Superstructures

Cultural racism & the illusion of democracy

In response to “My People: It is not your job to educate racists.” by Thaddeus Howze.

My belief, and it extends way beyond the shores of the US, is that racism is far worse than a cultural phenomenon. Rather, it is structural racism or oppression that is the problem & without radical structural reform little is going to change our society beyond the occasional paint job over a bad body-shell to make us go back to sleep.

It is the superstructures of society that maintain the status quo. These superstructures include education, religion, mass media, financial, the political & the judicial systems. They all work together to reinforce what we accept as normal from the cradle to the grave.

True structural reform takes the form of warfare or revolution both of which usually incur violence & the loss of life often on an industrial scale.

Those whom benefit from the status quo have no motivation to change it & each time the status quo comes under attack the superstructures that maintain society as we know it rush in to reinforce what Marx called “the base”. We saw this right after the imminent collapse of the financial system in 2008 where, we the people, were legally obliged through taxation to support the elite for our benefit.

The base of western & soon global society is the economy that supports the straight white patriarchy. Those elites at the top of this society, the often faceless ones, control the superstructures & will not give them up without a fight. For the rest of us the superstructures keep us in a state of somnambulism & distracted from the painful truth that is so often evident.

For my childrens & future generations sake I would hope to see a peaceful structural reform that provides each & everyone of us with equity in society but I don’t think we can get there without a fight. But recognising the superstructures for what they are is at least part or the start of an emergent consciousness.