Q, Elaine, and Gavin discuss chapters 1-5 of Settlers, by J. Sakai. We break down the book’s analysis of America’s white mythos and how it is still directly applicable to current events, such as the MAGA riots at the Capitol last Wednesday.

It’s increasingly clear that the settler attitude Sakai described has not changed in 400 years and that continues to prescribe how white America makes its decisions. What happened at the capitol wasn’t a coup or insurrection. It didn’t challenge the class interests of power, the petit bourgeoisie just want their slice of the pie. Focusing only on the racism of the white working class is a shallow argument because it’s not the racism that’s the problem, it’s the class alliance underlying the racism.

Settlers explains the desperation, fears and aspirations of the settler-aspiring class, why radical organizing tends to drift toward liberalism and the neocolonial policy of installing a petit bourgeoise ruling class as representatives of POC groups inside and outside the US. This includes every form of representation politics from representAZNs to Syngman Rhee. To understand what is happening, and for us to organize effectively, we need to understand real US history, not just the white revisionist version, or ethnic studies offshoots.

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REFERENCES:

West Bank Robbery Podcast (https://west-bank-robbery.captivate.fm/)

Interview with J Sakai by Decolo (https://soundcloud.com/decolo/j-sakai)

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