{"id":20302,"date":"2017-12-02T21:49:02","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T05:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=20302"},"modified":"2017-12-02T22:47:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T06:47:00","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-they-are-not-fit-to-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-they-are-not-fit-to-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: They Are Not Fit To Rule."},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Heroic Rosa Parks arrested December 1, 1955.<\/p>\n

\n
WORKS AND DAYS 65\/66,67\/68,Vol.33&34, 2016-17<\/strong><\/div>\n
Shred of Truth: Antinomy and Synecdoche<\/strong><\/div>\n
in the Work of Ta-Nehisi Coates<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Stephen C. Ferguson II and Gregory D. Meyerson<\/div>\n
Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
in the black it is branded.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0Karl Marx<\/div>\n
When I was in Washington last [Christ]mas, we should<\/div>\n
have met and gone over one or two possible things to be<\/div>\n
done in connection with my plans to leave Howard Uni-<\/div>\n
versity. Perhaps it is just as well because my disgust with<\/div>\n
the place is just about as great as yours and good riddance…<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Harris to Alain Locke, May 10, 1947<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
People keep saying, \u2018We need to have a conversation<\/div>\n
about race…This is the conversation. I want to see a cop<\/div>\n
shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back,..And I want<\/div>\n
to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman.<\/div>\n
Then when you ask me, \u2018Is it over?\u2019, I will say yes.<\/div>\n
Toni Morrison<\/div>\n
On August 9, 2014, 18-year old Michael Brown was gunned down by police officer Darren Wilson, in the suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Riots broke out a few days later, led primarily by working-class Black youth. The city was overtaken by \u201cwarrior cops,\u201d the fog of tear gas, a hail of rubber bullets and military tanks. Days later, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) would appear, arguing that voting at the ballot box was the only legitimate manner to address the anger in the streets of Ferguson. These politicians hoped to transform the anger in the streets into a midterm election turnout that would favor the Democratic Party. President Barack Obama stated: \u201cI won\u2019t comment on the investigation [in the death of Michael Brown].\u201d Only to add: \u201cCynicism is a choice, but hope is a better choice. Get those souls to the polls. If we do, I guarantee we\u2019ve got<\/div>\n
a brighter future ahead.\u201d<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>#BlackLivesMatter Introduces a New Visa Debit Card, and Revives the Toxic Old Myths of Black Capitalism\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>blackagendareport.com\/BlackLivesMatter-revives-toxic-black-capitalisim-myths<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
By January 2015, \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d was the rallying cry heard….<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Coates has been lauded as a literary genius who unveils the gut wrenching truth about racial inequality in the United States. Coates\u2019 book weaves together memoir, social commentary and political manifesto in order to explain the World to his 15-year-old son, Samori. Borrowing the epistolary form of Baldwin\u2019s The Fire NextTime (1963), his book has created a fanfare, particularly after being lauded by Toni Morrison (\u201cI\u2019ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died\u201d), then awarded the prestigious MacArthur \u201cgenius\u201d grant in addition to the2015 National Book Award for nonfiction. He has become a celebrated Black public intellectual by both bourgeois liberals and partsof the \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d movement.<\/div>\n
The vast majority of reviews have been positive\u2014with the occasional critic being disappointed with Coates\u2019 pessimism. Given its literary success, the arguments and presuppositions of the book (and<\/div>\n
affiliated writings) need to be subject to a critical evaluation. As Marxist literary scholar Barbara Foley has noted in another context,success in the U.S. book market is not just a question of literary excellence or authorial prominence. Often, there are literary figures whose success hinges on a text\u2019s embodiment of normative assumptions about bourgeois civil society and self.<\/div>\n
8<\/div>\n
In this essay, we aim to examine the conceptual underpinnings of Coates\u2019 analysis of race and racism, principally in his award winningbook but also in his well-known articles for The Atlantic<\/div>\n
. We hope to clarify the differences between Coates\u2019 anti-racist (essentially liberal-nationalist) analysis and a Marxist (class) analysis of racism. I<\/strong><\/em>n brief,Coates conflates class and caste; conflates race and class(where ruling race becomes ruling class); and conflates two very different binaries: freedom and slavery and ruling and working class. www.worksanddays.net\/2016\/File13.Ferguson%20&%20Meyerson.qxp_Layout%201.pdf<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cthe best evidence indicates that the wishes of ordinary Americans actually have\u2026 little or no impact on the making of federal government policy. Wealthy individuals and organized interest groups \u2013 especially business corporations \u2013 have\u2026much more political clout. When they are taken into account, it becomes apparent that the general public has been virtually powerless\u2026The will of majorities is often thwarted by the affluent and the well-organized, who block popular policy proposals and enact special favors for themselves\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n