Dear Aninay,
Neither you nor myself were born White nor Non-White. So, please, kindly
let go of essentialist nonsense!
In the WSF we envision another possible world inclusive of all diversities,
beyond reductionistic binarism. In the end, the victims are not better
humans than their victimizers. Worse, often victims readily become
victimizers of their own people or others, reproducing their own injuries,
in the name of our loftiest ideals. That is one lesson from history,
colonial and otherwise!
My generalization concerning the "East" is no more vulgar than your
generalization of the White/Non-White binary formulation!
When Gandhi coined the concept of "structural violence", he was not just
thinking of Western Colonialism but also of the caste system in India, not
a Western invention as far as I know!
As earlier stated, one crime does not condone another, nor one episode of
violence condones another.
Ther above being said, I challenge you to wear a yellow star of david in
your chest in the muslim slums of Paris and Mumbai.
For the time being, both of us enjoy the freedom and privilege to think and
write freely. Since neither of us have all the truth, there is a chance to
learn from each other - or am I totally and fundamentally wrong in the
"marrow of my soul" and you totally and fundamentally right? :-)
Azril
_______




On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 8:00 AM, Avinay <avinay@...> wrote:

> Dear Azril,
>
> Why is it that the White man panics when his name is evoked? When terror
> attacks by muslims is called "Islamic" terrorism, then why can't violence
> by
> the white man be attributed to him?
>
> I sense a wish for "exclusion" from those white folks who do not subscribe
> to
> the white man's burden, but the same exclusion is demended by muslims and
> other groups for the violence done in their name, but will they ever get
> it?
> Or is it a privilige only for the white man?
>


>
> "The so-called "East" has its own dosis of co-responsability and complicity
> in world affairs, at all times and in all corners of the world." This
> seems to
> me such a generalisation of putting the blame!
>
> Let us not forget the violence of half-a-millenia and its social,
> political,
> cultural, economical, environmental and most importantly, psychological
> repercussions!
>
> I quote: "NOT so very long ago, the earth numbered two thousand million
> inhabitants: five hundred million men, and one thousand five hundred
> million
> natives. The former had the Word; the others had the use of it. Between the
> two there were hired kinglets, overlords and a bourgeoisie, sham from
> beginning to end, which served as go-betweens. In the colonies the truth
> stood
> naked, but the citizens of the mother country preferred it with clothes on:
> the native had to love them, something in the way mothers are loved. The
> European élite undertook to manufacture a native élite. They picked out
> promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the
> principles of western culture, they stuffed their mouths full with
> high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth.
> After a
> short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These
> walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed.
> From
> Paris, from London, from Amsterdam we would utter the words ‘Parthenon!
> Brotherhood!’ and somewhere in Africa or Asia lips would open ... thenon!
> ...
> therhood!’ It was the golden age.
>
> Listen: ‘Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry.
> Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men
> everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own
> streets, in
> all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the
> whole
> of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience.’ The tone is
> new.
> Who dares to speak thus? It is an African, a man from the Third World, an
> ex-‘native’. He adds: ‘Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that
> she
> is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to keep away from
> it.’ In
> other words, she’s done for. A truth which is not pleasant to state but of
> which we are all convinced, are we not, fellow-Europeans, in the marrow of
> our
> bones?"
> - Jean Paul Sartre Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”
>
>
> And as a leftie, I prefer to have my own view of violence and not
> subscribe to
> a group view which then blocks my "freedom of thought and expression".
>
> Avinay
> Bombay, India
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, January 18, 2015 3:47 pm, Azril Bacal wrote:
> > Dear Jai, Sukla and WSF:ers,
> > While I found the article by Uri Avnery enlightening and informative, I
> > contrarywise find the article by Ajamu adding more fuel to the choir
> blaming
> > 100% "the" West for all the problems of the world (maybe 99% would
> > suffcice? :-). To make it short, hypocrecy related to the Charlie Hebdo
> act of
> > murder and all historical and ongoing violence in the world is not
> exlusive
> > property of the West! The so-called "East" has its own dosis of
> > co-responsability and complicity in world affairs, at all times and in
> all
> > corners of the world. This being said, I am deeply grateful to Uri
> Avneri´s
> > contribution. I am still able to thank Ajamu for illustrating for us how
> easy
> > it is to fall in the manicheistic trap of "blaming the other," in what
> could
> > be readily regarded, whatever Ajamu's credentials, as a justification of
> one
> > recent, cold and planned murder. And yes, there is hypocrecy in the
> world! For
> > instance, why are "we" the "lefties" of the world, so systematically
> > selective, about which violence we condemn - and which violence we remain
> > silent about? A reminder of the non-violence clause in the founding
> charter of
> > the WSF! Provocatively yours!
> > Azril
> > _________________________
> >
> >
> > Sunday, 18 January 2015
> >
> >
> > *Worlds in movement, worlds of movement…*
> >
> >
> > The reverberations caused by ‘Je Suis Charlie’ continue, and will
> > continue….  Here is a powerful essay on Paris and its meanings from the
> > perspective of a long-time human rights activist and veteran of the Black
> > Liberation, anti-war, anti-apartheid, and Central American solidarity
> > Movements in the United States.
> >
> >
> > JS
> >
> >
> > The Charlie Hebdo White Power Rally in Paris
> >
> >
> > *A Celebration of Western Hypocrisy*
> >
> >
> > by Ajamu Baraka / January 14th, 2015
> >
> http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/the-charlie-hebdo-white-power-rally-in-pari
> > s/
> >
> >
> > The “civilized† have created the wretched, quite coldly and
> deliberately,
> >  and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their
> > slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children
> whenever
> > and wherever they decide that their “vital interests† are menaced,
> and
> > think nothing of torturing a man to death; these people are not to be
> taken
> > seriously when they speak of the “sanctity† of human life, or the
> > conscience of civilized world.
> >
> > — James Baldwin
> >
> > I have witnessed the spectacle of Eurocentric arrogance many times over
> my
> > long years of struggle and resistance to colonial/capitalist domination
> and
> > dehumanization. The grotesque, 21st Century version of the “white
> man’s
> > burden,† which asserts that the international community (meaning the
> West)
> > has a moral and legal “responsibility to protect,† is one current
> > example; the generalized acceptance by many in the West that their
> governments
> > have a right to wage permanent war against the global “others† to
> maintain
> >  international order is another.
> >
> > Yet, when I think I have seen it all, along comes the response to the
> > attack at the racist, Islamophobic publication Charlie Hebdo. Even
> though I
> > shouldn’t be surprised, I am still left in complete wonderment at the
> > West’s unmitigated self-centeredness and self-righteous arrogance.
> >
> >
> > The millions who turned out on Sunday claimed to be marching in
> solidarity
> > with the victims at Charlie Hebdo and against terrorism. They were
> joined by
> > political leaders from across Europe, Israel and other parts of the
> world –
> > on the same weekend reports were emerging that 2,000 Nigerians may have
> lost
> > their lives at the hands of Boko Haram, another Muslim extremist group.
> >
> > Surely there would be expressions of solidarity with the survivors in
> > Nigeria at a gathering ostensibly to oppose terrorism and uphold the
> > sanctity  of life. But the expressions of solidarity never came. In
> fact, based
> > on the attention the massacre received from the Western press, it was if
> the
> > massacre had never happened.
> >
> > It is clear that there was a different agenda for the march and a
> different
> > set of concerns for Europe. The people of France mobilized themselves to
> defend
> > what they saw as an attack against Western civilization. However, the
> events
> > in Paris did not have to be framed as an existential attack on the
> imagined
> > values of the liberal white West. Providing some context and making some
> > political links may have been beneficial for attempting to understand
> what
> > happened in the country and a political way forward beyond the appeal to
> > racial jingoism.
> >
> > The attack could have sparked an honest conversation about how many
> Muslims
> > experience life in contemporary France and viewed French policies in
> various
> > Muslim and Arab nations. It could have examined the relationship
> > between the rise of radical Islam and the connection of that rise to the
> > activities of various branches of the French intelligence services. An
> open
> > discussion might have framed it as a classic blowback operation
> resulting from
> > the weaponization of radical Wahhabism as a tool of Western power from
> the
> > late 1970s to its current assignment in Syria. But those ideas were *not*
> > allowed a forum on that massive stage.
> >
> > *Je Suis Charlie: European lives have always mattered more than others*
> >
> >
> > The *Je Suis* Charlie slogan like one of those mindless advertising
> themes
> > meant to appeal to the unconscious and the irrational, nevertheless,
> has to
> > have cultural reference points, culturally embedded meanings that evoke
> the
> > desire to want to buy a product, or in this case to identify with an
> imagined
> > civilization. It does not matter that the supposed superiority of Western
> > civilization and its values is based on constructed lies and myths, it is
> > still the basis of a cross-class, transnational white identity.
> >
> > The white identity is so powerfully inculcated while simultaneously
> > invisibalized that identification is not seen as the essentialized
> identity
> > politics that people of color supposedly engage in, instead it is just
> being
> > “human.† And as we witnessed this weekend and throughout the colonial
> > world, identification with whiteness is not limited by one’s racial or
> > national assignment.
> >
> > It is not necessary in this short essay to even address the contradictory
> > nature of the European self-understanding, how that self-perception is
> utterly
> > disconnected from its practice, and how many people in the world see the
> > 500-years European hegemony as an interminable nightmare.
> >
> >
> > However, for those folks who believe the simple assertion that black
> lives
> > matter and that “racial progress† will be realized through
> progressive
> > legislative reform derived from a better understanding of the harmful
> impact
> > of racially discriminatory practices, the unfiltered expressions of white
> > solidarity and the privileging of white life should be a wake-up call.
> >
> > The humanity and cultures of Arabs and Muslims have been denigrated in
> > France for decades. Full recognition of the humanity of Arabs and Muslims
> > has always come at a cost – Arabs and Muslims are required to
> > “assimilate,† to mimic French lifestyles, embrace the language,
> adopt the
> > values and worldview of their cosmopolitan patrons. Older generations of
> fully
> >  colonized individuals subjected themselves to that degrading ritual, but
> > later generations see this requirement as the colonial assault on their
> being
> > that it is and have resisted.
> >
> > It is the arrogant lack of respect for the ideas and culture of
> > non-European peoples that drove the French ban on the wearing of the
> niqab and
> > other traditional veiling clothing for Muslim women, just one example of
> the
> > generalized discriminatory treatment of Arabs and Muslims in France. In
> this
> > lager context, Charlie Hebdo’s blatant disregard and disrespect for
> another
> > religion, shielded by an absolute commitment to freedom of  speech that
> gives
> > them blanket immunity, is now compounded by the “*Je Suis* Charlie
> > campaign,† orchestrated in the name of upholding the values of liberal,
> > Western civilization.
> >
> >
> > What it means for many of us in the Black community is that *Je Suis*
> > Charlie has become a sound bite to justify the erasure of non-Europeans,
> > and for ignoring the sentiments, values and views of the racialized
> > “other.† In short, *Je Suis* Charlie has become an arrogant rallying
> cry
> > for white supremacy that was echoed at the white power march on Sunday in
> > Paris and in the popularity of the new issue of Charlie Hebdo.
> >
> >
> > A shared ethical framework under the system of capitalist/colonial white
> > supremacy is impossible. Deeply grounded in the European psyche and in
> the
> > contradictions of its “humanist† traditions, who was considered fully
> > human always had qualifications, and equality was always a nuanced
> concept.
> >
> > The contradictory ethical framework that informs the world view of
> > Parisians is grounded in the colonial division of humanity that emerged
> out
> > of the liberal humanist movement of the 18th Century. This tradition
> allowed
> > for humanity to be divided into those people who were considered fully
> human
> > with rights that should be respected and those peoples consigned to
> non-being.
> > Those non-beings became eligible to have their
> > lands taken, to be enslaved and murdered at will.
> >
> > The valuation of white life over everyone else is a fundamental component
> > of white supremacy and not limited to those people that might be defined
> as
> > white. That is why no one cares about the families that weep for their
> love
> > ones in Nigeria and no one marches for them. That is why anti-Muslim and
> > anti-Arab violence has exploded across France but the only mention in the
> > Western press is the supposed fear in the Jewish community. And that is
> why
> > that after the attack in Baga, Nigerian authorities were largely silent
> until
> > Nigerian President Goodluck
> > <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30794829>  finally issued a
> statement
> > on terrorism where he forcefully condemned the attack in Paris!
> >
> > Ajamu Baraka is a long-time human rights activist and veteran of the
> Black
> > Liberation, anti-war, anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity
> > Movements in the United States. Read other articles by Ajamu
> > <http://dissidentvoice.org/author/ajamubaraka/>, or visit Ajamu's
> website
> > <http://www.Ajamubaraka.com>.
> >
> >
> > ______________________________
> >
> >
> > Jai Sen
> >
> >
> > jai.sen@... / jai@...
> >
> > www.cacim.net / http://www.openword.in
> >
> > Now based in Ottawa, Canada (+1-613-282 2900), and New Delhi, India
> > (+91-98189
> > 11325)
> >
> >
> > *RECENT PUBLICATIONS :*
> >
> >
> > Jai Sen, ed, 2013 – *The Movements of Movements : Struggles for Other
> > Worlds*, Part I*.* Volume 4 Part I in the *Challenging Empires* series.
> New
> > Delhi : OpenWord.  *Available
> > @ http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/
> > <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/>*
> >
> >
> > *FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS  :*
> >
> >
> > Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, eds, forthcoming (2015) – *The Movements of
> > Movements : Struggles for Other Worlds**,* Part 2. Volume 4 Part II in
> > the *Challenging Empires* series.  New Delhi : OpenWord
> >
> >
> > *CHECK OUT* *CACIM* @ www.cacim.net, *OpenWord* @ http://www.openword.in
> ,
> > and *OpenSpaceForum* @ www.openspaceforum.net
> >
> > *AND SUBSCRIBE TO* *WSFDiscuss*, an open and unmoderated forum for the
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