Category: Uncategorized

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch

Faithful reader Lynn Chadderdon sends a link to the Sean Gonsalves article posted at “Working for Change” in which the columnist counsels against careless use of the word “racism.” For example, he lives at Cape Cod where there aren’t many black folks, so when local movie theaters fail to schedule black movies, he hears the complaint: “It’s Racism.”

“Well, yeah, this is America,” answers Gonsalves. “The ripple effects left behind in the wake of white supremacy are still with us, even if not overtly. But locales that are mostly white are not going to ‘get black movies’ at the local theater. And it’s not racism. It’s supply and demand. The almighty dollar, to borrow a phrase from the O’Jays famous song ‘For the Love of Money.’ “

To comment on this article please visit the comment blog.

To which we reply one more time: everything follows from where one begins. Gonsalves begins with a concept of racism that can be separated from a concept of supply and demand. That’s how he defines racism in the first place. So, of course. one must choose between racism and economics.

Yet Gonsalves recognizes that his own conceptual map is more influenced by “white” conceptions of racism than by “black” ones. Or to speak more directly to the concepts involved, Gonsalves recognizes that there is a big difference in defining racism as “intent” (the ‘white’ usage) or as “effect” (the ‘black’ usage).

When black folks at Cape Cod diagnose their movie choices as effects of “racism”, Gonsalves says that they are unintentionally communicating a concept of “intent” to their predominately white Cape Cod audience. However, it is not “racist intent” that moves movie managers but “intent to make money.”

But what if black folks at Cape Cod are asking their predominately white audience to “listen up”? That is, what if black folks at Cape Cod in sharing their discontent over racism at the movie theaters are seeking from the community some recognition of the ways that even the so-called “level playing field of supply and demand” is a racist field after all? That there is no way to separate “supply and demand” from racist effects in a racist economy?

What if black folks at Cape Cod are making use of “black usage” in order to raise issues that run much deeper than “white usage” allows? In that case, we would encourage columnist Gonsalves to not lead the retreat into “white usage.” Rather we would encourage attention to the cover story at Black Commentator this week and, “Reject the Language of White Supremacy.”

Once upon a time I taught Northern students. And Northern white students have a way of speaking that is just too precious. For example, some will say: “We live in an all white town, so there is no racism where I live.” You gotta admit that’s cute stuff. Neither beautiful nor true, but quite cute indeed.

On the other hand, I have been driving my spouse to work this week and my favorite morning radio is “Wake Up Call” with Rev. Frank Garrett, Jr. This show reminds me that even if one adopts the “black usage” of racism and does not try to revert to cute white language, there is still a limit to the value of the term.

In Rev. Garrett’s analysis of the social and political scene in Texas, I hear no retreat from “black usage” of “racism as effect” yet there is a point where in the judgment of the wise reverend one must find some way to move forward “in spite of.” This is what I take to be the deeper meaning of the recent counsels of Bill Cosby. It’s a way of saying, especially to young people, “look you have to make a way here — you cannot carry your analysis of racism around like a crutch, because it will not help you take your next step.”

In the worlds of “white usage” and “black usage” the Cosby talk is what I call “family talk” — it is a talk that wisdom adopts among families who are undergoing hard times. Yes, says the family, we are living in hard times, but we cannot let that knowledge impair our creative effort. Despite the world, we must proceed to succeed.

There is a great existential courage in the Cosby talk, especially if it remains logically connected to “black usage” in the wider analysis of racism. There is also a sugar-coated delusion in the Cosby talk if it simultaneously links itself logically to “white usage” where racism has no “effects”.

But the problem of succumbing to “white usage” is that it demands nothing more from white America than that they merrily pursue their beloved laws of “supply and demand.” And what that comes down to may be best remembered by all Americans as we review what Frederick Douglass said when he was asked to give his thoughts on the Fourth of July.

Greg,

I just wanted to drop you a note to tell you how much I appreciate the work you’re doing to cover the Texas Voter Database Project. This is flying well beneath the radar of our major media and you’re doing a great service to Texans to take a closer look at such an important project. Also, the questions you’re raising as you parse through the material are serious
ones and I hope they get extracted and debated in a larger forum. Having found you through OffTheKuff, perhaps that will be the Texas blogosphere.

Thank you! And keep up the good work.

———-

Reply from Editor: You’re welcome. And thank you for taking time to send such a kind note. Indeed, the Texas Civil Rights Review is quite grateful to Kuff and many other Texas bloggers who keep us linked to a critical community of hope and activism.–gm

Note: Sunday evening in the second-to-last episode of Pioneer House
on PBS a tiny colonial enclave was visited by native peoples who
presented themselves as living witness to history made whole. For the
second time in the show’s season, modern-day colonists discarded an
opportunity to radically re-evaluate their re-enactment. The first
opportunity was the early morning departure of an African American
freeman who became deeply disturbed at the experience of colonial
economy. He could feel the natural birth of slavenomics coming, so he
left. In both cases, neither the departure of an African American nor
the arrival of Native Americans posed anything more than a brief
distraction from the main game. Soon enough colonists get back to work
for the company. Every night the colonists return to their beds. We
know they sleep, but do they ever dream?—gm

* * *

The following letter from Ramsey Muniz was received via email from Irma L. Muniz on May 19.

Please distribute the enclosed message regarding our ancient past and spirituality.

"As I embrace our ancient sacred indigenous spirituality, I’m
transformed by a passion I have only heard in our past; confined in
these prisons now I feel it in my own Mexika soul. I have been given
access to a great and universal profound secret. Now I know the
suffering, sadness, sorrow, and sacrifices of my ancestors, and now it
has become my own."–Tezcatlipoca (Ramsey Muñiz)

It gives me great honor and pride to share with nuestra gente the
second part of what I wrote late into the night, after awakening from
an ancient Mexika dream. These are the exact words I wrote: "It is
evident from our ancient Mexika writings, symbols, and manuscripts that
eventually the primary principle of our cultural realization was the
power of spirituality of the hearts of the masses of our people –
spirituality in the sense of its liberation, teachings of justice, and
the universal philosophy of a free humanity."

Our most profound and challenging ancient history is like no other
history on this earth. The vision, the intelligence and cosmic power
within the creation of our existence, is like no other in the past
present, and/or future. Even before the invasion of our Mexika Empire,
our wise council of elders was preparing for this disaster.

Our ancient history reveals and teaches us our creation, our
foundation, philosophy of life, cultural structures, constantly
demonstrating the power of our spirituality. It is this hidden
spirituality that has provided the power and pride of resistance
against oppression and atrocities. It doesn’t matter what policies
and/or criminal penalties America brings upon the lives of our sisters
and brothers who came to join us here in Aztlan. It is done! We are
only following the direction and teachings of our ancient Mexika past
into our present world of today. We are not just anybody. We are a
universal cosmic people who lay claim to our spiritual culture from our
past to rehabilitate ourselves, and to begin justifying the
presentation of our national cultural existence.

Perhaps we have not sufficiently demonstrated that present American
colonialism is simply not content to impose its rule upon the present
and futures of a dominated country. American 21st century colonialism
is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip, and emptying
the Mexicano/Mexicana brain of all form and content. By a kind of
perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people and
distorts, disfigures, and destroys it. This work of devaluating our
pre-colonial history takes on a dialectic significance today. When we
consider the efforts of the colonial epoch to carry out our spiritual
cultural estrangement, we realize that nothing was left to chance, and
that the total result looked for by colonial domination was indeed to
convince Mexicanos that colonialism came to lighten their darkness.

The effect consciously sought by America was to drive into
Mexicanos’ minds the idea that if the settlers were to leave, they
would at once fall back into barbarism, degradation, and bestiality. On
the unconscious plane, colonialism, therefore, was considered by the
Mexicanos as a mother who restrained her fundamentally perverse
offspring from its evil instincts. She protected her child from itself
– its ego – its physiology – its biology, and its own unhappiness,
which became its very essence.

We must teach and share with the youth of today the importance of
our ancient Mexika history. How sad to be poor, sad to be chained and
shackled by the injustices of the oppressor. But nothing is sadder than
to witness the fact that our raza does not even know who we truly are.
Our history teaches that we would pass through these periods of
cultural/spiritual uncertainties. It also reveals that certain destined
Mexicanos/Mexicanas would rise within the era of our Sixth Sun. It is
written and destined that our raza will return to its creation and
construct the means of once more becoming a free race, a free land, a
free nation, a free spiritual/cultural Aztlan of today.

Our sisters and brothers from Mexico who had the heart and courage
to cross the borders into the United States will also one day return to
Mexico and share the truth of the fact that we are one. That the
Mexicanos living in the United States have the same roots as the Holy
Land of Mexico. We are finally learning and accepting the truth of our
ancient spirituality. We must have the courage, pride, and honor to
free ourselves and provide the assistance to free our people as well.
We must be a proud and respectful race once again. We must begin in our
preschools, teaching our history, cultura, and spirituality. We must
reunite once again! Our children, our youth, and the masses of our
people must feel proud once again.

We will soon be the majority of the population throughout the entire
southwest of the United States. If we have been able to accomplish
this, then the time has come for us to rise again, to reach out, and
share with the masses of nuestra raza how we will fulfill the great
destiny of our race.

We of our Sixth Sun will continue to strongly advocate the
implementation and existence of our own political party in Aztlan. It
will happen! Our Holy Land of Mexico is also experiencing political and
cultural changes among the masses. The time has come and many of us
continue to suffer, but destiny will eventually remove the sacrifice,
suffering, and imprisonment. No one can change what history brings to
our lives and creation. We are a people who constantly live in the life
of history.

"We are Indian, blood and soul; the language and civilization are Spanish."–Jose Vasconcelos

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
freeramsey.com

First Row of First Table Fails to Specify Protected Classes

EEO Report: Working Notes Two

Reading the first Civil Rights audit prepared by the Division of Civil Rights at the Texas Workforce Commission is a hair-pulling screamer. The numbers are that bad. The problem arises from a choice on the part of the new civil rights team to use non-civil rights numbers as a basis for civil rights analysis.

“The Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority Hiring Practices Report” is dated February 2005 and bears a March 8 cover letter to the Governor. The Workforce Commission website says the report was posted online March 15.

And according to explanations given to the Governor, this is the first time the report has been prepared by the Civil Rights division at the Workforce Commission. In previous years, the work had been done by the Texas Commission on Human Rights. But that commission was decommissioned in 2003, although the URL bearing the new reports contains the old TCHR address.

The problem with the latest civil rights report from Texas is that in Row One of the First Table of figures, the Civil Rights Division fails to quantify classes of race and ethnicity that are most pertinent to Texas Civil Rights.

On the challenge of differentiating men from women, the report does its job. Of 10.07 million workers in Texas, 4.495 million are women and 5.575 million are men. As the top row of the first chart says, that’s a workforce that is 44.64 percent female, and 55.36 percent male.

The male female comparisons in the first row of the first chart offer helpful beginnings for anyone interested in civil rights for women. The statewide allocation of administrative positions held by women very closely tracks the percentage of women in the total workforce, which serves as a first case indicator that women are probably getting their fair share of opportunities in that category of employment.

In addition to women there are four other “protected classes” under civil rights law, and we would expect similar statistical treatment for each. They are Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian/Pacific Islanders. Just as row one of table one has given us workable numbers for women, we have a right to expect workable numbers for each of these groups.

And finally, just as the numbers for the protected class of women must be compared to men, so must the numbers for protected races and ethnicities be compared to Caucasian or Anglo populations, too.

But the first row of numbers for the first table of the 2005 Texas civil rights report, is a most deceptive and unhelpful guide. Although the first row purports to offer numbers for Caucasian Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans, in fact the numbers are based on a source that can only give correct numbers for workers of Hispanic origin. And whether these workers are Hispanic Americans, as the Texas chart says, would be difficult to say for sure.

Note: second take on the civil rights report. This one circles in on the real problem, the switch to BLS statistics rather than EEOC. But it’s a little long-winded.