Resources on Immigration, Colonization, Class and Race Warfare

This is a topic that I would like to write on. Problem is, I have basically zero resources on this topic besides a couple of rap albums and a couple of books. Despite my ethno-cultural origins, I have essentially zero experience when it comes to dealing with racism, glass ceilings, discrimination...

So I'd love to be pointed to some good resources, especially when it comes to privilege blindness, submission and assimilation, servilism and "house negro/uncle tom" mentality (not limited to African people who are descended of slaves, of course, but in more general terms).

edited 12th Jul '12 8:48:05 AM by TheHandle

For works of fiction, I recommend reading Richard Wright's Invisible Man, Frederick Douglas's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, George Orwell's 1984 and several other dystopian fantasy and sci-fi works from notable writers such as Phillip K Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels).

As for non-fiction, check out The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, and Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks.

edited 26th Jul '12 9:41:12 PM by Aprilla

There goes my monthly pay. How Kindle of you!

Have you checked Wikipedia?

Immigration

Colonization

Class Warfare

Racism

Supremacism

I didn't ink of going to Wikipedia because what I had in mind were personal, subjective accounts, and also because Wikipedia has a bad tendency to excise controversial stuff. Maybe I should check the discussion pages? Thare's always a heated argument going on there...

I find that Wikipedia is always a good place to start.

edited 27th Jul '12 3:56:03 PM by saintbraeburn

Check out the biographies of noted scholars, authorites, and trail blazers in these fields. Like for Richard Wright there is Black Boy.

Most of the time the people most aggressive as well as respected in these avenues both academic or otherwise went through experiences that pushed them to do so.

Do what?

Black Boy is excellent.

My favorite is Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power. It is an extremely compelling biography of a side of the Civil Rights Movement rarely shown - namely, the threat of violent uprising as the anvil behind MLK's hammer of non-violent mass action. It is also a look at how oppression plays out without national media exposure and a sympathetic federal government to step in. Great stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Free-Dixie-Robert-Williams/dp/0807849235

Anything about Robert F. Williams is great actually. He is one of the most fascinating figures of the civil rights movement.

edited 31st Jul '12 7:02:14 AM by Cthulboohoo

A book called 'Black Skin, White Masks' by Frantz Fanon might help. Also, Adam Smith voiced one of the earliest anti-colonial messages, though I forget in which work. 'Das Kapital' by Marx and Engels would be good, too.

edited 31st Jul '12 4:22:56 PM by stripesthezebra

Do I really need to see the Marxist lens on this problem? Also, the struggle of black people in the USA is something I am keenly interested in, but it's really oddly specific. What about everyone else?

edited 1st Aug '12 2:09:38 AM by TheHandle

Why not? Marx pretty much coined class warfare, and Marxist theories are extraordinarily influential in the field of economic inequality.

It's worth noting, though, that Das Kapital was designed to analyse the society of the Industrial Revolution, and so is generally considered a bit out-of-date. Modern Marxists have put quite a lot of legwork into updating Karl's theories for the present day.

edited 1st Aug '12 6:19:02 AM by Iaculus

Popular marxism (and by popular I mean the kind that is common among middle-class adult intellectuals) is a bit like popular freudianism: stuck in the past, unaware of recent progress, and unhelpful in analysing current issues.

I've just read The Right To Laziness, by Paul Lafargue, and I ahve found it as illuminating as it biaised and full of utter economical nonsense. He made a strong point, though: work for work's sake is fucked up, especially when you make people work sixteen hours a day in your factory, pay them just enough that they don't starve, then bring them back the next, and call that right and proper and an honest living, and dehumanize those who refuse to live that way and turn to, say, crime, instead. I'm also amazed at how terrible planning was back then: constant overproduction crises, and nowhere a sign of, you know, previsions and market research and stock management. Madness, sheer, destructive, murderous madness.

Anything by Tim Wise can also help a lot, especially with regards to more recent racism instead of the old civil-rights era stuff. He has a lot of good statistics in his books.

EDIT: NM, I see you're looking for more personal accounts.

edited 1st Aug '12 8:22:23 AM by Jabrosky

Hey, stats are good too.

Popular marxism (and by popular I mean the kind that is common among middle-class adult intellectuals) is a bit like popular freudianism: stuck in the past, unaware of recent progress, and unhelpful in analysing current issues.

Wait, you haven't realised by now that you check out the source, rather than the half-remembered received wisdom regurgitated over the dinner table? That's like saying that you want to study economics, but don't want to research Adam Smith's contributions because the guy in the pub made them sound stupid.

Yes, Marxism (especially Marx's original work) has its flaws. It's also near-essential for understanding and contextualising modern sociology.

edited 1st Aug '12 9:32:52 AM by Iaculus

Just as Platonism, horrendous crime against life that it is, is essential in understanding and contextualizing modern philosophy, I suppose.

Fine then. It's a lot of reading, but it will do my writing good, for sure.

edited 1st Aug '12 10:12:29 AM by TheHandle