Sometimes, even the simplest
pleasure becomes a burden when the ever-present commercial market imposes
its will. I was settling in for a night of entertainment watching the
match between Serena and Venus on September 7th, 2002. All I wanted
to do was watch this match between two sisters of incredible athletic
ability and awesome beauty. Being required to oppose each other even
though there was this bond of love and sympathy between them, their
matches always provide suspense, drama and fascination.
Instead, I was first presented
with the almost inevitable contamination of a naturally pure human event.
I have become immune to the incessant and banal commercials; besides,
there is always the remote that allows me to switch to something less
debased by commercial greed. Then, they rolled out the American flag
and the military drum corp. It was, after all, September 7, 2002, just
one year after 9/11/01 and in New York.
This faultless athletic event
was being corrupted by a ruling elite that cared nothing for the people
who died on 9/11, nothing about the city of New York, and for that matter
nothing about the United States. Most major corporations and obscenely
rich people have abandoned their US citizenship so they can save money
on taxes. For instance, General Motors has sold its logo to a corporation
in the Bahamas. Why? So they lease it back and then use it as a cost
against taxes. That is, so they can further impoverish the people of
this country.
So I was going to have to
suffer through this hypocritical show of patriotism in order to enjoy
the match. It was only a few days earlier that the audience was supporting
foreign players so that the dominance of the Williams sisters would
be thwarted. Somehow, this entire scenario was turned upside down when
Aretha Franklin began to sing. When Aretha sings the word freedom, it
becomes a demand for liberation, not support for an idealized concept
that is used for oppression of working people. I wish I had a tape of
the performance because it was such a subtle but powerful performance
that I still only vaguely understand what she did. But it certainly
was the opposite of what the media moguls who orchestrated the event
expected.
This event illustrates how
the African-American community both consciously and unconsciously translates
into action a moral vision for American. In the face of market forces
that constantly and incessantly concentrate wealth and power in the
hands of fewer and fewer people, the African-American community consistently
provides a vision for the emancipation of the working class. It is a
vision that necessarily promotes tolerance and opposes oppression. It
recognizes that democracy includes the right to vote without intimidation
and the right to work without discrimination. Most importantly, this
vision celebrates our differences.
As William Faulkner has said,
the past is never dead, it is not even past. Faced with the consequences
of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, Faulkner understood that the present
is defined by the past. The courage and intelligence and success of
that struggle for liberation set and define the moral basis for our
movement. It is central to the emancipation of the working class in
this country. It haunts the right wing just as they use it to gain and
maintain power. Just as the Republican Party was poised to take away
every benefit that the working class fought for, including social security,
Trent Lott managed to open his mouth and express not only his true view
of history that segregation was good and should have continued but also
how the Republican Party came to power.
George the Second came to
power exploiting every aspect of racism through the use of code words
and dissimulation. It is no accident that Florida’s repressive
political system was the vehicle for the seizure of power by the Bush
cabal. Illegally eliminating thousands and thousands of Black votes
from the voter registration lists, Secretary of State Harris set the
foundation for the seizure of power. Then, initial intimidation was
used to exclude other Black and Latino voters. Even that flagrant flaunting
of the law was insufficient so the Bush cabal turned to the radical
reactionaries sitting on the Supreme Court to seal the deal, thereby
destroying any semblance of democracy in this country.
In 1876, it was Florida that
set the basis for Jim Crow segregation in the South. During the turmoil
of the 2000 election, the New York Times, that bastion of conservatism,
did acknowledge that this same tactic of using racism to establish political
power in the South had been used before. The New York Times (11/12/00)
stated:
“That gave Hayes
185 electoral votes and left Tilden with 184.
The incensed Democrats threatened retaliation. They said they would
engage in a filibuster that would prevent the completion of the electoral
count until Inauguration Day came and there was no president. They
vowed to congest the streets of Washington and prevent Hayes from
being inaugurated. Democrats organized armed bands and, threatening
‘Tilden or blood’, said they would physically put Tilden
in the White House. There was real fear that war would break out.
Then something happened. Historians disagree on exactly what it was.
Some believe that a compromise was reached at a hotel meeting between
emissaries of the two parties. At that meeting, a deal was supposedly
brokered that, among other things, stipulated that if Hayes became
president, he would remove the remaining federal troops
stationed in the South, effectively ending Reconstruction,
a matter of great importance to the Southern states. That did in fact
happen, but whether it was a formal quid pro quo linked to Hayes’s
assumption of office is unclear.” (Emphasis added)
The South has controlled
the politics of this country for 200 years. First, the slave states
politically controlled the country. Then, the Hayes-Tilden sellout allowed
the imposition of a reign of terror on the Black community and the reinstitution
of Southern dominance of American politics. The southern strategy was
nothing more than a recruitment of the most racist demons of our society,
promoting them and dressing them to look a little less savage. That
is why Ronald Reagan went to Philadelphia, Mississippi to kick off his
1980 campaign. Starting where Andrew Goodman, Michel Schwerner and James
Clancey were murdered trying to register African-Americans to vote,
Ronald Reagan stated: “I believe in states’ rights.”
(See Bob Herbert 12/12/02 New York Times) This is not very subtle since
it was an open endorsement of murder. The malignant barbarism of racism
was barely hidden. But the right wing press glossed it over. Through
the use of barely hidden racist messages, the Republican Party has polarized
this country. Using “wedge” issues, it has separated the
Democratic Party from its working class base. Wedge issues are simply
stated hate issues. Generate enough hate and working people can be made
to act against their economic self-interest.
It is important to realize
that the African-American community is the core of the working class.
This community not only performs most of the most oppressive and poorly
paid jobs; this community is also a key element of the trade union movement.
Whether it is the demand for better housing or universal health care,
this community is and will be the political base for that movement.
Whether it is the demand for a stronger union movement or women’s
liberation, this community must be the political base. The unity of
working people is the only basis for change. As Abraham Lincoln said:
“The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside the family relation,
should be one unity all working people of all nations and tongues and
kindred.”
Finally, thanks to Trent
Lott, the Republican media has been forced to allow some discussion
of racism. The confusion in this discussion is illustrated the article
by Jeffrey Gittleman in the Sunday NYT of 12/22/02. In discussing the
career of S. Ernest Vandiver, he conceded that his segregationist slogan
“No, not one” was racist. Gittleman then states:
Talking to him (Van Diver)
today, you can feel the weight of history upon him. “I said
a lot of intemperate things back then that I now have to live with,”
said the 84-year-old Mr. Vandiver, who was governor from 1959 to 1963.
“All I can say now is that you are of your time.” Today
there is wide consensus that racial segregation is reprehensible and
immoral. But 40 years ago that wasn’t so clear.”
(Emphasis added)
The conservative movement
has spent billions of propaganda dollars railing against moral relativism.
Yet, when it comes to racism, moral relativism is not only accepted,
it is condoned. The moral bankruptcy of Jim Crow segregation was absolutely
clear 40 years ago. It was equally clear 100 years ago. It was the conservative
movement that was wrong then and it is the conservative movement that
is wrong now. The only difference is that the Republican Party now defines
that movement, supports it, nourishes it and provides the political
voice of the movement. It remains a movement founded on racism. It is
morally bankrupt.
That is why the progressive
movement will always necessarily begin all struggles to unite the working
class on the principle of antiracism. All strategic and tactical decisions
must take into account the struggle against racism as the basis of unity.
ADDENDUM
The above discussion was
written on January 1st, 2002 to express the frustration of media controlled
events of every kind. Today, Serena Williams, in surviving a difficult
match against Maria Sharapova makes this discussion both relevant and
political. After the above material was written, the Willams’
sisters dominated the tennis scene for all of 2003.
In doing so, they re-defined
femininity for the 21st Century and exposed the inherent, reified, yet
subtle racism in our national media. All during 2003, sportscasters
(mostly white male) railed against the Williams’ sisters. Their
dominance was deemed to be bad for tennis, as if the interest generated
throughout the world by the sisters in tennis was bad. Maybe, the inclusion
of millions of working class people, both white and black in the tennis
world was bad for the elite. The elite domination in tennis had existed
for so long. Certainly, the influx of these fans and participants was
detrimental to the continued exclusiveness of tennis. In addition, women
became the dominant part of tennis, not white males. Maybe that was
bad for the ruling elite but it was not bad for tennis. Commentators
revealed their inherent bias whenever they discussed Serena’s
game. According to them, her game was dependent on power and “natural
athletic ability.” Not intelligence and mental toughness. But
now the younger women players have adopted the power game without so
much as a mention by the commentators as to the source of this new exciting
game.
In January of 2003, Serena
was down in the third set 5-1 to Kim Clisters, who was at the time,
one of the top players in the world. One lost game and the match was
over. Serena came back to win the match and the tournament. Intelligence
and mental toughness were never mentioned. Again, in January of 2005,
Serena was down three match points to Maria Sharapova, an excellent
power player. One lost point and the match was over. She came back to
win the match and the tournament. Intelligence and mental toughness
were strangely absent from the discussion. Under any other circumstances,
mental toughness, intelligence, grit, strength of character would be
discussed and analyzed ad naseum.
Straight out of Compton,
California, both Serena and Venus have become the best-known women athletes
in the world. The new definition of feminism recognized strength not
submissiveness as beautiful. Women who are assertive and confident define
not just attractiveness, but necessary characteristics of beauty.
Venus Williams is stately
and regal. Serena is voluptuous and yes, sexy. Both, however, are gracious,
and international. When winning tournaments in France, Japan, Germany,
they strive to express gratitude in the language of that country.
Coming from humble circumstances,
they accept their amazing success with grace, while acknowledging those
who have supported them. They have been booed, criticized, and put down.
Yet they always flash their beautiful smiles and keep on stepping.
That is, they represent an
objective refutation of the race concepts, propagated under Social Darwinism.
By that I mean that they have proven that the dominance of Anglo-Saxon
white males is a temporary historical phenomenon backed on geography,
not genetics. The sisters’ success illustrates the tremendous
untapped talent within the working class. Living in a difficult community
where a stray bullet would stamp out any chance for athletic achievement,
their intelligence, grace, strength, beauty, proves the existence of
untapped, underutilized skill of the working class. For that matter,
the entire ideological justification for extremes of privilege and wealth
and poverty is destroyed. In some unknown way, the fans who range in
the millions understand this fact.
Proof of how the Williams’
sisters have redefined femininity is in the recent issue People magazine,
5/9/05, where Maria Sharapova is now listed as one of the 50 most beautiful
people (p.136). Anna Karnakova is out because she can’t play tennis.
The ruling class had to find someone who was both competent and blond.
That is the contradiction for the ruling class. Our position is not
to disparage the accomplishments of their blond substitute but to expose
their hypocrisy. After all the beauty, strength, intelligence and popularity
of the Williams’ sisters cannot be denied. Their 10 plus grand
slam victories towers over Sharapova’s one.
The saga continues. Let us
continue to expose the bankruptcy of the position of the ruling class
which always divides people. If we understand that the African American
community is at the core of the working class, then we will set every
strategy and all tactics accordingly. In that way, each advance of the
African American Community represents an advance for the entire working
class.
Yours in Struggle,
Ronald D. Glotta
220 Bagley, Suite 808
Detroit MI 48226-1409
(313) 963-1320 (313) 963-1325/Fax
rglotta@glottaassociates.com
