File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_2001/aut-op-sy.0112, message 194


From: "commie00" <commie00-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: AUT: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Self-determination from waaaaayyy back
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 13:35:16 -0500


heya chris

> To see racism as simply an instrument to divide workers is exactly the
kind
> of reductionism I think is poisonous.  Racism is not simply divisive.
> Racism is a power relation that flows from the interaction of two aspects
of
> life: the binary division of capital and labor, based on the separation of
> the producer from the means of producing, involves the fragmentation of
all
> of social life.

when i say that racism exists as a divisive thing (and is rooted in the
realization and suppression of xenophobia from feudalism), i'm not reducing
as you seem to think, but understanding the root. that is: why does racism
exist within capitalism? why was it (for lack of a better word) created? it
seems to me that the answer is: divisiveness, divide and conquer.

however, that there are permutations of this (which you describe well) is
true. but you still have to ask why and how those permutations exist. how
does that power relation serve capital and hurt labor? that is: how does
that power relation increase alienation and destroy community?

"racism as a divider" and "racism as a intra-class power relation" (etc.
etc.) are not two different things. and racism does not exist apart from
capitalism.

and if we are going to understand racism now and tomorrow, we have to
understand its history. how and why it developed.

and of course i disagree with john that capitalism is in total control of
the capitalists. i think that's just as much of a silly reduction of complex
social relations as believing that capitalists are in total control of
capitalism. but that's neither here nor there.


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