In a message 11/3/00 6:23:04 PM EST, Bill Mandel <wmmandel@earthlink.net> writes: <I have not the slightest doubt about the accuracy of <the picture of political repression in Norman, <Oklahoma presented by Michael Wright. The dates he <covers finally explain to me his position on the <matter of what is now called racial profiling, as <it pertains to political repression. The phrase "racial profiling" is both emotionally- charged and inflammatory. I don't know exactly what Mandel means by his attributing to me a "position" on "racial profiling." I have never used the phrase in this dialogue. My statement which inspired objections from Mandel was that in this country repression against dissent has been color-blind. In opening his attack, Mandel, for his convenience, rephrased my statement by deleting the part about DISSENT. Later I was accused of "white chauvinism." Now I am told that I have a "position" on "racial profiling." All I can do to remedy this campaign of false attribution is to continue to cite historical evidence. A brief review of the decades-long campaign of violence and repression against labor activists in the U.S. makes the point. For this I rely upon Robert Goldstein's excellent book Political Repression in Modern America On page 5 he writes that "American labor suffered governmental repression that was probably as severe or more severe than that suffered by any labor movement in any other Western industrialized democracy." He quotes other historians who say that the U.S. has had the "bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world," and says that there were over seven hundred deaths and thousands of serious injuries in the 1973-1937 period. Although he admits that there was violence conducted on both sides, violence from labor generally involved attacks on property, rather than people. Violence originating from business was often supported by police or government troops and was generally characterized by attacks on individuals. The great majority of casualties in labor disputes were suffered by workers. Recently I wrote to Goldstein and asked him what percent of those victims would he estimate were black or other minority. In reply, he offered only a guess, but said "perhaps 10-15%." I think we would be on safe ground to assume that the majority were white. To pretend that whites who seriously oppose the system enjoy some special protection based upon race is, I believe, a grave error and arises not from careful analysis but from knee-jerk, shallow political correctness. ~ Michael Wright Norman, Oklahoma
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 11/05/00 EST