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Complicity with Racism

Matt Robesch's piece on "The Digressive Movement" [Free Press May/June 1998] offers some thought-provoking criticisms of the left and our apparent inability to get our act together. Unfortunately, in his zeal to attack progressives' "lower, fascistic instincts (the darker side of political correctness no liberal wants to talk about)," Robesch contributes to a much more virulent and historically tenacious problem within left politics: namely, complicity with racism.

While there's a lot to be said for getting focused on the big picture, Robesch consistently denies any connection to that big picture in racist imagery disseminated through "private" channels like a Taco Bell ad campaign. He reduces the perpetuation of racist stereotypes to an issue of "hurt feelings," as though people of color were oversensitive whiners with no legitimate complaints about how they are portrayed in the media. There may be tactical problems with mounting a demo against ObaChines's poster, but that's not the same as glibly writing off concern over the tenacity of racism as nothing more than offended sensibilities.

Robesch suggests people work against I-200 instead. Sure, that makes sense. But where does he think white people get these crazy ideas about Mexicans and Asians and African Americans? Where does support from I-200 come from? Those pervasive, seemingly innocuous images have a cumulative effect that does much to normalize unconscious racism for white people who don't think critically about them.

Robesch's article, for all its purported radicalism, is in fact very much in line with a long and sorry tradition of white leftists blowing off concerns about racism, dismissing the leadership of people of color, and complacently assuming that racism is just a matter of "hurt feelings" like those they themselves are familiar with. With the recent resurgence of labor activism, this less savory aspect of labor history is making a similar but far less welcome comeback.

-Davis Oldham



[Matt Robesch replies: Questioning two inpertinent local battles the Left recently chose for itself does not make someone complicit with racism. Claiming so seems more a gut reaction than an intellectual one. I was merely pointing out a few of the ways which progressives have been shooting themselves in the foot for well over two decades now. Micro-managing politically correct ideologies by protesting every single little thing that offends you isn't progress at all; it's wasted energy. Such behavior is akin to some kind of group obsessive-compulsive disorder. It doesn't draw people to your cause... usually it has the opposite effect. No one likes a self-righteous jerk no matter what side of the political spectrum they're from or what they are protesting.

As for media stereotypes: Every single person portrayed on TV is a stereotype simply because they are projected images with no essence of reality. They're puppets controlled by writers, producers, editors, camera people, etc. (please see: "Deconstructing the Idiot Box," WFP#27) If you don't like the way the media is portraying a group you identify with, turn off your TV. Better yet, become the media yourself. Don't just picket and complain... tell your damned story! Personally, I'm far more interested in who you are as an individual than I am in hearing what you think the fake people on TV should say and do. Fighting corporate TV is like shadow-boxing.

The Left needs unity. Short of stopping an alien invasion ala " Independence Day," there are very few causes that the vast majority of earthlings can relate to on equal terms. Saving the environment from irreparable destruction comes to mind as one. Stopping multi-national corporations from initiating a modern global feudalism may be another.

Perhaps the solution the Left is looking for is a simple repackaging of all the smaller minority causes (Gay rights, Latino rights, Black autonomy, Indian sovereignty, etc, etc. etc.) into one large majority cause called Human Rights. In some ways this is already happening but, mostly, it isn't. I imagine this movement would be better equipped philosophically to deal with the small issues (stereotyping, etc.) at the same time that it mobilizes to fight the larger more important fights. As long as said movement could keep the term "human rights" from becoming devalued and trivialized the same way the term "politically correct" has been, I don't see how it could fail.

As things stand in the US today, I adhere to the notion that an overabundance of mini-PC struggles is killing the Left and, as a result, jeopardizing the existence of everyone on the friggin' planet! The United States needs a strong internal progressive force more than any other nation on Earth... and it doesn't have one.]




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Contents this page were published in the July/August, 1998 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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