Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Month: August 2018

White Women and Trump

August 29, 2018 /

Contemporary racial justice movements often focus on white women as both ally and enemy. They’re both lead consciousness-raiser and target of activist opposition.

On the negative side of the ledger, white women have bolstered the Jim Crow system. See, e.g., Elizabeth McRae’s Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy. They call the police on black people for going about their everyday business. See, e.g., Permit Patty and BBQ Becky. They strategically use emotions for racist impact and sometimes engage directly in violent assault.

These issues, of course, aren’t new. The case of Emmett Till is the usual case study when talking about historical precedents.

On the positive side of the ledger, white women often make up most of the audience at racial justice events. This is especially true at ‘Racial Justice 101’ events. They are also at the front lines on any campaign for racial justice within white-dominated economic or social spaces, such as workplaces or schools.

The reasons for this are complicated. But one common theme is that racial justice organizers, particularly black and other POC organizers, tend to perceive white women as simultaneously a group harmed along one axis of oppression (i.e., gender), which gives them a certain empathy for oppressed non-white Americans, but also advantaged along another (i.e., race), which provides them with incentives to bolster white supremacism. The accuracy of this perception is an issue I’ll set aside, though I think it’s accurate enough to proceed.

This all brings us to Trump. There’s overwhelming inertia, within this broader discussion of race, to place Trump’s win at the feet of white women. Outlets from the New York Times, to the Washington Post, to Emily’s List, to the Huffington Post, and the Huffington Post again, have all pointed to this group as the decisive factor in electing Trump.

How could white women vote for this man who abuses and insults women of all races? How could they vote for a misogynist?

So, why did white women elect Trump?

*Drum Roll*

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ta-nehisi coates

Between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Touré Reed

August 23, 2018 /

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a compelling writer.

He works at the crowded left-liberal intersection, where we can find so much phooey. But Coates’s work isn’t phooey, which vaults him to the upper ranks of this crowd. He brings something new, I think particularly (though not exclusively) to white audiences.

I recently read We Were Eight Years in Power. It’s a collection of Coates’s essays from The Atlantic, placed into a common narrative. The common theme of Coates’s essays is black power and white backlash. This post is about his book, and I’ll include some page numbers in case anyone’s interested in following along.

But it’s not just about Coates’s book. I think it’s worth reading Ta-Nehisi Coates alongside one of his hardest-hitting critics internal to black political debate.

Coates is probably familiar to anyone in intellectual or political circles. But who’s Touré Reed?

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Cathy Glasson and Elections in the Midwest

August 15, 2018 /

Bernie Sanders lost in 2016. Cathy Glasson lost in 2018. Glasson is a Sandersista. Sanders is, well, the Sandersista.

Sandersistas have pursued many strategies since Bernie’s loss, with Cathy Glasson representing an electoral route. Sanders looms large over this strategy, endorsing candidates and providing support through organizations like Our Revolution. Doing things like organizing tenants’ unions and organizing against ICE represents an alternative strategy.

My readers won’t be surprised to find that I think there’s more potential to build popular power in the latter than in the former. Readers also already know I don’t think highly of electoralism as a central component of leftist strategy.

But elections are not totally hopeless, and they may provide lessons.

The Cathy Glasson campaign provides me with a convenient point of departure. One, I’m an Iowan. I saw the campaign literature, followed the press coverage, and know people who volunteered with the campaign.

Two, Glasson’s campaign is representative of how this strategy has gone, particularly in the Midwest. Successful candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have gotten more national press, as winners tend to do. But, e.g., Cathy Glasson, Abdul El-Sayed, and Pete D’Alessandro are more typical. Sandersistas usually lose, and often lose badly.

What lessons can we learn from the Cathy Glasson campaign? That’s my topic here.

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Why You (Probably) Shouldn’t Run for Office

August 5, 2018 /

Into politics? Thinking about making a run for office? Let’s talk about this. The left needs serious discussions on whether and how to win power electorally.

I’ll get directly to the point. All things being equal, running for office is a bad idea. I’ll say a bit about why. Along the way, I’ll make some recommendations for what to do about this.

The background to this post is that there’s a special election for a vacant city council seat in Iowa City. I live in Iowa City, and I’ve spent some time evaluating whether running for office here might be a good use of time. The city council, in particular, appears like it might be an outlet one could use for positive results.

Despite the obvious localism, I’ll draw out broader implications.

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Icebreaker Speech

August 1, 2018 /

This post is a speech I gave about a year ago as a part of a local Toastmasters group. It’s an introduction to, well, myself. They call it an Icebreaker speech.

For anyone unfamiliar, Toastmasters is an organization for developing and promoting public speaking skills. The first speech you give as a part of the organization is an ‘Icebreaker,’ or an introduction of yourself to the group.

I’ve made some light edits to the icebreaker speech. This includes light copy editing, updating of dates (the speech is about a year old), and minor tinkering to fit the change from spoken to written format.

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