Post by benbrucato on Nov 19, 2011 0:23:39 GMT -5
From: Lester, Julius, Look Out Whitey! Black Power's Gon' Get Your Mama!, p. 139.
From an unpublished manuscript of mine from 1999:
*Brucato, Ben, "Interview With Michael Novick," The Zine Yearbook, Volume Two (San Francisco: Become The Media, 1998), p.87.
** Ignatiev, Noel, "How To Be a Race Traitor: Six Ways to Fight Being White," in Critical White Studies, edited by Richard Delgado and Jan Stefancic. I added all elements relating to gender and male supremacy in this passage.
From the same manuscript:
*Churchill, Ward, Pacifism As Pathology, p. 49.
The struggle of blacks in America is inseparable from the struggle of the Third World. This is a natural coalition -- a coalition of those who know that they are dispossessed. Whites in America are dispossessed also, but the difference is that they will not recognize the fact as yet. Until they do, it will not be possible to have coalitions with them, even the most radical. They must recognize the nature and character of their own oppression. At present, too many of them recognize only that they are white and identify with whites, not with the oppressed, the dispossessed. They react against being called "honky" and thereby establish the fact that they are. It is absolutely necessary for blacks to identify as blacks to win liberation. It is not necessary for whites. White radicals must learn to nonidentify as whites. White is not in the color of the skin. It is a condition of the mind: a condition that will be destroyed. It should be possible for any white radical to yell "honky" as loud as a black radical. "Honky" is a beautiful word that destroys the mystique surrounding whiteness. It is like throwing mud on a sheet. Whiteness has been used as an instrument of oppression; no white radical can identify himself by the color of his skin and expect to fight alongside blacks. Black Power liberates whites also, but they have refused to recognize this, preferring to defend their whiteness.
From an unpublished manuscript of mine from 1999:
The white man must own up to his role in the function of male power. His identity with the male sex must be severed, as his interests are aligned with those of non-men. The fight against the subordination of women and against compulsory heterosexuality must be his fight.
"[White] people need to understand [ ... ] superimposed on the miniscule biological phenomenon of pale pigmentation is a superstructure and identity that is also an imposed social and cultural construct, that also incorporates an identification with the oppressor [ ... ]," explains Michael Novick. "[Breaking] down the reactionary social structure based on the practice and ideology of white supremacy would help to destabilize the entire unjust and unfair system of empire."* Also, men need to break with the socially constructed myth of male supremacy and the cultural institutions grounded in this oppressive ideology. The white man must struggle in his own life, in his personal dealings with women and through attacking the political institutions which oppress women.
The white man gains his identity through his unearned privileges and the oppression of non-whites and non-men. The process of gaining this identity is fulfilled through his guardianship of the system. Breaking that identity entails first the rejection of his privilege and social status as a white man, and the retraction of his support to the system. Further, it necessitates attacking the "the mainstream institutions that reproduce [the color line]" and put non-men "in their place." The traitor to the system must not "reject in advance any means of attaining the goal of abolishing the white race" and the male gender; "indeed, the willingness to go beyond socially acceptable limits of protest is
a dividing line between 'good whites' and traitors to the white race," and the line separating the "good ol' boys" from the traitors to male supremacy.**
*Brucato, Ben, "Interview With Michael Novick," The Zine Yearbook, Volume Two (San Francisco: Become The Media, 1998), p.87.
** Ignatiev, Noel, "How To Be a Race Traitor: Six Ways to Fight Being White," in Critical White Studies, edited by Richard Delgado and Jan Stefancic. I added all elements relating to gender and male supremacy in this passage.
From the same manuscript:
Part of the privilege of whiteness and maleness creates the illusion that white male supremacy can be overcome through individual changes of identity in and of themselves. While the white man must no longer associate with whiteness and maleness, the fulfillment of the process of rejecting his identity is through struggle. The insistence upon nonviolent action in combating white male supremacy is an outgrowth of that very ideology. It insures that any gains are concessions by the system, rather than the gains of the masses.
Sometimes the tendency among the left to adhere to nonviolence is through submitting to an agenda which has been given little attention or criticism, but most often it is through the conscious effort of white men to guarantee the continuation of the privilege during and after the struggle. He wants to pass the buck onto the oppressed, who must put their lives on the line in the struggle against white male supremacy. "The question central to the emergence and maintenance of nonviolence as the oppositional foundation of American activism has not been the truly pacifist formulation, 'How can we forge a revolutionary politics within which we can avoid inflicting violence on others?'" writes Ward Churchill. "On the contrary, a more accurate guiding question has been, 'What sort of politics might I engage in which will both allow me to posture as a progressive and allow me to avoid incurring harm to myself?' Hence the trappings of pacifism have been subverted to establish a sort of 'politics of the comfort zone,' [ ... J devoid of perceived risk to its advocates, but minus any conceivable revolutionary
impetus as well."*
*Churchill, Ward, Pacifism As Pathology, p. 49.
