Patterns of Practice in Hegelian and Materialist Views of Racism

 
Hegelian Practice  Dialectical-Materialist Practice
Appeals to conscience.  "How can you do this to us/them?" 
 
Appeals to solidarity based on material interest, that is, "defeat the divide and conquer tactics."
Historical analysis rooted in the progress of ideas--or in the racial notions of given societies. Historical analysis based on the study of production, that is, how do people recreate life, and from that, the study of the development of competing classes.
In this analysis, racism has no reason, is simply an aberration, a construct with no basis. Racism is a necessary part of ideology and practice in societies which require inequality and domination. Class inequality requires racism.
In organizing opposition to racism: nationalist groupings (that is, all-Hispanic caucuses, all Serbian caucuses, AfricanAmerican nationalist groupings; such as, the Nation of Islam, La Raza, etc.) Pacifism/terrorism. In organizing: cross-class, rather than race or nation, lines. Multi-racial unity based on social class against inequitable systems. Examples: China, U.S.S.R. 
 
In pedagogical opposition to racism, approaches to the Holocaust which suggest fascism fell from the sky, or that the Holocaust (itself a Hegelian term suggesting an act of Evil) was an event separate from the crisis of German capitalism and the history of Christian anti-Semitism.  In teaching opposition to racism, critique of the historical construction of racism. Analysis of fascism as a necessary result of the development of inequality in class relations and the war on the Jews as a part of fascism and the ideology of inequality.
In teaching: focuses on the cruelty of racism and appeals to conscience. "Look at these horrible ovens". Film: "Schindler's List." Focus on resistance to racism, ideological and practical, taken by people of all races, from John Brown to Elaine Brown. Film: "Escape from Sobibor."
In teaching vs. white racism to leave unquestioned the reality of white supremacy and the relationship of racism to matters of power. To assume that whiteness is normal, to fail to analyze the profitability of racism, to argue that all white people gain more than they lose from racism, to attack white skin privilege without noting the particular privileges of wealth.  Critical Pedagogy, building on the work of Bowles and Gintis and others, carries the beginnings of a questioning approach to teaching racism which raises the issue of "Where does this come from and how does it serve? What is the relationship of racism to science on the one hand and power on the other?" 
Whole language, which assumes a unity of purpose and the creation of meaning in students' minds, is a Hegelian approach. Inter-culturalism, showing similarities of class- cultures, opposing view of national culture. (Rich Gibson @).
 
 

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