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
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