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Fri., March 18th - The Abolition of White Democracy with Joel Olson
Friday, March 18th – 7 PM - FREE
The Abolition of White Democracy
A night with author and activist Joel Olson, offering a new way of understanding the tortured relationship between race and democracy in the United States.
The Abolition of White Democracy
A night with author and activist Joel Olson, offering a new way of understanding the tortured relationship between race and democracy in the United States.
Friday, March 18th – 7 PM - FREE
The Abolition of White Democracy
A night with author and activist Joel Olson, offering a new way of understanding the tortured relationship between race and democracy in the United States.
"The Abolition of White Democracy by Joel Olsen should be required reading for anti-racists and anti-imperialists. Olsen presents a tight historical analysis of white supremacy and capitalism as the foundation for a democratic order that requires gross racial inequality. Olsen isn't just offering critical analysis, but tools to help us abolish this system and win liberation. At a time when the Left is faltering under the Right, this book gives us perspective and guidance to flip the script." —Chris Crass, author of Collective Liberation on My Mind, member of the Catalyst Project, will introduce Mr. Olson
"The Abolition of White Democracy is essential reading for all those seeking to realize the promise of democracy in America." —Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White
Racial discrimination embodies inequality, exclusion, and injustice and as such has no place in a democratic society. And yet racial matters pervade nearly every aspect of American life, influencing where we live, what schools we attend, the friends we make, the votes we cast, the opportunities we enjoy, and even the television shows we watch. Joel Olson contends that, given the history of slavery and segregation in the United States, American citizenship is a form of racial privilege in which whites are equal to each other but superior to everyone else. In Olson’s analysis we see how the tension in this equation produces a passive form of democracy that discourages extensive participation in politics because it treats citizenship as an identity to possess rather than as a source of empowerment. Olson traces this tension and its disenfranchising effects from the colonial era to our own, demonstrating how, after the civil rights movement, whiteness has become less a form of standing and more a norm that cements white advantages in the ordinary operations of modern society. To break this pattern, Olson suggests an "abolitionist-democratic" political theory that makes the fight against racial discrimination a prerequisite for expanding democratic participation.
Joel Olson is assistant professor of political science at Northern Arizona University. He has been a member of many political organizations, including Minneapolis Anti-Racist Action, Phoenix Copwatch, The New Abolitionist Society, Love and Rage, and Bring the Ruckus. He has also co-edited radical publications such as Profane Existence, The Blast!, New Abolitionist, and Bring the Ruckus.
The Abolition of White Democracy will be available for purchase.
AT THE AK PRESS WAREHOUSE!
AK Press 674-A 23rd. St Oakland, CA
b/t MLK and San Pablo - near 19th St. BART and West Grand Exit of 80/980
For more info contact:
AK Press at 510.208.1700, josh@akpress.org
All events at AK Press are wheelchair accessible.
The Abolition of White Democracy
A night with author and activist Joel Olson, offering a new way of understanding the tortured relationship between race and democracy in the United States.
"The Abolition of White Democracy by Joel Olsen should be required reading for anti-racists and anti-imperialists. Olsen presents a tight historical analysis of white supremacy and capitalism as the foundation for a democratic order that requires gross racial inequality. Olsen isn't just offering critical analysis, but tools to help us abolish this system and win liberation. At a time when the Left is faltering under the Right, this book gives us perspective and guidance to flip the script." —Chris Crass, author of Collective Liberation on My Mind, member of the Catalyst Project, will introduce Mr. Olson
"The Abolition of White Democracy is essential reading for all those seeking to realize the promise of democracy in America." —Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White
Racial discrimination embodies inequality, exclusion, and injustice and as such has no place in a democratic society. And yet racial matters pervade nearly every aspect of American life, influencing where we live, what schools we attend, the friends we make, the votes we cast, the opportunities we enjoy, and even the television shows we watch. Joel Olson contends that, given the history of slavery and segregation in the United States, American citizenship is a form of racial privilege in which whites are equal to each other but superior to everyone else. In Olson’s analysis we see how the tension in this equation produces a passive form of democracy that discourages extensive participation in politics because it treats citizenship as an identity to possess rather than as a source of empowerment. Olson traces this tension and its disenfranchising effects from the colonial era to our own, demonstrating how, after the civil rights movement, whiteness has become less a form of standing and more a norm that cements white advantages in the ordinary operations of modern society. To break this pattern, Olson suggests an "abolitionist-democratic" political theory that makes the fight against racial discrimination a prerequisite for expanding democratic participation.
Joel Olson is assistant professor of political science at Northern Arizona University. He has been a member of many political organizations, including Minneapolis Anti-Racist Action, Phoenix Copwatch, The New Abolitionist Society, Love and Rage, and Bring the Ruckus. He has also co-edited radical publications such as Profane Existence, The Blast!, New Abolitionist, and Bring the Ruckus.
The Abolition of White Democracy will be available for purchase.
AT THE AK PRESS WAREHOUSE!
AK Press 674-A 23rd. St Oakland, CA
b/t MLK and San Pablo - near 19th St. BART and West Grand Exit of 80/980
For more info contact:
AK Press at 510.208.1700, josh@akpress.org
All events at AK Press are wheelchair accessible.
For more information:
http://www.akpress.org
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Comments
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If Chris Crass doesn't like "white democracy", why did he make a public call-out for anarchists to vote for John Kerry?
I'm pretty sure that endorsements by anarchists actually hurt U.S. presidential campaigns.
are you really going to start up and re-hash this useless debate here? please move on.... there must be something more productive for you to do than whine on IMC.
if you have issues, you can talk to Chris directly about them... please don't waste the rest of our time...
if you have issues, you can talk to Chris directly about them... please don't waste the rest of our time...
Seems to me this is a good forum for polititical debate. Crass puts out an open letter to back the democrats on indybay, and some people responded with criticisms, some of them harsh. If he can't take the heat, well........
And actaully I thought the above question about why he supported Kerry if he's against "white democracy" seems like a good question
And actaully I thought the above question about why he supported Kerry if he's against "white democracy" seems like a good question
Chris Crass says in the quote above that the left is faltering. I'm not the only one who thinks that the left's sorry condition is in very definite part due to its having thrown its support behind the so-called lesser evil of the Democrats (and its millionaire, center-right candidate, John Kerry) in the months prior to last year's presidential election. When radicals and leftists should have been offering a critique of capitalist democracy and agitating for heightened oppositional activity, too many were instead feeding illusions in the system.
Crass and other anarcho-voters weren't the only leftists spreading these illusions, but few that did so simultaneously claimed to be revolutionaries. This fact makes their political idiocy all the more worthy of criticism--especially on a forum such as this one.
Crass should admit his error or stop lamenting "white democracy" and the faltering of the left.
Crass and other anarcho-voters weren't the only leftists spreading these illusions, but few that did so simultaneously claimed to be revolutionaries. This fact makes their political idiocy all the more worthy of criticism--especially on a forum such as this one.
Crass should admit his error or stop lamenting "white democracy" and the faltering of the left.
I don't really understand the criticism. It seems clear to me that moving the current system to one with justice at the center will take decades. In the meantime, people will suffer.
I believed that a President Kerry would barely have been any better than Bush presidency, but that miniscule difference would have had a serious difference on many people's lives. To take two examples, look at what has already happened with class-action lawsuits and what might soon happen with social security.
Sure, Kerry would certainly have caused outrageous suffering, but, I believe, a little less than Bush. I seems that the simple act of voting would hardly take away all your energy for doing radical political work. For those that worked against Bush's election, did those few weeks of work really have stopped long-term organizing for justice? Not that I have seen.
For a strategic standpoint, we want a mass movement for justice and radical change in how society operates. For that, we need to engage people. Who would listen to us if we tell them that we don't care if their elderly parents (or grandparents) might go hungry, because we are too busy working on the revolution?
I also never understood why doing electoral work would not be a great opportunity to radicalize the folks you work with or the communities you work in. When you work WITH people on things they care about, they are more likely to listen to you. It gives us the opportunity to bring up our analysis and struggle from a place of respect and understanding.
By offering this analysis, I am not suggesting that electoral work is more important than YOUR work, whatever that might be. I am not suggesting that everyone who wasn't working on electoral work made a political mistake. I am saying, though, that electoral work can me strategic from a radical perspective given the right conditions.
And I think those conditions were met in the last election.
I believed that a President Kerry would barely have been any better than Bush presidency, but that miniscule difference would have had a serious difference on many people's lives. To take two examples, look at what has already happened with class-action lawsuits and what might soon happen with social security.
Sure, Kerry would certainly have caused outrageous suffering, but, I believe, a little less than Bush. I seems that the simple act of voting would hardly take away all your energy for doing radical political work. For those that worked against Bush's election, did those few weeks of work really have stopped long-term organizing for justice? Not that I have seen.
For a strategic standpoint, we want a mass movement for justice and radical change in how society operates. For that, we need to engage people. Who would listen to us if we tell them that we don't care if their elderly parents (or grandparents) might go hungry, because we are too busy working on the revolution?
I also never understood why doing electoral work would not be a great opportunity to radicalize the folks you work with or the communities you work in. When you work WITH people on things they care about, they are more likely to listen to you. It gives us the opportunity to bring up our analysis and struggle from a place of respect and understanding.
By offering this analysis, I am not suggesting that electoral work is more important than YOUR work, whatever that might be. I am not suggesting that everyone who wasn't working on electoral work made a political mistake. I am saying, though, that electoral work can me strategic from a radical perspective given the right conditions.
And I think those conditions were met in the last election.
I voted fro Kerry, yah, that's right and I'm an anarchist. I even encouraged other people to do so, and I hated the guy, think he sucks, but if you think that he'd be doing the same stuff as Bush you're fooling yourself. he wouldn't have stopped the war, wouldn't have changed society for the better, but this current, swift descent into right wing christian controlled world would not be going on like it is.
I think the total abstentionism that some more anarchist than thou folks preach is very pure but very pointless. this stuff (politics) is about real people and the real world, and the real devastating effects minute amounts of difference in political scumbags can make in real people's lives. My dedication to destruction of patriarchy, white spremacy, cvapitalism and the state was not compromised by participating in the election. My struggle is the same, and if Kerry had won it would be the same. the world i want, and the world I believe chris wants, isn't a world kerry or any other politician can give us. But that world is unfortunately NOT right around the corner, and as an anarchist, I'm going to fight with all the tools at my disposal for as much justice for as many people as possible in the here and now while struggling toward that ideal world, and voting, in particular harm reduction voting, is just one of those tools.
And meanwhile, pure dogmatic anarchism and 3.50 will buy you a mocha latte.
I think the total abstentionism that some more anarchist than thou folks preach is very pure but very pointless. this stuff (politics) is about real people and the real world, and the real devastating effects minute amounts of difference in political scumbags can make in real people's lives. My dedication to destruction of patriarchy, white spremacy, cvapitalism and the state was not compromised by participating in the election. My struggle is the same, and if Kerry had won it would be the same. the world i want, and the world I believe chris wants, isn't a world kerry or any other politician can give us. But that world is unfortunately NOT right around the corner, and as an anarchist, I'm going to fight with all the tools at my disposal for as much justice for as many people as possible in the here and now while struggling toward that ideal world, and voting, in particular harm reduction voting, is just one of those tools.
And meanwhile, pure dogmatic anarchism and 3.50 will buy you a mocha latte.
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