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Identity Politics

Chris Hedges Report: The Ruse Of Identity Politics

September 2, 2023 Chris Hedges, The Real News Network. , , , ,
There are very few intellectuals who have been as attacked, censored, and blacklisted as long and as ruthlessly as the Middle Eastern scholar, Norman Finkelstein. He has been hounded out of universities, denied speaking engagements, and had his books and scholarship either ignored or dismissed. It is surprising, perhaps, that Professor Finkelstein’s latest book, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom is a savage attack on identity politics. He likens the current woke culture of the left to red-baiting when his heroes, Paul Robeson, Pete Seager, Rosa Luxemburg, Paul Sweezy, and Annette Rubinstein were marginalized, and in the case of Luxembourg, assassinated.

Why Veterans In Labor Should Not Be Ignored

March 4, 2023 Steve Early, Working-Class Perspectives. , , ,
Even in the era of identity politics, one category of identity has largely been ignored: what UK journalist Joe Glenton calls “veteranhood.”19 million former soldiers — most of them working class — share a strong sense of personal identity as vets, but the media usually notices them only when they are involved in right-wing militias, white supremacist groups, and other MAGA-land formations. Some have noted their over-representation in U.S. law enforcement, which does reinforce  militarized policing, along with the better known Pentagon-to-police equipment pipeline.

Ghost Stories Of Capitalism: Racism Is Real, And It’s A Class Struggle

December 17, 2022 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
In today’s political climate, the word racism has become taboo. Some on the “Left” take issue with the term because of how it has been co-opted by the neoliberal elite. This is understandable, since the neoliberal Democratic Party has indeed exploited race relations in the United States to forward a “lesser evil” but no less dangerous brand of U.S. imperialism. Racism is thus increasingly viewed as an ideological weapon of liberalism rather than a material force of oppression. So-called “conservatives” have pounced on the limitations of neoliberal racial politics to strengthen their own brand as crusaders against the “woke” politics of the Democrats. The problem with all of this is that racism is a very real manifestation of class struggle. Racism isn’t merely the hateful words and behaviors acted out by individuals. It isn’t simply a set of “institutional” problems that can be reformed away at the workplace or the criminal justice system, either. Some on the liberal “left” say that racism is “systemic,” but even this is misleading. Failing to name the system, U.S. imperialism, decontextualizes racism from its roots in class and power.

The War Against Us

July 14, 2021 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. , , ,
As some readers may have noticed, Antony Blinken has the State Department festooning its embassies around the world with “BLM” banners and the rainbow flag of the sexual identity movement known commonly as LGBTQI+. As our virtuous secretary of state explained in April, when he authorized these advertisements for America’s splendidly raised consciousness, the BLM pennant commemorates the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year; the familiar LGBTQI+ colors will fly on our flagpoles in foreign capitals “for the duration of the 2021 Pride season.” So our guitar-strumming chief diplomat put it when announcing this… this policy, I suppose we are to call it. Taking the very serious cause for equal rights and turning it into cover for an extremely aggressive foreign policy, it makes for a pretty weird sight, if you have seen any of the pictures. Then again, so does our Tony as he flits around the world on the wings of an angel.

The Woke CIA PsyOp

May 8, 2021 AbMartin, Empire Files. , ,
Abby Martin explains what's behind the cringe ‘Humans of CIA’ recruitment ad promoting themselves as a place of ‘intersectional’ social progress. "Recently the CUA released a video that was pretty shocking, embracing a radical inclusivity in the agency. It's now known as the "woke CIA ad." Ad; "I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cis-gender millennial who has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I am intersectional. I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be."

On Contact: Wrecking The left

December 13, 2020 Chris Hedges, RT. , , ,
On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to journalist Diana Johnstone about the betrayal of the left with its historical role as the champion of social justice and peace now replaced with the boutique activism of identity politics, political correctness and what has become known as humanitarian intervention, the justification of US and NATO adventurism and wars on the specious belief it would liberate the women of Afghanistan or the peoples of Iraq. Diana Johnstone’s memoir is ‘Circle in the Darkness: Memoir of a World Watcher’. Johnstone was the European editor of In The Times from 1979 to 1990, and her work has appeared in New Left Review, Counterpunch and Covert Action Quarterly.

Secretary Of Defense Lloyd Austin: A Certain Kind Of Diversity

December 13, 2020 Maj. Danny Sjursen (USA-ret.), ScheerPost.com. , , ,
America’s first black presumptive secretary of defense grew up in the same town — Thomasville, GA — as the first black West Point graduate, Henry O. Flipper.  I actually took select cadets from my civil rights history class to visit the southwest Georgia city on an academic trip in the summer of 2016.  In fact, I vaguely remember the owner and namesake of the local Jack Hadley Black History Museum mentioning that President-elect Biden’s somewhat surprising nominee for Pentagon chief, retired General Lloyd Austin, also hailed from Thomasville.  But whereas Flipper was unfairly cashiered out of the U.S. Army in the 1880s — his name finally cleared by Bill Clinton’s 1999 pardon — his fellow West Pointer, Austin, rose to nearly the highest of military heights.

Fear Pervades Black Politics, And Makes Us Agents Of Our Own Oppression

March 6, 2020 Glen Ford, Blackagendareport.com ,
Many Black voters recoiled in abject terror at the very thought that the Democratic Party – “our” party, in many Black folks’ minds – might fracture under the challenge of the Sandernistas. “The screechingly raucous, out-of-control Democratic debate in Columbia just days before the South Carolina primary appears to have scared the hell out of Black voters.” Black voters in South Carolina kicked off Joe Biden’s political resurrection last Saturday, and stuck with the worthless corporate hack through Super Tuesday’s primary contests.

Race Is Central To Both Revolution And Reaction In Latin American

November 18, 2019 Glen Ford, Blackagendareport.com , , ,
The events in Bolivia lay bare the central role that racial subjugation has always played in the “New World,” a hemisphere whose “discovery” by Europeans resulted -- within the span of only 50 years -- in the death by genocide and pandemic of fully a fifth of the Earth’s human population. The Conquistadors frenzied “primitive accumulation” of precious metals, mined by enslaved Natives who died quicker than they could be replenished, created a demand for the capture and importation of millions of Africans with immunities to both European and tropical disease.

These Activists-in-Training Are Scouting For Social Justice

September 16, 2019 Azucena Rasilla, Zora.medium.com , , ,
Anayvette Martinez wanted to start a different kind of girl scout troop after her then fourth-grade daughter expressed her desire to join one. What Martinez found, however, was that her daughter Lupita would have been one out of two Brown girls to join. She knew this statistic had to change. “The traditional scouting model wouldn’t center her experience as a woman of color, and it would have been a watered-down version of what she could be exposed to,” says Martinez (who identifies herself as Queer) of the idea of starting the Radical Monarchs. She wanted the troop to truly center women of color’s identity.

The Danger Of Identity Politics In Climate Change + The Truth About Iran

July 25, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com , ,
Good news from the Grand Canyon and the problem with conflating environmental protection with indigenous issues. Next, updates from the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline and new research that shows just how vital stopping the fracking industry is. Finally, Iranian-American peace activist Leila Zand joins us to talk about the situation in Iran and recent developments.

Afrofuturism, Indigenous People And Intersectional Spaces: These Jackson Artists Hope Their Creations Inspire A Community

April 30, 2019 Eric J. Shelton, Mississippitoday.org , ,
Empty spray paint cans lie on the pavement, paint rollers and brushes with vibrant colors resting at his feet, Kwame Braxton, a 29-year-old artist and Jackson native, takes a moment to look at his nearly completed mural. Wearing paint splattered clothes, Braxton analyzes his approach in appropriately conveying the meaning of his piece. “What is inside of you, you can create, and what you create is also inside of you,” Braxton said of his piece covering part of the Center for Community Production building near downtown Jackson.

The Bankruptcy Of The American Left

February 7, 2018 Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com , ,
There will be no economic or political justice for the poor, people of color, women or workers within the framework of global, corporate capitalism. Corporate capitalism, which uses identity politics, multiculturalism and racial justice to masquerade as politics, will never halt the rising social inequality, unchecked militarism, evisceration of civil liberties and omnipotence of the organs of security and surveillance. Corporate capitalism cannot be reformed, despite its continually rebranding itself. The longer the self-identified left and liberal class seek to work within a system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism,” the more the noose will be tightened around our necks. If we do not rise up to bring government and financial systems under public control—which includes nationalizing banks, the fossil fuel industry and the arms industry—we will continue to be victims.

Black Women Challenge ‘White Feminism’ of Women’s March

January 25, 2018 By John Zangas, Dcmediagroup.us , , ,
“Black women’s issues need to be at the forefront in order for this country to move forward,” said Brittany Oliver, founding director of Not Without Black Women (NWBW), to many cheers from the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. About 10,000 people wrapped around the Reflecting Pool and stretched up the Memorial’s steps. Oliver said she was there to “challenge white feminism” and stress “how important our voices are.” “Since we were here a year ago, there has been a seismic shift in the way women are dealing with the symptoms of gender bias, including the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements,” she said. She reminded them that #MeToo was founded a decade ago—by a black woman. “You saw #MeToo and Tawana Burke for over ten years, and [she] didn’t get recognition for it until recently,” Oliver said.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Neoliberal Face Of Black Freedom Struggle

December 18, 2017 By Cornel West , ,
The disagreement between Coates and me is clear: his view of black America is narrow and dangerously misleading. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in Power, a book about Barack Obama’s presidency and the tenacity of white supremacy, has captured the attention of many of us. One crucial question is why now in this moment has his apolitical pessimism gained such wide acceptance? Coates and I come from a great tradition of the black freedom struggle. He represents the neoliberal wing that sounds militant about white supremacy but renders black fightback invisible. This wing reaps the benefits of the neoliberal establishment that rewards silences on issues such as Wall Street greed or Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.
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