On The Cover
Staff
| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| • April-May 1992 | Newspaper: Funded by Syracuse University students. | |
| The Alternative Orange: Vol. 1, No. 5 (pp. 2) | ||
| • August 27, 2000 | Webpage:  . | |
| DocBook XML (DocBk XML V3.1.3) from original. | ||
The systematic oppression of particular groups under the late capitalist regime in the U. S. is so ubiquitous as to even influence the organizations that struggle for freedom from these oppressions. This month’s cover addresses the divisive tactics with which members of these groups often unknowingly sabotage other members, reproduce and thereby perpetuate historical systems of oppressions of which they do not have a totalizing theory — a theory which enables the clear recognition of oppression and divisive tactics when they occur.
In the particular social historical context of this image, the struggle to overcome racist oppression and imperialism is shown to be fettered by the divisive force of sexism. This force comes from the dominant theories of capitalism and supports capitalism; it does not come from women and feminists fighting for the objective self interests of women of color and in particular African-American women. This example of division is one of many. This is to say that the various perspectives and theories held by subjects involved in liberatory struggles are by no means immune to the influences of oppressive discourses and material practices. All individuals have a theory, however unconscious, unquestioned or contradictory, on which they base all decisions. Oppression can be and is reproduced, ironically, within theory and practice in groups whose goal is to fight oppression. This cover image and this newspaper as well as all other liberatory organizations and texts must somehow overcome the oppressive theories and practices that divide them.
The image on the cover calls for a totalizing theory to make whole that which is rent asunder by the oppressive theories and practices that support late capitalism. We must totalize our understanding of the oppressions that divide and conquer us and apply this theory consistently to the practice of liberation; we must create a thoroughly theorized practice.
It is the omnipresence and commonsense of the oppressive theories and practices that necessitate a totalizing theory applied consistently for liberatory struggle to succeed. Any theory short of a totalizing theory and any practice not completely backed by a totalizing theory run the risk of reproducing oppressive theories and practices in the name of liberation. Without a conscious, critiqued theory that explains oppression as social and historical, subjects can fall into a commonsense, often “unconscious” theory and practice that assumes ahistoricity, locality and a personalized discourse. Ahistorical and localizing idealization ignores oppressive history and systems and assumes that at any point in history, mere inclusion of members of oppressed groups is the only prerequisite for “equality.” At the point of inclusion, all members are assumed “equal,” erasing differences in subjectivities, material resources, theories and practices, which are judged without reference to history or a structure outside of the idealized “equality.” What totalizing theory offers then, is an accountability of groups (and their members) which define their ultimate goal as social liberation, so that the divisive tactics and commonsensical, pragmatic attitudes which can so easily sabotage a group, become impossible to mistake for productive mechanisms toward transformation.
