherokee, the impoverished remants of the once great Indian nation appears to the North. Displaced from their land beginning with European invasion and culminating with the Trail of Tears, casinos and sideshows define that life now. The displacers brought a new nature, turning the virgin forests of the Southern Appalachians into a mix of yeoman farms reminiscent of their Scots-Irish heritage and plantation agriculture prevalent throughout the American South. However, their run was short lived as the displacers were displaced by the American Government, or more accurately, John Rockefeller and his new found affinity for conservation. The Great Smokey Mountain National Park displaced thousands of mountains and ushered in urbanization, industry, and commercialization, bringing timber, coal, and tourism to fuel the metabolism of the Land-of-Sky.
Farming remained largely immune to processes of urbanization. Farmers continued to grow commercially outside the park, and the New Deal brought new forms of farming, mostly subsidized tobacco, which sustained this economy and identity until the turn of the 21st century, when the federal government divested in tobacco. Resulting social movements have reoriented farming to a more local and organically oriented system, marketing produce, meats, cheeses, arts and crafts in the numerous markets burgeoning in the Asheville region. In other words, farming is being urbanized.
Popcorn Sutton couldn't survive a world were the practice of his culture was criminalized, wiped off the map, but the persistence of the mountain farming culture depends on adopting to a sort of criminalization. No longer is tobacco supported by government, precipitated by intense push to criminalize tobacco use throughout the country. Instead, (agri)culture must learn to negotiate rurality while adapting to urbanity.
Zoom out from the mountain melodrama to the broad reach of Western North Carolina – Cherokee, the reservation, the Asheville Metropolitan Area, and the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, and the inscriptions of violence and displacements, but also hope, music, and mountain culture appear vividly. Cherokee, the impoverished remants of the once great Indian nation appears to the North. Displaced from their land beginning with European invasion and culminating with the Trail of Tears, casinos and sideshows define that life now. The displacers brought a new nature, turning the virgin forests of the Southern Appalachians into a mix of yeoman farms reminiscent of their Scots-Irish heritage and plantation agriculture prevalent throughout the American South. However, their run was short lived as the displacers were displaced by the American Government, or more accurately, John Rockefeller and his new found affinity for conservation. The Great Smokey Mountain National Park displaced thousands of mountains and ushered in urbanization, industry, and commercialization, bringing timber, coal, and tourism to fuel the metabolism of the Land-of-Sky.
Farming remained largely immune to processes of urbanization. Farmers continued to grow commercially outside the park, and the New Deal brought new forms of farming, mostly subsidized tobacco, which sustained this economy and identity until the turn of the 21st century, when the federal government divested in tobacco. Resulting social movements have reoriented farming to a more local and organically oriented system, marketing produce, meats, cheeses, arts and crafts in the numerous markets burgeoning in the Asheville region. In other words, farming is being urbanized.
Popcorn Sutton couldn't survive a world were the practice of his culture was criminalized, wiped off the map, but the persistence of the mountain farming culture depends on adopting to a sort of criminalization. No longer is tobacco supported by government, precipitated by intense push to criminalize tobacco use throughout the country. Instead, (agri)culture must learn to negotiate rurality while adapting to urbanity.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The bullet grazed the right side of his head, two inches above his ear, and lodged in the concrete behind the place where he was speaking to a crowd of thousands. He carried the small, but noticeable scar for the rest of his days, and many speculated as to the perpetrator of the act and the ramifications had the murderer been successful. Johnson's and later, Nixon's silence on the matter seemed to point toward government conspiracies, but that silence was eventually overwhelmed to irrelevancy by the American People's Revolution, as it had come to be known.
If anything, the assassination attempt galvanized the budding movement, which to that point had merely been a thing of ridicule by many of the talking heads and politicians - opinion makers. Who was this black man who would advocate for poor whites? Did he speak for Appalachian coal miners? Wasn't class outside the realm of civil rights. After the attempt, the talking heads were silent, similarly to those they spoke for, but with the turnout in Knoxville aided by unions and later Omaha, Denver, and Phoenix people began to see that, while Montgomery had been the beginning of Civil Rights, Memphis began the revolution. After 25 million showed in the last Washington march in 1971, the writing was on the wall. The Nixon administration resigned, and, in fear of a nation-wide general strike, Congress and the Supreme Court allowed Fred Shuttlesworth to be installed as president of the interim government, King preferring to maintain the nonviolent ground operation. The Vietnam War was immediately ended, though far later than anyone wanted. In 1975, and new constitution was adopted, very similar to that of the previous one, but centered around the poor people's bill of rights that guaranteed worker ownership, living wages, education, housing, and healthcare creating what Johnson could not, a great society centered on the values of equity and justice.
The revolution was profound. Throughout the world nonviolent action toppled almost every government on the planet and installed forms people centered states. It ushered in a new era of international co-operation and virtually ended expeditionary wars by Western powers. Peace, justice, and prosperity ruled the day, and it seems as if utopia has arrived.
Imagine if that bullet had been true to its target.
If anything, the assassination attempt galvanized the budding movement, which to that point had merely been a thing of ridicule by many of the talking heads and politicians - opinion makers. Who was this black man who would advocate for poor whites? Did he speak for Appalachian coal miners? Wasn't class outside the realm of civil rights. After the attempt, the talking heads were silent, similarly to those they spoke for, but with the turnout in Knoxville aided by unions and later Omaha, Denver, and Phoenix people began to see that, while Montgomery had been the beginning of Civil Rights, Memphis began the revolution. After 25 million showed in the last Washington march in 1971, the writing was on the wall. The Nixon administration resigned, and, in fear of a nation-wide general strike, Congress and the Supreme Court allowed Fred Shuttlesworth to be installed as president of the interim government, King preferring to maintain the nonviolent ground operation. The Vietnam War was immediately ended, though far later than anyone wanted. In 1975, and new constitution was adopted, very similar to that of the previous one, but centered around the poor people's bill of rights that guaranteed worker ownership, living wages, education, housing, and healthcare creating what Johnson could not, a great society centered on the values of equity and justice.
The revolution was profound. Throughout the world nonviolent action toppled almost every government on the planet and installed forms people centered states. It ushered in a new era of international co-operation and virtually ended expeditionary wars by Western powers. Peace, justice, and prosperity ruled the day, and it seems as if utopia has arrived.
Imagine if that bullet had been true to its target.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The Real Obama
- No significant change in Iraq; intensification of war in Afganistan.
- Gitmo's name changed to indefinite detention - same violation of habeas corpus
- War on terror's name changed to Overseas Contingency Operation - is still a never ending police action designed to ensure obedience to a global, western juridico-political order.
- failure to act dramatically in the face of national economic crisis - a hedged bet that nationalization, though politically difficult, was not required. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman argues that Obama's plans will draw out the downturn for years to come.
- Allies like us even though none of our policies have changed fundamentally.
Barack Obama is Tony Blair.
- Gitmo's name changed to indefinite detention - same violation of habeas corpus
- War on terror's name changed to Overseas Contingency Operation - is still a never ending police action designed to ensure obedience to a global, western juridico-political order.
- failure to act dramatically in the face of national economic crisis - a hedged bet that nationalization, though politically difficult, was not required. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman argues that Obama's plans will draw out the downturn for years to come.
- Allies like us even though none of our policies have changed fundamentally.
Barack Obama is Tony Blair.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Economics in the 21st Century
Money. It's a wildly theorized phenomena. It makes trade across commodities and spaces possible. For some theorists, it is merely the grease in the economic wheels. For others, it is a strange phenomena that is both tradeable and facilitates trade. Historically, it arose organically out of pure necessity, but allows those with the power and means to accumulate large quantities. For centuries it was or represented precious metals, but during the late 20th century it became a commodity that arose spontaneously in response to demand. The shift from fixed currencies (like gold) to floating currencies exchanged internationally created a commodity (money) that embodied no labor, basically the trade of a commodity strictly based on the collective belief that it was valuable. While this may not seem important on an everyday level, money still buys groceries and gas, on larger scales the effect is signficant and under theorized.
Let's back up to the idea of embodied labor. As labor produces it produces value in the commodity being produced. That commodity is said to contain dead labor - it embodies the work done by laborers. With fixed currency like gold, the gold embodies that dead labor as it is mined, shipped, and shaped. In contrast, floating currencies embody no labor and only gain their value through the market, in which they are compared to other currencies. The value of our money is only valuable in comparison with the value of other currencies. So, how is this value established?
The value of currency is established based on the perceived productivity or consumptive ability of the nation which that currency represents. Or, more accurately, currency is valued based on the belief in the future productivity or consumptive ability of the respective nation. In other words, the value of a currency is related to that of the credit rating of the country that currency represents. Now, how is money produced spontaneously?
On the nation-state level, money is produced when treasury departments or central banks seek to spur economic growth through stimulus, or printing money. Central banks or treasury use national credit ratings to sell national debt to other nation-states and investors and use those sells to print more money. Basically, they borrow money from one nation to print money in their nation. Money is also printed through consumer and business loans. When an individual or group applies for a loan, they apply against their credit rating and receive an amount deemed appropriate to that credit rating. The money is then created and given to the borrower. Of central importance, is the function of the credit rating in the post-modern economy.
As shown previously, fixed moneys embody dead labor, while floating moneys do not. Floating moneys embody the value of future labor or unborn labor, the ability to produce commodities in the future and thereby repay the created money. Instead of in late capitalism, where money greased the wheels of production, post-modern capitalism prints money as a strategy to open possibilities for the future expansion of capitalist production. The function of opening these possibilities was primarily accomplished by primitive accumulation, or accumulation by force (de-unionization; creation of private property through enclosure of lands, etc). The act of creating money now serves as the primary form of primitive accumulation in post-modern capitalism and labor no longer sells its labor, it borrows its future through its credit rating.
Debt-money ensures that capital has no limit to its expansion and ensures the indentured servitude of the multitude of the world's workers.
Let's back up to the idea of embodied labor. As labor produces it produces value in the commodity being produced. That commodity is said to contain dead labor - it embodies the work done by laborers. With fixed currency like gold, the gold embodies that dead labor as it is mined, shipped, and shaped. In contrast, floating currencies embody no labor and only gain their value through the market, in which they are compared to other currencies. The value of our money is only valuable in comparison with the value of other currencies. So, how is this value established?
The value of currency is established based on the perceived productivity or consumptive ability of the nation which that currency represents. Or, more accurately, currency is valued based on the belief in the future productivity or consumptive ability of the respective nation. In other words, the value of a currency is related to that of the credit rating of the country that currency represents. Now, how is money produced spontaneously?
On the nation-state level, money is produced when treasury departments or central banks seek to spur economic growth through stimulus, or printing money. Central banks or treasury use national credit ratings to sell national debt to other nation-states and investors and use those sells to print more money. Basically, they borrow money from one nation to print money in their nation. Money is also printed through consumer and business loans. When an individual or group applies for a loan, they apply against their credit rating and receive an amount deemed appropriate to that credit rating. The money is then created and given to the borrower. Of central importance, is the function of the credit rating in the post-modern economy.
As shown previously, fixed moneys embody dead labor, while floating moneys do not. Floating moneys embody the value of future labor or unborn labor, the ability to produce commodities in the future and thereby repay the created money. Instead of in late capitalism, where money greased the wheels of production, post-modern capitalism prints money as a strategy to open possibilities for the future expansion of capitalist production. The function of opening these possibilities was primarily accomplished by primitive accumulation, or accumulation by force (de-unionization; creation of private property through enclosure of lands, etc). The act of creating money now serves as the primary form of primitive accumulation in post-modern capitalism and labor no longer sells its labor, it borrows its future through its credit rating.
Debt-money ensures that capital has no limit to its expansion and ensures the indentured servitude of the multitude of the world's workers.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Racial Protocol Redux
A post racial world is more dangerous than previously thought. The necessities of equality, though possibly more faux than fact, produce the subjectivities which such an equality sought to undermine. Or, the discipline of formal white supremacy morphed into the rigidities of racial protocol upiquitous in the cultural milieu. White, black, and brown are the subjectivities produced by globality's protocols broached by divided humanisms which celebrates not the individual, but the (stratified) individuals, the three stooges of essentialisms.
To live post-racially, would be to violate all the protocols at the same time. To be Eminem, not live black, not live white, live fight, to butcher Mr. Mathers' melodic meter. To split the difference, the space between, an intersubjectivity producing racially unfiltered information, to break from globalities underlying logic of control, and to, finally, question race's usefulness as a principle.
To be post racial is to question affirmative action, minority-specific research programs and projects, and runs straight through the notion that color-blindness is an illusion. To study those intersubjective moments of non-race, would produce unfamiliar subject positions, unraced, and would guide policy away from the racial tools which have gotten us to the point that being post racial is possible.
Post racial may be positively irresponsible. Blacks trail whites in almost every major social and economic category, and the fervor for the new black face on the white throne is fascinating but not fundamentally fecund for the fostering of favorable racial relations. If post racial is coming, it need bring more than better unstructured social interaction; in need bring equality. Until more changes than my neighbors manerisms or mine toward him/her, post racial can be found alongside Oz, Neverland, or other places of positive fantasy.
To live post-racially, would be to violate all the protocols at the same time. To be Eminem, not live black, not live white, live fight, to butcher Mr. Mathers' melodic meter. To split the difference, the space between, an intersubjectivity producing racially unfiltered information, to break from globalities underlying logic of control, and to, finally, question race's usefulness as a principle.
To be post racial is to question affirmative action, minority-specific research programs and projects, and runs straight through the notion that color-blindness is an illusion. To study those intersubjective moments of non-race, would produce unfamiliar subject positions, unraced, and would guide policy away from the racial tools which have gotten us to the point that being post racial is possible.
Post racial may be positively irresponsible. Blacks trail whites in almost every major social and economic category, and the fervor for the new black face on the white throne is fascinating but not fundamentally fecund for the fostering of favorable racial relations. If post racial is coming, it need bring more than better unstructured social interaction; in need bring equality. Until more changes than my neighbors manerisms or mine toward him/her, post racial can be found alongside Oz, Neverland, or other places of positive fantasy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)