Bolivia’s New Self-Declared “Interim President” Believes Indians Are “Satanic”, Shouldn’t Be Allowed in Cities — Marko Marjanović

Anti-Empire
Bolivia’s New Self-Declared “Interim President” Believes Indians Are “Satanic”, Shouldn’t Be Allowed in Cities

Marko Marjanović

Statement from Colectivo Curva on the resistance of the people of El Alto in response to the ongoing coup attempt in Bolivia. Based in El Alto themselves, Colectivo Curva argue that the native peoples of El Alto remember their history of struggle against the Morales government: they do not fight for him and his party, but against an attack on their communities from the far-right coup plotters.

Democracy allowed the indigenous peoples to elect a government and the coup was the reaction by the non-indigenous people to the rule of the indigenous.

libcom.org

They are not Evo supporters! They are Alteños, dammit!
Ivan Apaza Calle, El Alto, November 2019

Rev. Evan Jones — “Work of Barbarity”: Here’s What the Trail of Tears Was Like, According to Someone Who Was There

Native American genocide, specifically the Cherokee nation. The real history of the United States, which was, by the way, contemporaneous with slavery.

And, yes, the president of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" just made a joke about it.

Slate
“Work of Barbarity”: Here’s What the Trail of Tears Was Like, According to Someone Who Was There

Rev. Evan Jones

Mark Koyama — Did the Enlightenment Give Rise to Racism?

Weekend reading.

Slate chief political correspondent Jamelle Bouie set off a heated online debate with a series of tweets[1] claiming “the concept of race was birthed by the Enlightenment,”[2] which then sparked a full-length article fleshing out his position.[3] His key claim is that colonialism, slavery, imperialism, and racism in general were not “incidental developments or the mere remnants of earlier prejudice.”

Race as we understand it—a biological taxonomy that turns physical difference into relations of domination—is a product of the Enlightenment. Racism as we understand it now, as a socio-political order based on the permanent hierarchy of particular groups, developed as an attempt to resolve the fundamental contradiction between professing liberty and upholding slavery. Those who claim the Enlightenment’s mantle now should grapple with that legacy and what it means for our understanding of the modern world. (Bouie 2018)

Bouie draws on the works of several distinguished scholars on this topic, including George Fredrickson, Ivan Hannaford, Emmanuel Eze, Robert Bernasconi, and Charles Mills.

Nevertheless, these arguments and the support Bouie received from numerous scholars on Twitter was surprising to me. In my research on religious intolerance I’d encountered detailed discussions of racism emerging in 15th century Spain. And I was aware of literatures on ethnocentrism in Song dynasty China, on racialist categorizations in the middle ages and in the classical antiquity.

But given the boldness of Bouie’s claim and the support he received, his challenge to “grapple with” the troubling aspects of the Enlightenment seems worth taking up. If reflection on the long history of racial prejudice, on the diverse legacies of the Enlightenment, and the troubled relationship between the humanities and the sciences today interests you, read on.[4]

The questions to be addressed

What does it mean to say that racism is a “product of the Enlightenment,” or that it was “birthed by,” or had its foundations “laid by key thinkers like Locke and Kant”? It’s clear that Bouie doesn’t simply mean coining the word “racism”. For example, antisemitism is a late 19th century word. No one before the late 19th century identified as an antisemite, but claiming that antisemitism didn’t exist before then is absurd, and clearly not what Bouie is getting at.[5]

The claim made by historians of childhood that modern western notions of childhood became prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries is, to the best of my knowledge, a credible one. In what follows, I will assume that Bouie meant modern racism was a “product” of the Enlightenment in much the same way that historians meant modern childhood is a “product” of the 18th and 19th centuries. Though there is clear continuity with past phenomena, there are also enough distinct characteristics to speak of something singular.

My critique of Bouie will proceed as follows: first, I will establish the universal nature of prejudice against outgroup and advance a speculative hypothesis on the dynamics of how this manifested in complex agrarian societies in general, exploring examples in antiquity, early Islamic history, and Medieval Iberian antisemitism. These sections will seek to lay crucial context rather than directly contradict Bouie, who acknowledges examples such as these.[6]

Once this is established, I will proceed to the key points which undermine the specific culpability of the Enlightenment: the universalism of its main thinkers, and the environmental and institutional theories of racial and ethnic differentiation which made up the bulk of their writings on the matter (with important exceptions such as David Hume and especially Immanuel Kant). And finally, the critique of the Enlightenment passes over the role of the Counter-Enlightenment, which was particularistic and directly involved in the development of a biologically-based “scientific” racism.…

Liberal Currents
Did the Enlightenment Give Rise to Racism?
Mark Koyama | Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell Fellow at the Hoover Institution for the 2017-2018 academic year

ht Tyler Cowen  at Marginal Revolution

See also

Bracing Views
The Races of Man
W.J. Astore

D. Parvaz — The one thing all the countries expelling Russian diplomats have in common

Western (white-dominant).

All the countries who have expelled diplomats so far are Western nations. Indeed, there’s not a single country in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, or Latin America participating in this diplomatic purge.

Theodore Karasik, project investigator for the Russia in the Middle East Project at the Jamestown Foundation said what’s happening now represents a “bifurcation between Russia and the West.”

The East-West split coming isn’t about religious or cultural differences of course, but about Russia — with China — creating a sphere of influence that counters the West.

This much is correct. The rest of the article is poor analysis based on wishful thinking, as typical of the West, which sees everything through its own biases.

The US views what is happening as being instigated by Russia and China, along with Iran and others,  when it is a dialectical reaction to the consequences of US attitude, behavior, and policy.

The article is interesting for the further reason that Think Progress is a site that aligns with American "liberals" versus American "conservatives," and the major spokesperson quote is from the Jamestown Foundation,  a very conservative institution. Bipartisanship?

Think Progress
The one thing all the countries expelling Russian diplomats have in common
D. Parvaz

See also

Almost everyone but the West, although a few Western governments are included.

RT
Nearly 160 countries outside 'Western bloc' want to see proof in Skripal case – Russia’s UK embassy

Doug Tsuruoka — FBI director slammed over ‘Chinese spies’ claim in the US

Racism?

Asia Times
FBI director slammed over ‘Chinese spies’ claim in the US

Doug Tsuruoka | Editor At Large

also

Mobile apps and smartphones pose a clear and present danger
Patrick Dunne

Feeling paranoid yet? 😮

Hazel Marsh — Venezuela’s long history of racism is coming back to haunt it

The back story. 

Similar in Brazil and other Latin American countries. In Brazil the Carnival queen was deposed for being too black.

Defend Democracy
Venezuela’s long history of racism is coming back to haunt it

Hazel Marsh

John Bowden — Bannon: I want Democrats to talk about racism every day

The Alt Right is not going to be happy with Steve Bannon calling the white nationalist protesters clowns and losers.

He is correct that Democrats have a tendency to overplay their hand in using identity politics, but they smell blood here.

The good thing is that America is finally having to deal with its demons.

The Hill
Bannon: I want Democrats to talk about racism every day

John Bowden

Meanwhile, Barack Obama hit a homer with this tweet.

The Guardian
Obama's anti-racism tweet after Charlottesville is most liked ever on Twitter

Claire Phipps

Then there is this.

So we are supposed to believe that communist influence is as big an issue in the US as white nationalism and racism?

Daily Caller
Many Unhappy With Communist Statues Across The U.S.
Henry Rodgers

Brad DeLong — David Brooks: The G.O.P. Rejects Conservatism

David Brooks is wrong, I think, in his claim that the current crop of Republican politicians have no vision of American society. I think they do have a vision....

WCEG
David Brooks: The G.O.P. Rejects Conservatism
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Chauncey DeVega — Sorry Conservatives, New Research from Harvard Shows a Profound Amount of Racism by Police…Not Less of It

Don't believe the right-wing spin about Harvard's damning study that illustrates how cops target blacks.

The direction of results from statistical studies goes from suggestive, to indicative, to actionable, to definitive (when it becomes settled knowledge in a field).

AlterNet
Sorry Conservatives, New Research from Harvard Shows a Profound Amount of Racism by Police…Not Less of It 

Chauncey DeVega / Salon

TASS — Canada, US, Ukraine vote against UN resolution condemning glorification of Nazism

UNITED NATIONS, November 20. /TASS/. Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution on measures against the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that facilitate the escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance related to them.

A total of 126 member-states of the UN voted for the document and four countries - Canada, Palau, the U.S., and Ukraine - voted against it. Another 53 countries, including member-nations of the European Union abstained from voting.

As many as 115 countries voted for a similar resolution last year but three countries - Canada, Ukraine, and the U.S. - voted against it.

The resolution condemns unconditionally any denial of Holocaust and expresses concern over any forms of glorification of the Nazi movement, former members of the Waffen SS organization, including the installation of memorials to them, and the ‘unending attempts to desecrate or destroy the monuments to those who fought with Nazism during World War II.…

TASS
Canada, US, Ukraine vote against UN resolution condemning glorification of Nazism

David F. Ruccio — Only in America

Apparently, this is the way to get attention of the administration on college campuses these days: threaten to cut off $1 million football revenues. 

A student engaged in a week-long hunger strike wasn’t able to get the university’s president to address racism on campus. So, black football players, with the support of white players and coaches, have stopped practicing and have threatened not to play in the scheduled games.…

It's happening. And the pundits are saying that Occupy fizzled out without amounting to anything, that is, the Establishment won using hardball tactics. The US is becoming radicalized.

Occasional Links & Commentary
Only in America
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Olivier Acuña — Racism Is Used By World Powers to Justify Domination

Racism and colonialism are based on making people non-persons. This has been going on for a very long time. Now, the situation is changing because white citizens of developed nations are now also being treated as non-persons. This is a new and unfamiliar experience for most and they are perplexed by it, since most have not yet figure out what is happening. It's the colonizing of the developed world also by the oligarchs as the new aristocrats using deep state. This was made quite evident in the response to Occupy, for example, or the UCAL Berkeley officer pepper-spraying peaceful protestors (they were sitting with arms interlocked) like bugs.

Asserting exceptionalism and treating out-groups as non-persons is a characteristic of Fascism, and using violence against them to control them or even exterminate them is  a hallmark of Nazism.

While denying that capitalism is the cause of racism despite that this system is based on the exploitation of people by people for capital gain, Cali Tzay did recognize that, “Racism thrives in capitalism,” and added that, “multinational extractivist companies today are responsible for deplorable atrocities against humanity and in many countries they violate the rights of indigenous people.”

Telesur
Racism Is Used By World Powers to Justify Domination
Olivier Acuña

And its not only racism but also gender and other differences. Where they overlap is called "intersectionality." It's a hot topic in sociology and polo sci now.

India Approves Rule Requiring A Third of Women in Police Forces

karol — Neo-Confederate Group Plans Celebration Of Lincoln Assassination

Yes, really.

I'm really glad there's no more racism to worry about in the United States, aren't you? Because now we don't have to worry about people like this:

Warren Throckmorton notes, just today announced that on April 14 it will host a celebration of the anniversary of the “execution of the tyrant Abraham Lincoln.”League of the South President Michael Hill writes in a blog post titled “Honoring John Wilkes Booth” that the organization “thanks Mr. Booth for his service to the South and to humanity”:

The League of the South looks to the present and future. However, from time to time we do look back at our past.

This 14th of April will mark the 150th anniversary of John Wilkes Booth’s execution of the tyrant Abraham Lincoln. The League will, in some form or fashion, celebrate this event. We remember Booth’s diary entry: “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment.” A century and a half after the fact, The League of the South thanks Mr. Booth for his service to the South and to humanity.…

Crooks and Liars
Neo-Confederate Group Plans Celebration Of Lincoln Assassination

karoli

Max Blumenthal — Exposed: How Republicans and Cops Are Teaming Up to Take Down deBlasio

How much does it cost you to live in your house? If you are a renter, the answer to that question is fairly straightforward (although if your rent includes a gym membership and heat, it is not clearcut what the simple cost of occupying your place is). 

But suppose you are an owner. What is it costing you every month or every year to live in your house? The truth is, you don't know with a great deal of precision, and neither does anyone else. 

There are two ways to look at the issue.…

Pretty much like the right wing went after Clinton and Obama. Now it's De Blasio's turn.

More divisiveness that is ripping the US apart and hemorrhaging American soft power on the world stage.

AlterNet
Exposed: How Republicans and Cops Are Teaming Up to Take Down deBlasio
Max Blumenthal

See also

AlterNet
Whistleblowing Officer Makes Tape of Top Cop Ordering Stop-and-Frisks of Black Males
Walter Einenkel, DailyKos

Stop “the right people, the right time, the right location,” Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack is heard saying on the recording.
[...] 

“So what am I supposed to do: Stop every black and Hispanic?” Serrano was heard saying on the tape, which was recorded last month at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx.
[...] 

“I have no problem telling you this,” the inspector said on the tape. “Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male blacks 14 to 21.” 

The tape and testimony are a part of a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy.

Crooks and Liars
Mayor DeBlasio: Fire The Commissioner And Discipline Insubordinate Police Officers
Susie Madrak

Democracy Now
NYPD Officer Speaks Out on Fellow Cops Who Turned Backs to Mayor & Why People of Color Fear Police

Amy Goodman interviews Adhyl Polanco

Jacobin
Smash the Lynch Mob
Ari Paul

Travis Gettys — KKK crucial to building the South’s enduring Republican majority, study finds

Dark underbelly.

“The wedding of the Klan’s mainly working-class constituency to the Republican Party was no simple feat in light of the strong appeal that Republican candidates hold for wealthy and upper-middle-class white southerners,” the authors argued. 

White working-class southerners were more receptive to Republican economic policies because they had already broken ties to the Democratic Party due to its position on civil rights, they argued. 

“The Ku Klux Klan did not succeed in defending Jim Crow, but, through its similarly polarizing character, played a role in linking its working-class constituency to a political party that strongly opposes proactive intervention of the federal government to produce greater racial and class-based equality,” the researchers said.Raw Story

KKK crucial to building the South’s enduring Republican majority, study finds
Travis Gettys

Matt Bruenig — Two Narratives About the Racist Carceral State

The consensus seems to be that there is a now a consensus that police brutality towards Black people, and the treatment of Blacks by the criminal justice system more generally, is out of control. Those arguing this case only have in mind the pundit class, of course. 

There is no clear indication that non-pundit whites and conservatives are actually on board with this new consensus. Indeed, in the Mike Brown case, recent polling suggests that whites, conservatives, and the rich approved of the whole affair by very large margins, while liberals, poor people, and people of color disapproved by equally large margins. 

Even within the pundit class though, the claims of a new consensus are deeply misleading. Though pundits on the right and left have expressed dismay over recent events, their underlying narratives and theories about how we got where we are dramatically diverge from one another. And this divergence tracks the same fundamental disagreements that normally keep conservatives on the other side of these issues.

Demos Policy Shop
Two Narratives About the Racist Carceral State
Matt Bruenig

Robert Parry — Will the Right’s Fake History Prevail?

History lesson.

Constortium News
Will the Right’s Fake History Prevail?
Robert Parry

Denise Oliver Velez — White man jaywalks with gun...guess what happens?

What happens? Nothing, of course.

Daily Kos
White man jaywalks with gun...guess what happens?
Denise Oliver Velez

Stephanie Nebehay — U.N. urges U.S. to stop police brutality after Missouri shooting

The U.N. racism watchdog urged the United States on Friday to halt the excessive use of force by police after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman touched off riots in Ferguson, Missouri.

Minorities, particularly African Americans, are victims of disparities, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) said after examining the U.S. record.

"Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing," Noureddine Amir, CERD committee vice chairman, told a news briefing.

US shredding moral authority and soft power, reversing the direction of the election of the first person of color.

Reuters

U.N. urges U.S. to stop police brutality after Missouri shooting
Stephanie Nebehay

Kara Dansky — The real reason Ferguson has military weapons

Because not white.

It used to be billy clubs, fire hoses and snarling German shepherds. Now it's armored personnel carriers and flash-bang grenades. The weaponry has changed, but the target is still the same.

If some of the photos from Ferguson last week were in black and white, you might confuse them with scenes from the 1950s south. White police officers beating black protestors. Young black men lying face down in the street with police officers standing over them with assault rifles.

We have a long history of aggressively policing communities of color in America. Police have treated black and brown people like the enemy for decades. In that context, the recent events in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown's shooting come as no surprise. But they go way beyond Ferguson.….

It might be tempting to think that the brutal tactics we've seen are the result of a few bad police officers. It might be comforting to think this is a fluke. And that might be partially true. But when the government arms cops like soldiers, trains them in counter-insurgency tactics, tells them they are fighting an enemy, we should expect this type of combustive, tragic result.

CNN Opinion
The real reason Ferguson has military weapons

Kara Dansky | senior counsel for the ACLU's Center for Justice and author of "War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing."

Pew Research, Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting