Langston Hughes raises some questions with regard to the Vietnam war that seem so obvious and yet seem to be the very medium of obfuscations by the colonist in building the divided world. Hughes asks if small nations will be allowed to work out their own destinies in the age of super-states and nations. He also asks if the war raises the call how "under-developed countries became under-developed in the first place....Why in short, does so much of the world eat to little and so little of the world eat too much? (244)" He later argues, "A racist society can't but fight a racist war - this is the bitter truth" (Hughes, 244)
The black populations were the first "Viet Cong" victims, after the native Americans and yet, they are asked to die to kill South-east Asians to "liberate" them. The hypocrisy at the root of Western and in this case American nation is profoundly intentional (and Hughes, Sartre, Malcolm X and Walker use that as a starting point of their arguments). These texts, particularly "Walker's Appeal" allow us to think back to the notion of "bare life" or "mere life" and necropolitics. It also makes me think about the Holocaust and how impossible it seems to speak of the sacredness of the Holocaust or the crime in "grading" the (dis)quality of these various camps.
Malcolm X's speech echoes the causes and conditions of this hypocrisy and states that progress does not extend to the African Americans. He states that segregation is against the law. His insight is staggering - to suggest the US can give no justice to African Americans because civil rights keeps the blacks exactly in the same place - and that the fight has to be extended to the world, into the jurisdiction of human rights.
These writings are so moving because they are calling for a reevaluation of the self, of the conditions of AAmericans and within that reevaluation, is the demand for justice, to die or kill if need be. "Walkers Appeal' makes that same conclusion. Mere life is not worth living.
The readings for this week push further on the role of the police (state), capitalism and its relationship to colonialism and neocolonialism (the white American, Malcolm X reminds us, is rich because the black man has worked to make that possible). It also allows for thinking of the continuing forms of terror, exploitation, and crimes against humanity. What is the recourse, in the present time, for justice? We could argue that internal genocide persists and I wonder to what extent we could re read Malcolm X's questions and apply them to the current state. What is progress or is racism still where it was?
The black populations were the first "Viet Cong" victims, after the native Americans and yet, they are asked to die to kill South-east Asians to "liberate" them. The hypocrisy at the root of Western and in this case American nation is profoundly intentional (and Hughes, Sartre, Malcolm X and Walker use that as a starting point of their arguments). These texts, particularly "Walker's Appeal" allow us to think back to the notion of "bare life" or "mere life" and necropolitics. It also makes me think about the Holocaust and how impossible it seems to speak of the sacredness of the Holocaust or the crime in "grading" the (dis)quality of these various camps.
Malcolm X's speech echoes the causes and conditions of this hypocrisy and states that progress does not extend to the African Americans. He states that segregation is against the law. His insight is staggering - to suggest the US can give no justice to African Americans because civil rights keeps the blacks exactly in the same place - and that the fight has to be extended to the world, into the jurisdiction of human rights.
These writings are so moving because they are calling for a reevaluation of the self, of the conditions of AAmericans and within that reevaluation, is the demand for justice, to die or kill if need be. "Walkers Appeal' makes that same conclusion. Mere life is not worth living.
The readings for this week push further on the role of the police (state), capitalism and its relationship to colonialism and neocolonialism (the white American, Malcolm X reminds us, is rich because the black man has worked to make that possible). It also allows for thinking of the continuing forms of terror, exploitation, and crimes against humanity. What is the recourse, in the present time, for justice? We could argue that internal genocide persists and I wonder to what extent we could re read Malcolm X's questions and apply them to the current state. What is progress or is racism still where it was?
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