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Leigh Horne's avatar

This is well said, even if it's hardly earth shattering news. However, the devil's in the details and Professor Mandami's take on the genocidal war in Rwanda is telling. I found myself wondering, though, if class warfare might not have emerged--perhaps not to the same degree-without the machinations of colonialist powers. I see hints and know personally of instances of what might be viewed as class warfare here in the US. Take the miners' strike at Matewan, WV, for example. Nobody had to be 'othered' for those miners, who were more ethnically diverse than you might imagine, to want a living wage. And it was clear that they were right about 'the enemy' when that enemy hired gun-toting Pinkertons to mow them down (men, women and children) en masse for the affront of trying not to die of privation while the mine owners lived the life of Riley. I feel encouraged by the fact that Zohran's voters were ethnically, religiously and to some extent economically diverse. IMO what we need is to see the plain fact that our worst oppressors are the wealthy whose only true belief is in their right to rule, be they tech broliarchs, petrochemical billionaire,s pharmaceutical billionaires or what have you. Including of course their bought and paid for politicians at every level. Fingers crossed the coalition holds and increases to the point where the fog of misinformation parts and we recognize our common interest in and right to justice and equality. The ultra wealthy do suffer from a kind of mass psychosis, which has been described in various ways, and because they're totally crazed, they must be sidelined.

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Jennifer Browdy, PhD's avatar

Thanks for this, Daniel. I was familiar with Mamdani's work in postcolonial studies, and loved Mira Nair's films as they came out, but had no idea until the NYT explainer finally came out, that they were Zohran's parents. So interesting how these complicated skeins of geography and history weave together, blossoming into our present moment. I take Zohran's success as a glimmer of hope. We desperately need liberal/left young people to get engaged, although even as I say that I waver because I know how dangerous it could be for them. So far the anti-Trump movement in the US is missing that irresistible tide of youthful energy, which has been channeled online for the most part. Let's see if it comes out of the smartphone and on to the streets in the coming months....

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