[Note: Some of you may read this before I have a chance to learn the name of the woman in question. I prefer to take the vid in its chronological order as it's less tedious. I will return to this page and identify the woman in due course.
Her name is Brittany Packnett Cunningham]
Part three ended with my rebuttal of Kendi's racist depiction of White ex-unfree betraying their former Black comrades. On screen under Kendi's narration are images of Whites and Blacks cooperating in struggle. Then we see a White hand reaching for the White unfree and literally pulling him up out of indenture (you can't make this shit up) and making him a slave owner. And then we see the new White slave-owner enslaving his former Black brother in arms.
One could be forgiven for assuming that this signaled the end of White unfreedom and Black ownership of the unfree, but one would be incorrect in both cases. The makers of Stamped have no conscience. There's nothing honest or fair in this documentary. It is a piece of propaganda designed to create and perpetuate mutual racial antagonism. When have you ever seen a documentary about the huge slave states of W. Africa? The world's largest slave owners were Black. The largest, the all-time great, the slave-owning GOAT, is Mansa Musa. He used to give them away as gifts. "Welcome to my kingdom, have a few slaves." When he went on pilgrimage to Mecca, it is said he gave away thousands of slaves.
An honest look at African slavery would put American slavery in perspective, and might make Blacks and Whites look at each other differently. However, that is precisely what pseudo-documentaries like Stamped are designed to prevent.
These images and Kendi's narration are quite problematic in ways I addressed in part three. There is a long, suppressed history of White and Black working class solidarity dating back to the beginnings. And when it has been broken, it has not always been by Whites. Both the Black lumpen/proletariat and the Black bourgeoisie have acted to thwart interracial cooperation and undermine anti-racist and economic justice efforts (more on these later). It is a myth that Blacks have always been the progressive element and Whites the regressive; of Blacks striving to unite with Whites and being rebuffed. There have been no shortage of such occurrences, and no one, dear reader, has been more frustrated by these than your humble correspondent. Nevertheless, there have been multiple instances wherein Whites have implored Blacks to join them on explicitly egalitarian terms only to have their entreaties fall on deaf ears.
What is the point of race theory, "critical" or otherwise? Of race bashing such as is found in Stamped? What is the motive amongst those who declare themselves to be anti-racists? Who profess an implacable belief in the equality of all races? When science insists that race does not exist? Because it is "an essential part of the campaign of reaction." If I may cut and paste an earlier blog again:
FALSE HISTORICAL NARRATIVES CAN ONLY BE MAINTAINED BY CENSORSHIP, BY PROPRIETARY CONTROL OF MEANS, SOURCES AND DISSEMINATION. POLITICAL PROPAGANDISTS REWRITE HISTORY IN ORDER TO VALIDATE THE INJUSTICES OF THE PRESENT. THE EMPIRE'S PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT SQUAD, ITS HIGHLY TRAINED, WELL COMPENSATED PROFESSIONAL LIARS, STALK THE PAST FOR MATERIAL WHICH CAN BE SPUN INTO NEW YARN AS BEFITS THE CONCERNS AT HAND. EVEN THE MOST PERFUNCTORY LOOK AT THE AGITPROP OF THE LAST CENTURY REVEALS RULING CLASS DISINFORMATION STRATEGY: FRAGMENT; DISAFFILIATE; NEVER, EVER, STOP TALKING ABOUT RACE; DENY OR MARGINALIZE CLASS ANTAGONISM ALWAYS; DISPARAGE SCIENCE AND INSIST UPON ITS INUTILITY AND IRRELEVANCE; COMBAT DISSENT WITH SPECULATION ABOUT PERSONAL A/O PSYCHOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS; COUNTER REASON WITH MYSTICISM, ROMANTICISM, SURREALISM, PRETERNATURALISM, FUTURISM, SUPERNATURALISM, PRIMEVALISM, ANY KIND OF BULLSHITISM, ANYTHING IRRETRIEVABLY BEYOND THE AMBIT OF ORGANIZED, FALSIFIABLE THOUGHT. IN SHORT, CONFUTE OBJECTIVITY WITH THE SUBJECTIVE. AS THE BRILLIANT R. PALME DUTT PUT IT IN "FASCISM AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION," PUBLISHED IN 1936:
"the loudly heralded movement against “materialism” and “the limitations of science,” towards “idealism” and religion, is familiar ground...that the dominant official influences both in the bourgeois scientific world, and in general bourgeois discussion, actively support, foster, patronise, encourage and in every possible way advertise and press forward this trend...The revolt against science, which bourgeois society to-day encourages in the ideological sphere...is an essential part of the campaign of reaction. This is the basis which helps to prepare the ground for all the quackeries and charlatanries, of chauvinism, racial theories, anti-semitism, Aryan grandmothers, mystic swastikas, divine missions, strong-man saviours...All this nonsense may appear...as highly irrational and even insane. But in fact it is... rational and calculated...There is method in the madness. For capitalism can no longer present any rational defence, any progressive role, any ideal whatever to reach the masses of the population."
THAT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1936--ALMOST A CENTURY AGO! CRT IS CLASS WAR MASQUERADING AS LIBERATION STRUGGLE.
ADOLF HITLER: "IT IS TREASON TO TALK ABOUT CLASS STRUGGLE."
MARCIE BIANCO: "IF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE WORKING CLASS, YOUR WHITE SUPREMACY IS SHOWING."
MUSSOLINI: "THE CLASS CONFLICT HAS BEEN RESOLVED, IN FACT, IT NEVER REALLY EXISTED."
MOUFFE AND LACLAU: "THE WORKING CLASS DOESN'T EXIST OUTSIDE ITS DISCURSIVE ARTICULATION."
SO, ACCORDING TO MOUFFE THE GOOF, RACE IS REAL AND CLASS IS A REIFICATION. YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP...ACCORDING TO BIANCO, CLASS POLITICS IS COVER FOR WHITE SUPREMACY. THIS IDEA IS MORE COMMON ON THE "LEFT" THAN YOU MIGHT THINK, DESPITE ITS RANK ABSURDITY. IT FINDS GREATER FAVOR NOWHERE THAN IN THE BLACK ACTIVIST COMMUNITY.
ARYAN GRANDMOTHER, MARCIE BIANCO, HAS PENNED A RACEHEAD CLASSIC ENTITLED "BREAKING AWAY." IN IT SHE STATES THAT [ECONOMIC]EQUALITY IS ESSENTIALLY RACISM AND PATRIARCHY IN DISGUISE...I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE GLOBAL 2-BUCKS-A-DAY CLUB DIED BETWEEN HER WRITING THE FIRST WORD OF HER BOOK AND THE LAST; DIED WHILE GRANNY SCRIBBLED AWAY ABOUT MICRO-AGGGRESSIONS AND DECIDED WHICH PRONOUNS TO USE? OVER 75 PERCENT OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION, ACCORDING TO THE WORLD BANK'S TIERED SCALE, LIVE AT OR BELOW THE POVERTY LINE. IN THIS RACEWORLD OF ABUNDANCE, MOST STILL SUFFER FROM WANT. THAT'S OKAY WITH GRANNY, SHE DOESN'T CARE. APPARENTLY, THAT ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE CONTROL OVER THE PRODUCTS OF THEIR LABOR AND THE VALUE THEY BRING IS A RACIST AND SEXIST IDEA. THE EMANCIPATION OF LABOR--FREEDOM--IS A RACIST, SEXIST, WHITE SUPREMACIST MINDSET.
IN HER BOOK AND OTHER CRT TOMES THERE ARE OFTEN HOLLOW, DE RIGUEUR, PRO FORMA, MERETRICIOUS DENUNCIATIONS OF CAPITALISM AS SOMETHING IN THE TEXT HAS TO TETHER IT TO THE "LEFT." BUT NOBODY COULD FAIL TO UNDERSTAND MARCIE BIANCO. SHE'S HARDLY INSCRUTABLE.
NO, OF COURSE NAZIISM AND CRT ARE NOT THE SAME--NOT YET ANYWAY, BUT FROM A PRACTICAL POLITICAL POV, IT'S AWFULLY HARD TELL THEM APART. ISN'T IT?
ISN'T IT?
THUS, IT MUST BE CAMOUFLAGED. AND WHEN THAT FAILS, CRITICISM MUST BE REPUDIATED WITH NEBULOUS, OFTEN UNINTELLIGIBLE PRATTLE AFLUTTER WITH KITSCHY NEOLOGISMS, DEMAGOGIC SELF-ASSURANCE, AND DISPUTATION SUFFICIENTLY DUCTILE, PROLIX, AND VACUOUS AS TO BE IRREFUTABLE. SO IT WAS AND SO IT IS. THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT RACEBOTS DO. THE QUACKERIES AND CHAUVINISMS AND RACIAL THEORIES HAVE BEEN REFORMULATED, BUT THE PREDATORY SOCIO-ECONOMIC RELATIONS THEY CONCEAL AND PROTECT REMAIN IN FORCE. A LOT OF HIGH-FALOOTING RACESPEAK, NO SUBSTANCE OR MEANINGFUL CHANGE. THUS, WHAT TODAY GOES BY THE NAME OF CRT SERVES THE SAME FUNCTION AS ONCE DID ANTI-SEMITISM, MYSTIC SWASTIKAS, AND ARYAN GRANNIES.
ONE NEED ONLY LOOK AT WHO HAS FUNDED THE RISE OF THE NEW RACE THEORY ARISTOCRACY. CHIEF AMONG THEM IS THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION. WHEN EXACTLY DID THEY HAVE THEIR COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT? A SURVEY OF THAT AUGUST INSTITUTION'S POSITIONS VIS-A-VIS RACE OVER THE LAST CENTURY IS NOT A GOOD LOOK FOR THEM. NOT AT ALL. HAVE THEY SEEN THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AND SEEK EXPIATION? OR DO THEY SEE RACE POLITICS ETC. AS PROTECTIVE OF THEIR WEALTH AND POWER? THIS IS AN I.Q. TEST, RACEBOTS, FIGURE IT THE FUCK OUT.
They won't figure it out. That's not their mission, not how their bread is buttered.
At about 18 minutes in, an unidentified commentator introduces the Great White Bogey Man Conspiracy Theory. She insists that as European immigrants came here to the US they were their individual nationalities, "but somewhere along the line folks figured out...if we link arms under this umbrella of Whiteness we can protect our interests and make sure nobody has access to our power."
There you have it, folks, the punch line. I started this review by saying that the new race theory, to which the word "critical" has been added as a deodorant, is the new enemy of the working class. I am paradoxically grateful to this woman as she has exposed and encapsulated the mother shibboleth of American Racepolitik in a few short lines, the one that rules the racedom, Jim Snow in a nutshell.
If you were to condense American politics into one phrase it would be White supremacy. And if you dare to suggest that its premise contains falsities, be prepared to be denounced as a White supremacist. In reality the term is pregnant with largely unrecognized subjects. It's whisper value, as I like to call it, is quite high, which is what makes it so useful as propaganda. However, much of that is beyond the scope of this review. What I wish to discuss is the myth of the White Pact.
Before doing so, I wish to make clear that I do not suggest that White supremacy is not real--it is. However, within its foundation lies a great deception which oppresses White and Black alike. If one wishes one could argue that if the theory of White supremacy and its political application in any way or in any moment disadvantages a single White person then it cannot rightfully be called "White" supremacy. This argument has merit, however, it's not mine. The subject of White supremacy contains more complexity than just about anyone is willing to acknowledge. I am sympathetic to the critique that White supremacy really isn't "White," however, in the end, I disagree, and for reasons I don't want to get bogged down in here. The elucidation of this subject is intricate, nuance laden, highly interpretive at multiple junctions. It necessarily involves determining whether and at what distance from its core this or that element of the debate becomes fallacious, or in this or that instance a given line of inquiry loses its analytical value etc. It's a topic for another day. I proceed on the basis that White supremacy is real, is "White," and contains error.
At the heart of the concept of White supremacy is what I call the White Pact. It contends that at a point in American history, a cross-class, intra-racial alliance was formed by Euro-descended people; that that partnership asserted and exerted authority over others thus subordinating them to Whites; that the supremacy of Whites was the operating principle of American politics and organizing principle of American society, and the modality through which non-Whites were exploited and repressed; that this race-based polity universally benefitted Whites and universally disadvantaged others.
That's the theory, the one espoused by the Netflix commentator, and it's wrong in so many particulars, in demonstrable ways, and in innumerable instances.
Honestly, I don't know what to say, how can anybody living in this country believe this trash when we are perpetually surrounded by evidence to the contrary? How do they miss that so many White people are impoverished in this putative White utopia; how the immiseration of non-Whites has held White wages down; how the presence of a reserve army of a large Black underclass threatens White livelihoods and cows them into compliance and submission in the workplace; how even free Whites, yeoman farmers, were marginalized by large slave-labor plantations with which they could not compete and by whose presence they were driven onto less productive land and into the production of less profitable crops. The Southern White man is still suffering from the mass enslavement of Blacks as he remains the poorest, the least educated, and has the worst health outcomes of any White man in America.
I could go on with examples of for days. If the White bourgeoisie is partnered here in the US with the White working class, I think we White proletarians have grounds for a class-action lawsuit, don't you? If they are looking out for us, they are not doing a very good fucking job of it, are they? With friends like the White plutocracy, White workers don't need enemies.
The point of the White Pact theory, the racial narrative, is, as always, to disguise class conflict. It falsely relocates the White working class from target to co-conspirator, from prey to predator. It transforms the problem from economic to social, therein lies its value for the plutocracy. Control of the White working class has always been priority one for the White bourgeoisie as it is its largest part. The White proletariat can on its own accord rebel, the Black proletariat can only riot. Together, potentially, they could overthrow. The largest segment of the proletariat must be the least exploited, this is what accounts for the relative prosperity of the White working class. The changing demographics: the lower reproductive rate in the White community and the higher among non-Whites mixed with greater non-White immigration than White, is in large part responsible for the near elimination of racial income disparities. Now, it is only at the top of the income brackets where divergence occurs, well above levels that wage workers earn. Apparently the only remaining differentiation is Black billionaires have less billions than White billionaires.
We'll pass the hat at the checkouts at Walmart for them.
The crucial point is that the precipitous decline of White supremacy in the last decades has not occurred because we have a kinder, gentler plutocracy. Nobody has gotten religion. It has transpired because the old method of social control was no longer viable. It couldn't function anymore. Imagine the conflagration which might ensue if the smallest part of the working class had the highest income and the most perqs!
That the White working class has, or had, a higher standard of living doesn't mean Whites are not oppressed, and it doesn't constitute a racial patronage dividend! It is the best, and really only, viable strategy for the preservation of capitalism. The construction of a tiered labor system is an old idea (which I believe dates back to Sargon the Great). The advantage for the slave owner was it incentivized those in the lower tier to produce more and rise into the more privileged upper tier, and incentivized those up top not to slacken and fall into the lower tier. This system of control survived into the capitalist age, as it offers the same benefit to industrialists as it did to slave owners. However, in the US, these tiers got racialized, which has opened the door to the state-sponsored race fetishism which subverts "Left" discourse in our time.
This woman is a great example of how race fetishism can enfeeble the mind, banish it from reality and engorge it with childish, fatuous delusions. The idea that all the peoples now classified as White, 20th century immigrants included, came to consensus, "figured out" Whiteness, would be comical if it weren't so mind-numbingly vapid. Her fantastical charge reveals galaxy-size lacunae in her knowledge of the topic, and a substantial incapacity for engaging with it. (Ignorance and stupidity play vital roles in the hegemony of race in the US. I've dealt with former at some length and will address the latter in future parts of this review. The powerless uniting with the powerful to protect their power! Brilliant.)
Whiteness was concocted, enacted, and enforced, "figured out," centuries before the immigrants she identified, Italians and Poles, arrived on these shores. They did not participate in the figuring out of Whiteness. They were not initially White so that their labor could be exploited more profitably. Whiteness, as those who aren't race drunk can see, is about profit. No welcoming "White" arms were extended for the newcomers, quite the opposite.
What does this elevating Whiteness mean to White workers when White industrialists hire thugs, not infrequently Black thugs, to break up union meetings and strikes? What did it mean to them that in the period of the greatest Italian and Polish immigration they were gunned down in the Indianapolis streetcar strike, or the Bayview Massacre in Milwaukee, or the massacre in Lattimer, PA, the Chicago teamster strike, the massacre in Everett, WA, or the Colorado coal strike of 1904 in which the Bill of Rights was officially suspended. And Homestead and Ludlow and on and on and on. In each of these, all of the slain (I believe) were the serendipitous beneficiaries of this custodial "umbrella of Whiteness," and the proprietary "power" it conferred.
I wonder how comforted Italians like Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were by their enabling and ennobling Whiteness as they were marched to the electric chair. I wonder how empowered the Polish labor leader, John Barkovski, felt when members of the privatized, Pennsylvania state police beat him to death on his doorstep. No doubt his pain was eased despite nearly every single bone in his upper body being broken, and his then faceless corpse being dragged out onto the street so all could see what happens to union leaders who call for work stoppages. I'm sure that as he struggled to draw his last bloody breath he found solace in his Whiteness and all the blessings it bestowed upon him.
This is what race fetishism does, what the racial narrative of American history is for. It obscures the underlying class dynamics which drive Whiteness and Blackness. It conditions us to lament, and seek to correct, racial disparities, but at the same time accustoms us to class stratification and the attendant enormous divergence in wealth. More than once I've found myself asking raceheads why racial equality is important if equality itself isn't. What led this woman to say something so robustly preposterous is that like any good racebot she lacks class perspective. And, I say again, there are only two political orientations, fascism and socialism, race and class, no matter how many gradients may appear to lie between. There is and can be no convergence between race and class, not when the bullets start flying. Eighty years ago when these two antonyms clashed 40 million people died. It's race or class, there is no in between.
What this woman doesn't understand is that, like Blackness, Whiteness is a myth. There is no uniform, unitary Whiteness, no common White interest. Whites are, and have always been, divided into classes whose interests conflict. And a look into the history of that clash reveals that the race loyalty, this supposed bond of racial fellowship she imagines, that the White Pact presupposes, is a fallacy. She's been snookered. She has fallen for the racial narrative, been duped, as some working-class Whites have, by the mythic element of White supremacy. To Whites this myth offered the psychological wage of presumed superiority, and to Blacks the purity and prestige of blameless victimhood.
Both absurd myths.
And once Blacks like this woman have been successfully indoctrinated in Jim Snow dialectics, they are pawns in the hands of capital, useful idiots spreading the manure of empire. They think they are fighting racism when in fact they are perpetuating it, fighting the power when in reality they are its faithful servants. And if they are good racemongers, they are then ready for media duty. Now they can appear on Netflix and offer embarrassingly stupid commentary on topics about which they don't know a goddam thing.
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