[Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis

Tue Jun 9 10:08:17 PDT 2020

Hi Peg,

Thinking out loud about distinctions...

I presume that white supremism (WS) comes out of a belief that white is "more pure" and therefore "closer to God" and I am presuming this derives from Christian traditions more than non-Christian, though there is this sensibility in a different form in India with the untouchable caste, etc (which actually may have to do with immunity systems, untouchables having stronger ones – I wonder if we will be experiencing our own versions of untouchables today, in the sense that everyone is untouchable unless you are "in the same clan").

I get what you say that WS is a subtle difference from racism. It is still the divisive act of creating an Us vs Them. Isn't that what racism is? Perhaps I am missing your point.

One issue I've always had is with the naming of La Raza. Which translates from Spanish to "The Race." Capital-T-The. My father tells me that La Raza came as a response to the mixing of European and Native Americans, in Latin America. Many mestizos were treated as outsiders because they did not "belong" in European circles nor in Indio circles. They were considered an altogether different "race," or Mestizo ("mixed").

There came to be a holiday once a year to celebrate being mestizo, to provide a sense of pride rather than shame. I think my father said there was even a parade (similar to Gay Pride Day). Everyone wore white on that day, interestingly.

Fast forward to today, and La Raza, in California anyway, seems to be tightly woven with Mexican American culture (of which I do not "identify", my father being from Central America). I do not speak Spanish (my French is much better). So a term that was meant to unify, for me divides, conceptually and personally.

It's kind of like the concept of "the chosen people." Who is chosen and who chooses?

Lots of humans do this. Humans will likely continue to do it long after we are gone.

This narrative of La Raza in my experience is no different than WS.

So I'm not sure what the distinction is to be made, because it's divisive and intended to bring one's clan tightly together not to "blend" with The Other, in order to survive.

The dynamic is fairly predictable.

What I wonder is in the case where different cultures "blended", say in Moorish Spain, or Palestine before the creation of the Israeli state, or other historical periods where sharing of culture was welcomed, in the sense of trade, or sharing knowledge, like medicine, astrology/astronomy, and mathematics, whether being different wasn't considered divisive, but welcome. An opportunity for the curious to delight by asking "Let's see what you got?" and then to wait for the object of curiosity brought from far, far away to be revealed.

Forest trees do not distinguish between themselves when they grow, same for other plants. There is competition for sunlight and laying down roots, but I think it's rare that tree will kill another one. They tend to grow and accommodate one another, even in the way branches are extended to catch the light. In some research they are finding an intricate communication system between trees within their root systems. They seem to all speak the same language in that sense.

I wonder if we humans might one day have that kindly experience of sameness despite differences.

As long as we dwell on the differences as a marker of superiority there will be strife. That there are differences can't be denied, and we certainly do not want everyone to blend into the same mass genetically, if only to preserve differences in the gene pool so we can survive.

(Perhaps the virus striking down so many people has to do with our becoming too much of the same genetic mass?)

How is it that we consider animals not to be of our level, and yet the llama Winter and her antibodies may be our very way out of this pandemic. Does this make the llama somehow superior to us? I have to wonder what the proponents of the Third Reich would have thought about a llama's blood used to save the human species from a cold virus.

I maintain that until we can see everything around us and say and understand "That is me" or better, "I am that," we will continue to suffer from these divisions. If one can't say "I am that" then some place in one's mind one has created separateness. That's an opportunity for self growth, to reflect upon it and overcome that barrier.

I don't see any other way to freedom.

Kind regards,

Annalisa

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Peg Griffin, Ph.D. <Peg.Griffin@att.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 9:13 AM
To: 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity' <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis

  [EXTERNAL]

Yes everyone suffers, but it is about white supremacy rather than racism.

Other people in other places have other things, maybe other race supremacies to rise against.

Whether it’s race or not, it’s people with the knees on the necks that must lead and be followed.

Who follows, here, is whoever isn’t a white supremacist.

It is painful and time taking to apprehend what white privilege means in action. It is difficult to persevere in the denial of white privilege in one’s own life.

It’s a careful distinction – between white supremacy and racism.

Here and now the reduction to racism deflects us to an “epigenetic byway,” provides room to protect dangerous institutions and practices, to produce misshapen changes.  White supremacists make references to, praise, make symbols of, people who are not white whose jobs or statements or health; it is supposed to be prima facie evidence that they aren’t racist. More long term and subtly, it divides us, hides them, and maligns and degrades us.

The ties that bind white supremacy and fascism are blatant, as Mike’s references to the late 30’s highlight.

PG

From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Andy Blunden
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2020 11:02 PM
To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis

No, the American Century is over, I believe, even if America can take a leading part in ushering in the new epoch, I think it will be to release the rest of the world from the USA's mania to micromanage everyone else. The pandemic was, I think, the catalyst which brought the issues to the surface which were bubbling away for a long time. And might I venture the opinion that the vast investment in this BLM movement by young "white" people is in large part because cops kill a hell of a lot of white kids as well, and everyone is suffering under the system in which African Americans are victimised.

Andy

________________________________

Andy Blunden
Hegel for Social Movements<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!XfTCEcJ1wzYZTWcW5Tp6UckspZl27gpvL3O__q3r7BqUNPtb63Zj5n573NaZ979RhOO9Gw$>
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On 9/06/2020 12:11 pm, Martin Packer wrote:

On Jun 8, 2020, at 8:34 PM, Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org<mailto:andyb@marxists.org>> wrote:

Even in the depths of degradation and ignominy America can lead, it seems.

This is something worth and worthy of theorizing, isn’t it?! Turns out the World Perezhivanie is not the coronavirus, or at least not the coronavirus alone. It is racism. And the global subject that has just been formed has found its lead in the US. The US Century may not be over after all!

Martin

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