i'm really impressed that a reflection like this could come out so fast - it's really useful for me as someone witnessing the devastating effects of self-righteous critical whiteness in my own scene and i'm sure it will be great as a discussion-motivator for people involved in the march.
lots i could say, but it keep it brief i think the author(s) do a really good job of maintaining a radical critique without blaming - this is a problem which affects all of us. the mention of religion at the end is spot-on. we have here a problem generated by fanatics, in many ways analogous to when someone discovers veganism for the first time and takes that on as a religious enterprise which they have to impress on people - that's a bad method for accomplishing social change. veganism is a good thing but it's about how you communicate it to other people if you want to affect them.
that's interesting the author(s) experienced problems with critical whiteness at the rotterdam noborderscamp - i must say i was worried there would be issues after cologne and copenhagen in previous years but i didn't see this sort of problem except when someone who had been involved in migrant struggles in marocco presented the shit situation there with the spanish enclaves. the immediate first question (sorry to be reductive but this how it seemed to me: the question was from a white male activist to a white male activist) was asking why a white activist could speak for migrants. this is ostensibly a useful, necessary question, but within the SPECIFIC CONTEXT of the talk, it seemed rather stupid, and was well answered by the answer of the presenter. he said that he was aware of this issue and that migrants in marocco, who were not able to travel over borders had asked him to publicise the issue and ask for solidarity activism.... so why would a presumably intelligent person who had heard the talk ask such a question except as a knee-jerk power dynamic question? well, there you have the problem of slef-righteous critical whiteness.
critical whiteness = good theory gone bad. yes this could well be the next cointel approach to crush our fragile movements. think that claim is ridiculous? read into how the black panthers got attacked. it's textbook stuff.
thanks for this well-thought out article
i'm really impressed that a reflection like this could come out so fast - it's really useful for me as someone witnessing the devastating effects of self-righteous critical whiteness in my own scene and i'm sure it will be great as a discussion-motivator for people involved in the march.
lots i could say, but it keep it brief i think the author(s) do a really good job of maintaining a radical critique without blaming - this is a problem which affects all of us. the mention of religion at the end is spot-on. we have here a problem generated by fanatics, in many ways analogous to when someone discovers veganism for the first time and takes that on as a religious enterprise which they have to impress on people - that's a bad method for accomplishing social change. veganism is a good thing but it's about how you communicate it to other people if you want to affect them.
that's interesting the author(s) experienced problems with critical whiteness at the rotterdam noborderscamp - i must say i was worried there would be issues after cologne and copenhagen in previous years but i didn't see this sort of problem except when someone who had been involved in migrant struggles in marocco presented the shit situation there with the spanish enclaves. the immediate first question (sorry to be reductive but this how it seemed to me: the question was from a white male activist to a white male activist) was asking why a white activist could speak for migrants. this is ostensibly a useful, necessary question, but within the SPECIFIC CONTEXT of the talk, it seemed rather stupid, and was well answered by the answer of the presenter. he said that he was aware of this issue and that migrants in marocco, who were not able to travel over borders had asked him to publicise the issue and ask for solidarity activism.... so why would a presumably intelligent person who had heard the talk ask such a question except as a knee-jerk power dynamic question? well, there you have the problem of slef-righteous critical whiteness.
critical whiteness = good theory gone bad. yes this could well be the next cointel approach to crush our fragile movements. think that claim is ridiculous? read into how the black panthers got attacked. it's textbook stuff.
thanks a lot for the introspective article!