How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Black Politics

[deutsey]

[Beowulf]

1. The first segment with Dr. Spence

is very interesting. I want to read his book.

[deutsey]

2. Same here

He was why I posted this (not to take away from the other segment).

I saw him on Democracy Now! this morning in a discussion about Trump and racism:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/4/is_donald_trump_the_charismatic_leader (he comes in at around 31:00)

He's continued in this this segment:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/4/i_give_the_governor_credit_rubio

[Beowulf]

6. Thanks for posting this interview!

[Rebkeh]

12. Here's the Jacobin piece that

he mentioned in the Democracy Now video. It's a good read.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/sanders-clinton-south-carolina-primary-black-voters-firewall/

[swilton]

3. To put in my own words

neoliberalism is a cancer that has infected both the civil rights and environmental movements.

This explains why and how the Clinton machine is so successful in the south despite its deplorable record of gutting social programs that were particularly beneficial to AA's.. I think that former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty is a classic example. Professor Spence didn't mention Bernie Sanders but I think that their messages are extremely harmonious.

Green washing has become very common and explains corporatization of the big name environmental movements which has watered down the teeth in their policies. Also why they are essentially ignored by the Democratic Party. If they truly believed in their rhetoric they would have supported the Green Party in 2012... I still thing that if one carefully looks there are environmental groups worth supporting Sea Shepherd, Green Peace and Earth First come to mind.

[ConsiderThis_2016]

4. Loved this guy

Frederick Douglass lives on...
“The church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors.... For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by these Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done!”

[Rebkeh]

5. Bookmarked to watch later

Thanks for posting

[ReallyIAmAnOptimist]

7. Thank you for posting...

...I am hungry for insights into this complicated area.

In his book Death of the Liberal Class, Chris Hedges described how elites ALWAYS become corrupted (via access, power, money, connections, etc.) and essentially become-one-with the oppressors of society.

To my mind Bernie Sanders is the stark exception to this rule (net worth end of argument) while HRC is sort of a posterchild demonstrating it. (HRC, however, was never any great champion of the downtrodden).

[ChiciB1]

8. Thanks For Posting This Here, Just WISH More People Were WILLING

to really SEE what's going on! Voting AGAINST your own best interest has NOW become an American Plus, no matter WHICH Party you align with.

There was a time that OUR Democratic Party stood for something much, much different! Like "We The People!"

[snagglepuss]

9. So worth watching. Terrific discussion. nt

[MisterP]

10. same thing happened with Andy Young hooking up with WalMart:

he was GLAD independent businesses were crushed, and used race to justify neoliberalism: "You see those are the people who have been overcharging us, and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs."

[cprise]

11. At 11:35 this point reminds me of the White Flight

And its an excellent point. Most contemporary American social issues are grounded in that reaction to the Civil Right Movement. Whites could no longer have a government that was expressly for them, so many of them came to view government as intrinsically alien, evil, something that must be reduced to miniscule size and influence -- indeed, small enough to be "drowned in a bathtub".

That's where modern libertarian impulse comes from: racist separatism. And its a separatism so intense that its more devoted adherents regard themselves as "sovereign individuals".....