Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor

30 Jan 2019

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This week readers decided to comment on the 2020 Democratic Party primary, the US role in the recent Congolese presidential election, and the correct understanding of the role sexuality in shaping politics. The most substantive comments came in for “Bernie Sanders vs Kamala the Jailer and Her Corporate Backers,” “Anti-Imperialist Dilemma: What If the US Is “Right” About the Election in the Congo,” and “BAR Book Forum: Amber Musser’s Sexual Excess.”

In “Bernie Sanders vs Kamala the Jailer and Her Corporate Backers” Glen Fordargues that the best possible scenario for the 2020 election is for Bernie Sanders to surge in the primaries and be denied the nomination, pushing millions of leftish Democrats to leave the party.

Charles Shapiro writes:

“Cede the government to Donald Trump and those that will push the agenda way farther from where you want it to be? Like Trump? Want 4 more years of him? Then go right on and vote your conscience. The world, right now, would be a better place if you hadn't by settling for Clinton.”

Marc Abian responds:

“My Great-Great-Grandma was born a slave in 1860. She was free before she turned five because one third of the country ‘threw their vote away’ and voted for a funny looking third party candidate with pretty speeches and no chance to be anything but a spoiler. ‘Everyone’ votes for what they really want. Affluent people often lie on the internet about what they really want.”

In “Anti-Imperialist Dilemma: What If the US Is “Right” About the Election in the Congo” Ann Garrisonargues for the legitimacy of Martin Fayulu as the winner of the Congolese presidential election despite the fact that the US opposed outgoing President Kabila’s attempt to deny Fayulu his mandate.

Joe Kelly writes:

"To be honest Ann Garrison's article is a surprising misstep for Black Agenda Report. The question posed, in the first place, shows Garrison's misdirection. Frankly, it doesn't matter whether the US has for once taken the correct line or not. It is simply a problem that the US is in the wider region meddling -- and Garrison overlooks that. Is the election result legit despite US endorsement of the winner? Who the hell can really know, especially on this side of the Atlantic? What we do know is that this is an election that occurred in the midst of a robust US imperial presence. And that shouldn't be taken as an inconsiderable factor, especially for a country that has the deep footprint of US over-lordship in its politics going back to the 1960s. Remember that farcical Rumble in the Jungle? Not one of Ali's best moments, politically-speaking. Don't let misguided questions be your worst moment too as a radical black publication."

Anne Garrison responds:

“A number of people wrote to me to object to my last essay and particularly the headline “Anti-imperialist Dilemma: ‘What If the US Is 'Right' About the Election in DR Congo?’ The parentheses around ‘right’ were meant to indicate that US foreign policy is never based on principle, but that it might occasionally—very occasionally—happen to coincide with the will of the people. (In this case, until the day after my piece was published. I wrote that in response to people who were angrily, and understandably, insisting that if the US favored Martin Fayulu, they opposed him. Eminent Congolese author Patrick Mbeko had written that there are always fierce imperial motivations at work in DRC because of its vast geostrategic resources, but that honoring the Congolese people’s electoral choice was most important, no matter what the US or any other imperial powers said or did. (Please see further discussion in this week's interview with Maurice Carney).”

In “BAR Book Forum: Amber Musser’s Sexual Excess” Roberto Sirvent interviews the author on the framing power of sexuality as an ideology of respectability and control.

Djata Bumpus writes

“Your recent interview in the ‘Book Forum,’ by Roberto Sirvent of Amber Musser about her new book titled ‘Sensual Excess,’ at least to me, betrays the usual honest and thoughtful commentary that appears in BAR.

“Right from the start, just like the super-racist Hillary Clinton does when saying her ‘women and minorities’ drivel, Amber Musser points to ‘black people, immigrants, LGBT people.’ So,who are LGBT people? Apparently, they are not either African American or ‘immigrants’ (as if all immigrants have the same national origin). Does the moniker LGBT represent a new species?

“As far as oppression goes in a socially-stratified civilization such as ours, one can belong to an oppressor group and an oppressed one, simultaneously. A good example is the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill debacle. Thomas was oppressed as Hill is for being Black. However, as a male, he oppresses females, because of Male Supremacy. Likewise, anyone who calls himself or herself ‘white’ does so, mean-spiritedly, as opposed to ‘European American,’ in order to be part of an artificial ‘majority’ group. Moreover, since LGBT people separate themselves from African Americans and others, then they are no less a ‘white supremacist movement’ than the Zionists pf the USA and Israel are.

“Finally, I embrace Freud's definition of identity: an emotional tie. Language is thought! Have you ever said to yourself, ‘I can't think of a word for it.?’ Furthermore, we must identify ourselves through our connection between generations, especially family ties, of cultural and historical camaraderie through both life's struggles and victories. That will give each generation a thoughtful and meaningful way to look at life NOT this moronism about identifying yourself through your genitals or the sexual impulses that are triggered through that genitalia: a thoughtless and meaningless trajectory will be the only product of that type of thinking. The great Fanon insisted, ‘Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.’ BAR must stay the course!”

Debating a correct understanding of race and other social oppressions is a key part of the struggle for ideological clarity in our movements. Looking forward to more debate in next week’s letters.

Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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