My how Oregon has been in the news a lot lately. In just recent months, this state of little over 3 million people has been front page news for the mass shooting in Roseburg, the armed occupation of Native lands at the federal bird refuge in Southeast Oregon, and now because Portland's community college is planning a "Whiteness" month. Critics of Portland Community College's (PCC) plan are calling the programming "white shaming" and an attack against European people. It appears that the intentions of the folks at the community college are to take time to reflect on how oppression operates in this society. This is a noble intent, especially since Portland Community College, which is currently 68% European - actually has a lower white percentage than the 80% white that signifies Portland as the whitest city in the U.S. with a population over 500,000. The irony of the school's plans, and an explanation for the lower percentage of Europeans at PCC, is that the college sits in the heart of the area of Portland in which ruthless land grabbing (gentrification) has taken place over the last 25 or so years, violently displacing the African population that previously dominated that community.
Still, good intentions can never be enough. No, what's needed is truth driven programming for justice and an agenda for justice must include an honest and direct critique of the role of capitalism in oppressing African and other people of color, as well as poor Europeans. I'll even make this statement with clear confidence - any problem we have as oppressed people we can trace it back directly to the capitalist system. So, this is a call to stop this focus on any type of so-called "whiteness" because there really is no such thing. What people are identifying when they use the term whiteness is the system of oppression and discrimination right? Well, then the question is what is that system? Is it a system based on skin color? Although there are plenty of forces operating overtime to confuse people into thinking that color is the core of the problem, we know that to be false. The system of oppression is based on the people on top owning, controlling, and continuing to steal the human and material resources that make the world go around. Those people who own those resources do so because they have robbed, stolen, murdered, and subjugated the majority of people on the planet. As a result, at the present time, they control all the oil. All the water. All the coltan. All the cocoa. All the gold, diamonds, bauxite, rubber, phosphates, uranium, and cheap labor. This makes this ruling class the capitalist class and it makes us the people working for them. The people engaged in a class struggle against them for control of the planet. That's why the earlier statement about directing every problem back to the capitalist system isn't a stretch. Whether it's poor education, healthcare, police terrorism, the prison and military industrial complexes, GMOs, the environmental crisis, abuse against women, etc., it's all directly related to capitalism. It's all the result of capitalist exploitation and domination. I won't take time to break down each way it's connected. There are more than enough posts on this blog that address each and every one of those questions. The point that needs to be made here is that we have to get people to focus on capitalism and not this arbitrary concept known as "Whiteness." The only reason we are talking about skin color, white skin color, is because the capitalist system has spent hundreds of years convincing European/White people that their culture, social existence, and very definition of who they are as human beings is 100% tied to the capitalist system. Capitalism tells White people that the world e.g. manifest destiny, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, are in existence to protect White people. It tells them that capitalism has their best interests at heart and that the people opposed to capitalism want to take what White people have - their freedom to continue to support a system that oppresses the majority of people on the planet for the receipt of a few crumbs that capitalism permits to be dropped from their economic table onto the laps of the White masses. It is just a few crumbs we are talking about and that is the reason we are talking about White skin because if that isn't true, how do you explain why there are masses of European people who are also being exploited by capitalism? The answer is the capitalist system has been a state of decline for quite some time now. For decades. The system is an exploitative system and just as Karl Marx and many others have predicted, the system has reached a point where it can no longer provide for the needs of the people who support it. In the 1950s, Europe and the U.S. were able to benefit so strongly from colonialism that most White people didn't even know colonies existed. They thought, as they still do, that the wealth and comfort in the U.S. resulted from the hard work of White people. The difference today is the capitalist system, stretched to its limits by the mass struggles being waged against it by the majority of people on the planet, can no longer meet the needs of its supporters. As a result, for the first time since the 1940s, people in the U.S, - White people - are having to face that their future isn't rosy. There is no American dream for them, something the masses of Africans and other people of color have always known. The capitalist system is blowing seams all over and the resistance isn't just coming from the African masses who have historically been the most militant opposition to this system's oppression ((Kwame Ture did say we have burned this society from plantations to cities). Today, the resistance is coming from all elements of the working classes within the U.S. and its coming from the masses of exploited people all over the world. For example, people in Africa are standing up in mass against neo-colonialism in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Azania, South Africa, Somalia, etc. The people of the Philippines are resisting. There are growing levels resistance in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Even the peoples of Europe are not immune. The folks in Eastern Europe, who were told capitalism would solve every problem they had if they just overthrew the Soviet Union, have learned that was a clear lie. Wages are stagnant in capitalist societies. More and more people are being forced to live in poverty and people are rising up.
White people are capitalism's last line of defense. That's why its more important than ever for the capitalist system to convince them that in spite of whatever comes over the horizon, they must stay loyal to the capitalist system. They must see every essence of themselves as being defined by capitalism. U.S. identity is capitalism. U.S. patriotism is defined as a loyalty to capitalism. European/White culture is capitalist culture. By pushing this ideological concept, the capitalists have created a reality where the masses of White people are trapped. They cannot rise up against the military industrial complex because that's their identity. They cannot oppose the police because its' them. They cannot oppose capitalism because in doing so, they are somehow opposing themselves. What European/White revolutionaries and true activists for change have on their plate is convincing their communities that European/White identity has nothing to do with capitalism. European people are people who have a culture and history that has defined their existence. Like all people, some of that history is good, some of it is bad, but the masses of White people have to understand that they can decide to step out against the exploitative mechanisms of capitalism. They don't have to claim those mechanisms as their own no more than African people have to claim responsibility for the African chiefs who sold us into slavery. My ancestors were not chiefs. If they were, I probably wouldn't be here in the U.S. My people had to be the people on the bottom of the slave ship fighting against the chiefs and sell outs. So, White people don't have to claim to be the heirs of J.P. Morgan Chase, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Aetna, and the other benefactors from slavery, colonialism, and manifest destiny, because the masses of White people didn't participate in that system. Of course, it has to be said that in doing this, we are in no way taking Europeans off the hook for benefiting from our exploitation. If someone kidnaps someone and brutalizes them and you refuse to do anything stop it you are just as responsible as the primary persons perpetuating the oppression. This is the place most White people occupy in this society today. So, make no mistake about it. You are responsible until you do something to stop the bleeding.
So, PCC has to be about exposing this class conscious version of history. They have to make the effort to avoid lumping all White people into one huge oppressive class. White people, you have a choice as to whether you have to be a part of supporting the oppressive classes. Why not make that correct choice? Instead of saying "Whiteness" call it "American Identity Equals white supremacy!" Denounce American identity because that you cannot separate from capitalist oppression, but American identity is not the same as the cultural identity of the masses of European/White people. What that actual culture and identity is, White people will need to start discussing and defining. That's what the month at PCC should be dedicated to doing. And that discussion should include deep conversations about how the anger coming from the most confused elements of White society has validity that should be dissected and aimed where it should go - against the capitalist system. That's really who those people are angry with. Capitalism is failing them and they are just realizing this for the first time, but they are being misled by capitalism into believing the source of their suffering is us. The discussion should be about how to start having healthy discussions in White communities about capitalism and White identity. If all of that begins to happen, the natural progression will be clarity into how to accurately perform as productive partners to the African liberation movement and other movements by people of color for freedom. If European/White activists continue to shy away from the analysis of capitalism and it's role in oppression, and instead focus on this nebulous concept of "Whiteness" then the message will continue to be distorted and we will keep seeing White people trying to deny their existence and separate themselves from the masses of their people who they see as "White." This approach benefits no one except capitalism because White people cannot escape from being White. And, we should have no desire to see them deny who they are. Our interest should be in seeing them deny identifying and working in the interest of the capitalist system which is causing all of the oppression we experience. So, we don't want them to escape being White. We want them to redefine European existence and culture in the fight against capitalism.
In 1964, after returning from Africa and the Middle East, Malcolm X was asked to describe what he had experienced on his journey. He responded correctly that a White man in the U.S., when he says hello to you "he's actually saying - hi, I'm a white man." In saying that, Malcolm was making the same point being made here. White people have been taught that they must identify with the capitalist system as an expression of who they are. And since capitalism is the system that oppresses African people, that means Europeans have to take a conscious or unconscious position as overseers against the African masses as a part of their identity. Want to test this theory? Just have two Africans in any public place dominated by Europeans start a loud and aggressive conversation about racism in this society. It won't take long for some European to interrupt and try to insert themselves, without invitation, into the conversation. Why? Because of that overseer thing, but if this is analyzed correctly, the real reason for this is because of the lie European people have been told. The belief so many of them have that the future of themselves and the future of capitalism is one and the same. And the training they have received that we are always the ever present threat to capitalism e.g. to themselves.
If PCC wants to do some good, it will start talking about how the future of capitalism and the future of White people has to be seen as having absolutely nothing to do with one another and that the role of White people is to gain a revolutionary consciousness and culture and work to destroy capitalism. It will talk about how White people will continue to bear the legacy of colonialism, slavery, and neo-colonialism, and oppression until they decide to stop either working in the interests of capitalism or serving as liberal bystanders and/or apologists for the capitalist system.
Still, good intentions can never be enough. No, what's needed is truth driven programming for justice and an agenda for justice must include an honest and direct critique of the role of capitalism in oppressing African and other people of color, as well as poor Europeans. I'll even make this statement with clear confidence - any problem we have as oppressed people we can trace it back directly to the capitalist system. So, this is a call to stop this focus on any type of so-called "whiteness" because there really is no such thing. What people are identifying when they use the term whiteness is the system of oppression and discrimination right? Well, then the question is what is that system? Is it a system based on skin color? Although there are plenty of forces operating overtime to confuse people into thinking that color is the core of the problem, we know that to be false. The system of oppression is based on the people on top owning, controlling, and continuing to steal the human and material resources that make the world go around. Those people who own those resources do so because they have robbed, stolen, murdered, and subjugated the majority of people on the planet. As a result, at the present time, they control all the oil. All the water. All the coltan. All the cocoa. All the gold, diamonds, bauxite, rubber, phosphates, uranium, and cheap labor. This makes this ruling class the capitalist class and it makes us the people working for them. The people engaged in a class struggle against them for control of the planet. That's why the earlier statement about directing every problem back to the capitalist system isn't a stretch. Whether it's poor education, healthcare, police terrorism, the prison and military industrial complexes, GMOs, the environmental crisis, abuse against women, etc., it's all directly related to capitalism. It's all the result of capitalist exploitation and domination. I won't take time to break down each way it's connected. There are more than enough posts on this blog that address each and every one of those questions. The point that needs to be made here is that we have to get people to focus on capitalism and not this arbitrary concept known as "Whiteness." The only reason we are talking about skin color, white skin color, is because the capitalist system has spent hundreds of years convincing European/White people that their culture, social existence, and very definition of who they are as human beings is 100% tied to the capitalist system. Capitalism tells White people that the world e.g. manifest destiny, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, are in existence to protect White people. It tells them that capitalism has their best interests at heart and that the people opposed to capitalism want to take what White people have - their freedom to continue to support a system that oppresses the majority of people on the planet for the receipt of a few crumbs that capitalism permits to be dropped from their economic table onto the laps of the White masses. It is just a few crumbs we are talking about and that is the reason we are talking about White skin because if that isn't true, how do you explain why there are masses of European people who are also being exploited by capitalism? The answer is the capitalist system has been a state of decline for quite some time now. For decades. The system is an exploitative system and just as Karl Marx and many others have predicted, the system has reached a point where it can no longer provide for the needs of the people who support it. In the 1950s, Europe and the U.S. were able to benefit so strongly from colonialism that most White people didn't even know colonies existed. They thought, as they still do, that the wealth and comfort in the U.S. resulted from the hard work of White people. The difference today is the capitalist system, stretched to its limits by the mass struggles being waged against it by the majority of people on the planet, can no longer meet the needs of its supporters. As a result, for the first time since the 1940s, people in the U.S, - White people - are having to face that their future isn't rosy. There is no American dream for them, something the masses of Africans and other people of color have always known. The capitalist system is blowing seams all over and the resistance isn't just coming from the African masses who have historically been the most militant opposition to this system's oppression ((Kwame Ture did say we have burned this society from plantations to cities). Today, the resistance is coming from all elements of the working classes within the U.S. and its coming from the masses of exploited people all over the world. For example, people in Africa are standing up in mass against neo-colonialism in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Azania, South Africa, Somalia, etc. The people of the Philippines are resisting. There are growing levels resistance in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Even the peoples of Europe are not immune. The folks in Eastern Europe, who were told capitalism would solve every problem they had if they just overthrew the Soviet Union, have learned that was a clear lie. Wages are stagnant in capitalist societies. More and more people are being forced to live in poverty and people are rising up.
White people are capitalism's last line of defense. That's why its more important than ever for the capitalist system to convince them that in spite of whatever comes over the horizon, they must stay loyal to the capitalist system. They must see every essence of themselves as being defined by capitalism. U.S. identity is capitalism. U.S. patriotism is defined as a loyalty to capitalism. European/White culture is capitalist culture. By pushing this ideological concept, the capitalists have created a reality where the masses of White people are trapped. They cannot rise up against the military industrial complex because that's their identity. They cannot oppose the police because its' them. They cannot oppose capitalism because in doing so, they are somehow opposing themselves. What European/White revolutionaries and true activists for change have on their plate is convincing their communities that European/White identity has nothing to do with capitalism. European people are people who have a culture and history that has defined their existence. Like all people, some of that history is good, some of it is bad, but the masses of White people have to understand that they can decide to step out against the exploitative mechanisms of capitalism. They don't have to claim those mechanisms as their own no more than African people have to claim responsibility for the African chiefs who sold us into slavery. My ancestors were not chiefs. If they were, I probably wouldn't be here in the U.S. My people had to be the people on the bottom of the slave ship fighting against the chiefs and sell outs. So, White people don't have to claim to be the heirs of J.P. Morgan Chase, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Aetna, and the other benefactors from slavery, colonialism, and manifest destiny, because the masses of White people didn't participate in that system. Of course, it has to be said that in doing this, we are in no way taking Europeans off the hook for benefiting from our exploitation. If someone kidnaps someone and brutalizes them and you refuse to do anything stop it you are just as responsible as the primary persons perpetuating the oppression. This is the place most White people occupy in this society today. So, make no mistake about it. You are responsible until you do something to stop the bleeding.
So, PCC has to be about exposing this class conscious version of history. They have to make the effort to avoid lumping all White people into one huge oppressive class. White people, you have a choice as to whether you have to be a part of supporting the oppressive classes. Why not make that correct choice? Instead of saying "Whiteness" call it "American Identity Equals white supremacy!" Denounce American identity because that you cannot separate from capitalist oppression, but American identity is not the same as the cultural identity of the masses of European/White people. What that actual culture and identity is, White people will need to start discussing and defining. That's what the month at PCC should be dedicated to doing. And that discussion should include deep conversations about how the anger coming from the most confused elements of White society has validity that should be dissected and aimed where it should go - against the capitalist system. That's really who those people are angry with. Capitalism is failing them and they are just realizing this for the first time, but they are being misled by capitalism into believing the source of their suffering is us. The discussion should be about how to start having healthy discussions in White communities about capitalism and White identity. If all of that begins to happen, the natural progression will be clarity into how to accurately perform as productive partners to the African liberation movement and other movements by people of color for freedom. If European/White activists continue to shy away from the analysis of capitalism and it's role in oppression, and instead focus on this nebulous concept of "Whiteness" then the message will continue to be distorted and we will keep seeing White people trying to deny their existence and separate themselves from the masses of their people who they see as "White." This approach benefits no one except capitalism because White people cannot escape from being White. And, we should have no desire to see them deny who they are. Our interest should be in seeing them deny identifying and working in the interest of the capitalist system which is causing all of the oppression we experience. So, we don't want them to escape being White. We want them to redefine European existence and culture in the fight against capitalism.
In 1964, after returning from Africa and the Middle East, Malcolm X was asked to describe what he had experienced on his journey. He responded correctly that a White man in the U.S., when he says hello to you "he's actually saying - hi, I'm a white man." In saying that, Malcolm was making the same point being made here. White people have been taught that they must identify with the capitalist system as an expression of who they are. And since capitalism is the system that oppresses African people, that means Europeans have to take a conscious or unconscious position as overseers against the African masses as a part of their identity. Want to test this theory? Just have two Africans in any public place dominated by Europeans start a loud and aggressive conversation about racism in this society. It won't take long for some European to interrupt and try to insert themselves, without invitation, into the conversation. Why? Because of that overseer thing, but if this is analyzed correctly, the real reason for this is because of the lie European people have been told. The belief so many of them have that the future of themselves and the future of capitalism is one and the same. And the training they have received that we are always the ever present threat to capitalism e.g. to themselves.
If PCC wants to do some good, it will start talking about how the future of capitalism and the future of White people has to be seen as having absolutely nothing to do with one another and that the role of White people is to gain a revolutionary consciousness and culture and work to destroy capitalism. It will talk about how White people will continue to bear the legacy of colonialism, slavery, and neo-colonialism, and oppression until they decide to stop either working in the interests of capitalism or serving as liberal bystanders and/or apologists for the capitalist system.
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