Ken - I don't have any argument with/ but only sympathy for your analysis of
the disposability of labor at the convenience of contempoary corporate whim.
Re "The Middle Passage" I think you are skipping over my point. The squalor,
the death by drowning, dehydration, near starvation, the rats, the
psychological suffering of the elderly, the young, and adult population,
etc. all that we have both heard and seen in New Orleans flooded
neighborhoods - combined with the willful or benign ignorance of FEMA and
the appointed government slave lords - compares in many ways literally with
the conditions experienced in the holds of slave ships. These folks in New
Orleans - were considered more than casually disposable - the Government's
absence of any disaster exit strategy in the face what was known as
impending disaster was only a strategy for this still very much unfolding
catastrophe.
It's criminal. Again - in terms of the domestic USA - the Bush folks(?)
should be denied any capacity to proceed now with the appointment of Supreme
Court justices (let alone others). Any appointment has to be considered
suspect. This Judge Roberts is obviously a career flak for every reactionary
position taken by Republican Administrations of the last 35 years -
affirmative action, women's rights, full voting rightes, freedom of choice,
etc etc.

Yes, I think its time for the American domestic furies! And not time to
explain away any parts of this regime.

Stephen V
Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com








 


> At 03:37 PM 9/5/2005, you wrote:
>
>> The current New Orleans' version of the Middle Passage, however, is done not
>> to arrive in New Orleans to sell slaves, but to banish them. These are
>> people no longer valued for their labor. They are dispensable, long shut out
>> from public view - considered a nuisance, a welfare expense, etc. I
>> understand this is a broad generalization - one will point to those don't
>> fit the category, cultural assets, etc. The Bush administration does not
>> refine categories. I won't further belabor the argument.
>>
>> Stephen V
>
> Stephen, I'm not entirely sure this is strictly a Black or New
> Orleans phenomenon (I'm using "New Orleans" as shorthand to cover the
> affected Gulf tri-state area). I can talk this trash only as someone
> who's worked in profit-oriented institutions since 1977: I say that
> with neither pride or shame, but as a fact. With variations entrants
> to the Middle Passage could be anyone who works for a living, be that
> place of employment the overmaligned WalMart, Home Depot, or my
> current place of employment...like any have been better. In essence,
> employees of any profit-making enterprise are treated like
> shit. They are disposable, they will be cast into the sea, chained
> together, at the first sign of a problem such as a Navy cruiser
> approaching. The Middle Passage can end abruptly not in the slave
> market or the HR office (there's a difference?) but in unemployment,
> whatever its cause.
>
> I have worked in large, "heeled" companies that dropped us all over
> the side like so much trash, solely to maintain a profit for the 10
> guys left on the top deck. Guaranteed: the victim--the cast-over
> worker of whatever rank or type--is the one who gets blamed. "You
> cost too much." "Your department didn't produce enough." "Your
> skill is superfluous." "You are redundant." We return you now to
> New Orleans. Some of the displaced will indeed become wild animals
> who will purloin weapons and shoot at rescue workers. I almost hate
> to say this (ALMOST) but I almost cheered when I read that the N.O.
> cops blew away about eight of these infrahuman fiends. AND yet
> (isn't there always an "AND yet"?) I do not believe people are born
> that way. The mayor of the city himself said he was presiding over a
> junkie paradise which had turned to junkie hell because nobody could
> get their stuff. Assess depravity as you will, but perhaps it was
> helped by a police department which may be doing heroic work now, but
> that had a long-term reputation for corruption and violence unmatched
> by any major department in the country. Maybe we really do reap what we sow?
>
> Worklife again. If you live your worklife on the edge of being a
> disposable item, you will develop precisely the mentality that you
> suggest above: you WILL start to think of yourself as an expense, you
> will devalue yourself and feel free to cut corners because life's
> short and employment can be shorter. Therefore instead of demanding
> more from your worklife, you will be "grateful" for any crap they
> throw to you, including your job itself. This is not gratitude, it
> is groveling. This is, I fear, a distinction of categories the Bush
> administration learned long ago. Keep 'em on the edge, show them The
> Instruments, rattle the chains. That's all you have to do to enforce consent.
>
> I doubt the black OR white workers of New Orleans and environs will
> be out of work forever. No, that's not true. In fact, the idea of
> mass permanent unemployment horrifies me because it portends not
> social rebellion or even revolution--necessary moments in a society's
> change--but mindless riot, more destruction of the type we have
> witnessed. Then we will be putting ourselves over the side of the
> slave ship. I don't think America is equipped to handle hordes of
> "sturdy beggars" wandering our roads. This isn't the 17th century
> (he said in a prayerful tone).
>
> Ken