Taiwo Finishes Strong- George
As much as I have enjoyed arguing against the more abstract notions supporting Taiwo's moral framework and their implications for economic policy, the last two chapters of Reconsidering Reparations have solidified the extent to which I generally agree with his approach, especially its implications for the practical political realm The tactics and targets he outlines are solid and seem to be appropriately directed at an academic/civil society-type audience. In terms of targets: unconditional cash transfers are, I think, the most important domestic policy imperative in the US; getting rid of tax havens is essential to any major financial project, either global or domestic; getting climate funding to the Global South is certainly necessary for decarbonization. On tactics, divestment is a great first step for those in the higher education system, as I assume most of his readers are, and unions using their considerable (in Democratic states and cities, at least) political power in a manner more considerate of the broader economic environment would be a godsend.
I am skeptical of the idea of community control, but I think Taiwo and I understand that idea very differently, and he doesn't flesh it out quite enough for me to feel comfortable arguing against it. The very words 'community control' give me flashbacks to the countless City Council meetings I have attended in which wealthy white homeowners leverage the outsize influence granted to them by hyper-localized government to prevent broadly beneficial change in their communities. These people are highly adept at weaponizing the language about local control that Taiwo uses, but I imagine this is not what he has in mind. The things he does actually point to, like public utilities, I generally agree with.
More than anything else, however, I appreciate Taiwo's answer to a certain strain of catastrophic thinking that I find frustratingly common among people our age, particularly but not exclusively regarding climate change. This mindset is characterized by an "[insistence] on and [desperation] for fast social change," and then a sense of despair upon realizing that the desired speed of social change is effectively impossible to achieve (202). Taiwo puts it best when he says that "we do not need a compete system transformation in our lifetime to nevertheless have achieved something important and notable in the longer historical fight for justice," (202). In particular, I think the capacity of socially conscious people of my generation to "achieve something important and notable" would be greatly improved by acknowledging that we do not have to "completely end capitalism in our lifetimes in order to effectively respond to the climate crisis," (203).
Of course, I disagree with Taiwo's contention that ending capitalism would "leave a better world on the long view of history," (depending, as we discussed today, on what he means by capitalism) (203). But because the ancestor perspective frees his framework from focusing too heavily on revolution, I'm happy to leave that disagreement on the backburner and focus on how I can do my part to be a "moral ancestor."
Hi George!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog post! I think you do a great job summing up Taiwo's final remarks regarding action and attitude moving forward. Your introduction also made me giggle after all of your pushback in class yesterday.
I wanted to build upon the comments you make regarding ancestors and the steps and time it takes to make important change. I too fall victim to the desperate all-or nothing mindset that you call catastrophic. I find myself overwhelmed with the huge problems and inequalities facing our world and don't know where to start. I feel like I need to fix everything right now but in the end, I end up doing nothing. I thought that Taiwo's example of the process of making kioke was extremely powerful in demonstrating the power of generations and ancestors. He explains that the ancestors of Ueshiba and Yamamoto had no definitive knowledge that there tradition would continue or what the future held but, he argues that they acted in faith and responsibility (193). Taiwo summarizes by saying, "they did their part in a larger, multigenerational project in faith and trust that the future would take up their contributions in a good and beautiful way" (193). In opposition to how I sometimes feel that the weight of the world is on my shoulders, Taiwo is able to explain using this example that making change is a multigenerational project. We inherit skills and progress from the ones who came before us and it our responsibility to use that and do what we can and trust that the ones who come after us will continue the fight. This reminds me of another example that I talked extensively about in my women in politics class last semester: suffrage. The suffragists fought for decades and some prominent leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton didn't live to see women win the right to vote. These women made as much progress as they could within their lifetimes and then passed on the torch to the coming generations. I think this example fits really well with Taiwo's account. Taiwo declares that "it often takes everything a generation has to win the struggle immediately in front of them. But if they can pass on the right things--and if we in the generations that follow pick up what they left for us--that can be enough" (200). As a message to myself and others who get overwhelmed and feel like everything must be fixed this instant, Taiwo reminds us to look the example of our ancestors and follow the path they have laid down for us.
Hey George,
ReplyDeleteInitially I was rather worried that he would link reparations and distributive justice to climate change, and part of me doubted that his proposal would really be a workable solution, but he was definitely able to craft his argument into a very strong case for unique distributive justice.
I just want to touch on two really interesting parts of his argument that you briefly mentioned, collective bargaining and divestment. Like you, I still remain skeptical at the idea of community control, but those concerns can be raised elsewhere. I want to offer some praise to the way he linked these two aspects of his case together in the fifth chapter. The ability to use collective bargaining power of unions in major cities to have state funds moved into more productive areas is a fascinating one that I had never considered as an effective means of activism. The examples he uses support his argument extremely well. The LA teachers union fighting for increased funding for essential services, and the Service Employees International Union obtaining funds for “green training” in conjunction with activist organizations focused on combating climate change and promoting minority voices, both are definitely in line with his philosophy of building more ramps than stairs (186). The movements opened up access to good education, both for youth and workers, and empowered groups through collective action outside of traditional democratic institutions, which he critiqued for tendencies to become elitist. He also briefly touched upon how this could potentially be used to curb growing police states (182), which made me think that this strategy could be employed in states without representative democracies or true freedom of expression to gain greater rights. It is an interesting idea to explore, and maybe a means of civil disobedience that we may see employed across the globe after we saw similar demands made here through unrest which advocated for divestment from police funding. Especially since, as Taiwo points out repeatedly, these movements are internationally linked, and effective strategies are commonly adopted by numerous movements.
Hi Dara and George!
ReplyDeleteYou guys have done a great job of summarizing and framing Taiwo's argument with emphasis on what I think is the most important takeaway. While, like George, I have had my disagreements with Taiwo over the course of our discussions, I too like the general argument he makes for a construction project view of reparations. Most importantly, the lesson from the ancestor portion of the final chapter that George so helpfully points to is one that I don't think we can emphasize enough. Dara, I like the way you linked it to the suffrage movement, which is a great example of social change taking place over decades and generations. Unfortunately, the resilience and tenacity that characterized movements like the suffragists seems to be a relic of the past. Current social and political movements have heavy emphasis on instant change, rather than seeking to push incremental change over a longer span of time. Take the "Abolish the Police" movement for example. As an answer to the oppression of people of color by the justice system as a whole, it was a solution that looked to provide an instantaneous solution, but it was (and still is) a deeply flawed idea that would do more harm than good. Similarly, it would be easy to propose any number of knee-jerk solutions to the issues that Taiwo enumerates as a result of the global racial empire. However, the more desirable world, wherein the global social order is corrected such that the lingering oppression and fallout from the global racial empire has been rectified, will likely take decades and generations to bring about. Systematic and lasting change, like the improvement in rights for women brought about by suffrage, takes longer because of the difficulty involved in the upheaval of established institutions of power and their replacement; we should not settle for anything less.
George, Dara, and Umer, I really enjoyed reading the dialogue between your posts. And I wholly agree that the ancestral perspective on global change that Taiwo presents in his final chapter is a much-needed shift from the all-or-nothing mindset which is common today. But, I want to consider an aspect of the ancestral approach, specifically as it applies to combating climate change. Taiwo makes a meaningful argument on taking the conditions of the globe from our ancestors and improving upon the improvements they made during their lives. His description of the Russian and French Revolutions alongside the anti-colonial plights elucidates this. With these conflicts and their ultimate strive for just institutions, "the work of replacing a global racial empire with a just world order was not completed, but it was advanced" (page 199). In fact, Taiwo thinks that using an ancestral perspective will make our generation less desperate in the face of more outcomes than considering radical, more effective climate solutions. While I agree with Taiwo that looking for change as radical as entirely dismantling the capitalist system (the root of climate change diffusing from the origins and evolution of the global racial empire), I am not fully convinced that his solution is working on a timetable rapid enough to make change when it still matters. It is doubtless that ancestral approaches to change take time, and time is one thing that we lack concerning a response to the climate crisis. Dada brings up women's suffrage as an example of ancestral change in the manner which Taiwo describes, but we have to recognize how many years and failed attempts the movement took (especially the movement for all women, not just white women, to achieve suffrage). With the lethality of climate change in the near future (and even its current impact), we must act fast. Taiwo does not neglect this important fact, noting that "The number of generations of our descendants who deal with this unjust world – in fact, who have a world to evaluate at all – depends on our successes or failures to provide intermediate wins or losses" (Page 203). Taiwo's ancestral approach of dismantling the global racial empire is strong in theory and illustrates a path less intense than "winning a global revolution against capitalism" (Page 203). Maybe I am being too skeptical of the inner workings of the constructionist system acting fast enough, but I am certain concerned with the extent to which our generation must win and quickly counter climate change (especially in the face of political, ideological, and physical opposition from those who benefit most from the global racial empire) in enough time to ensure that we can have generation in the future – generations which ultimately must continue our lifetime project of dismantling the world system as we know it.
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