Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago. Show all posts

Monday, March 10, 2025

Confessions of a Peace-Monger By John Jankowski

 

Crass

Confessions of a Peace-Monger

By John Jankowski

I must confess: Even after 9/11, the waters of patriotism, wrung from the tears of a nation, never washed over me. Sure, I felt horrible for all of those killed and injured, along with the countless loved ones who were also affected; but I can’t claim to have felt even the slightest inclination to rally around the flag. That’s due only in part, by the way, to the identity of the buildings that had been targeted. Being a peace-monger, the attack on the Pentagon only brought tears for the wounded, mortally or otherwise, not for any structural damage incurred. Nothing screamed “chickens coming home to roost” than a shot at “War, Inc.” A shame that the insurance company didn’t just simply total the whole building out.

The words “World Trade Towers” don’t exactly smack of patriotism either. Tall buildings, to be sure, on, of course, American soil. But New York City is more a symbol of international capitalism or world finance than Americana, with the Twin Towers being its literal and de facto pinnacle. More George Soros than Uncle Sam; more scone and espresso than Apple Pie. The loss of life so much more important than loss of any sense of prestige that those two phallic columns of now molten steel represented. For us or to the rest of the world, dang nab it.




As a former Chicagoan, now Stocktonian, if I feel any sense of loyalty at all — beyond family, friends and my parish — it is to my urban birthplace, where remnants of family still reside. And perhaps gradually to my new rural home. I take great offense to suburbanites claiming to be urbanites, and sub- and urban- ites claiming to be hillbillies. Even those of us with fewer ideas than teeth don’t claim that ridiculous label here, so we sure as hell don’t appreciate “weekend warriors” latching on to it.

Dread Scott Tyler

Nationalism and patriotism in this country are abstractions, intangibles out of necessity. Our “nation” of fifty still largely disunited states, founded by a motley crew of disaffected European mutts and misfits, can’t possibly hold a so-called patriot’s attention — let alone his allegiance — for very long. This country is geographically too big; demographically, too diverse; and governmentally-speaking, far too bureaucratic to do so.

We pledge allegiance to a flag woven of propositions. Blood spilled not of loyalty to a people, but to the ideals upon which those people have chosen to identify with. Either by birth, chance or oath.

Wars and the rumors of wars then serve the purpose of resolving an identity crisis for us, as identifying enemies, real or imagined, often do. But with a nation as phantasmagorical as ours, that need is all the more pressing; particularly when, due to occasional economic downturns, our identities as consumers are bound to suffer lapses as well.


I pray that God will one day bless America…with an ability for its people to recognize that they were never any more blessed — or cursed — than other people living on our fragile planet; and if one most love a place, let it be the one closest to where you have chosen to rest eternally. Forever peaceably.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Guilty of Being White: Anti-Racist Politics in Chicago

 

Guilty of Being White

Boy, this article takes me back.

In the eighties, my working as the manager of the New World resource Center in Chicago, along with being a politically active punk rocker, put me in contact with some very interesting organizations. And individuals that peopled them. One such organization was the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee https://citylights.com/open-media-series/no-fascist-usathe-john-brown-anti-klan/

As evinced by their name, the John Browners worked the race issue primarily, some might argue recklessly, often directly engaging in pitched battles with the likes of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. One such battle occurred in 1986 while I was doing my part fending off an invasion by C.A.S.H. (Chicago Area Skin Heads) of our local punk scene. Adult activists and a punk/anti-racist skin coalition confronted a larger group of mostly pro-KKK types demonstrating against a Gay Pride Parade. Things turned violent in a hurry, with objects being thrown and placard posts being brandished as spears. A bunch of people were injured, even a few cops, who had stepped in to prevent the situation from turning into a full-scale riot.

The thing that bugged me about the JBAKC — besides their communal lack of a sense of humor — was their stance regarding racial prejudices. Baldly stated, its members believed that it was impossible for blacks or other racial minorities to be racially prejudiced/racist. This philosophy (ideology: “white skin privilege”) colored every aspect of its activist work, including how white and black activists appeared together in public, along with how work was facilitated. No time for the minutest of details; but let’s just say that extreme deferentialism was the order of the day, which, to my mind, barely camouflaged a form of extreme white guilt, along with a very high level of condescension and patronizing that could not have escaped notice by blacks; and, moreover, was very often exploited by them, much to the consternation of young white punks like me who would have none of it.

Enter Chokwe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokwe_Lumumba.

I met Mr. Lumumba back then. He attended a few meetings or events that JBAKC sponsored and held at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was part of an effort to build support for his “Republic of New Afrika,” along with exploring solidarity efforts with Puerto Rican nationalists. Both groupings held controversial views regarding the origin and spread of U.S. imperialism, along with what was to be done to combat it.

With all due respect for the dead, Chokwe, sorry to say, struck me as a bit of a pompous ass who hadn’t bothered to either admit or examine the inherent contradictions of pairing black nationalism with socialism. The idea that nationalism was somehow a necessary stepping stone for formerly colonized/exploited peoples on their inevitable route to socialism had never borne itself out historically. Nor were there any signs of it bearing fruit anywhere in the world then, or now for that matter. It was, and still is, a dead end in the battle for hearts and minds, seemingly torn between joining the forces of McWorld or an international/multicultural jihad.

***I just recently discovered some documents regarding my political activist work with JBAKC at a website called “The Freedom Archives” that folks of a similar political or philosophical ilk might find interesting.***

I’ll let the old Washington, D.C. hardcore punk band, Minor Threat, have the last word on this.

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