Kevin Tucker vs. APOC
An "anarcho-primitivist" zine, Go Light, was recently criticized by an Anarchist People Of Color (APOC) Caucus. Supposed White anarchist Kevin Tucker editor of Species Traitor and Black & Green threw his hat in the ring with a jaw-droppingly racist and liberal crit of The People of Color Caucus.
It is relatively old news in anarchist internet circles with much of the dialogue going to defend Kevin and pretend that race (and thus, racist oppression) doesn't exist. So I am hesitant to jump into the tired fray. I primarily do so to support anarchists of Color and to promote Harjit Singh Gill who wrote an EXCELLENT piece regarding the matter.
I agree with everything Harjit wrote and so maybe I don't even have much else worth typing.
I do think that Kevin's inane rant and the arguments in support of him suffer from one primary flaw that plagues anarchy like a cancer: unchecked privileged Whiteness. These White primies are so concerned with shrugging off the 'oppression' of responsibility, they reject all the decades of struggle against Whiteness WITHIN radical circles as simply Marxist/Leftist and thus bad.
If us White anarchists expect to be worth anything in a global fight against oppression, we are going to have to learn to listen to People of Color and allow them to take (at least some of) the lead.
Fuck Kevin Tucker! He is a privileged White Liberal. I eagerly await his visit to 924 Gilman St.
APOC
______
I am reminded of a book I think is worth reading (especially for those preoccupied with animal rights/liberation):
Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
It is relatively old news in anarchist internet circles with much of the dialogue going to defend Kevin and pretend that race (and thus, racist oppression) doesn't exist. So I am hesitant to jump into the tired fray. I primarily do so to support anarchists of Color and to promote Harjit Singh Gill who wrote an EXCELLENT piece regarding the matter.
I agree with everything Harjit wrote and so maybe I don't even have much else worth typing.
I do think that Kevin's inane rant and the arguments in support of him suffer from one primary flaw that plagues anarchy like a cancer: unchecked privileged Whiteness. These White primies are so concerned with shrugging off the 'oppression' of responsibility, they reject all the decades of struggle against Whiteness WITHIN radical circles as simply Marxist/Leftist and thus bad.
If us White anarchists expect to be worth anything in a global fight against oppression, we are going to have to learn to listen to People of Color and allow them to take (at least some of) the lead.
Fuck Kevin Tucker! He is a privileged White Liberal. I eagerly await his visit to 924 Gilman St.
APOC
______
I am reminded of a book I think is worth reading (especially for those preoccupied with animal rights/liberation):
Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights
posted by shane at 7:22 PM
12 Comments:
"Making a Killing" is an INCREDIBLE book. No one has made such an incredible analysis/synthesis on the modern animal rights movement like Bob Torres. His incorporation of Political Economy, Marxist/Anarchist social AND economic theories as well as criticism of big "names" and organizations within the movement is brilliant.
-Bryan Gigantino
P.S. It's been a while! I'm in Santa Cruz and don't really make it up to the East Bay that often...but since you told me about your blog I've read it on a regular basis. Keep it up!
wtf, dude?!?! seriously.
Dustin,
??
Are you talkin about my thinly veiled threat for his appearance at Gilman?
Kevin didn't just say he disagreed with APOC. He aggressively attacked them for any attempt at any crit that brought up race. Then, on MySpace, he rather aggressively dissed Harjit.
It isn't like I am gonna swing on him. But his band ought to be ready for some serious heckling. (There. I spilled the beans. Now he can prepare some witty comebacks.)
To paraphrase Kevin: You can't sit on the fence.
I have chosen my allies.
(Kevin Tucker really isn't a big deal... Unlike Ron Burgundy.)
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Thanks for stepping up Shane. As Boots Riley once put it, you can't change shit if yor riding the fence.
I appreciate your serious tone and commitment to the cause. It's been weird watching my 'friends' ignore the rather personalized nature of the shit-talk on APOC (a lot of it directed at me personally and at the idea/concept/movement in general.)
And it must be easy for most of the people we know to sorta middle ground it; I mean, at the end of the day, they don't see racial justice/ending white supremacy as as nearly as necessary because of their position in that very hierarchy. Ending white supremacy doesn't have to be a goal/focal point of most white people, except those acting in concert with POC struggles.
It's also interesting that people are confused/put off by yor pretty strong stance on this. Almost like "well, it's one thing for Harj to do it, he's brown; but Shane, you? Your one of us, remember?"
I mean that in an honest critique of what I feel like happens around hardcore in general around this topic. As if the chug chug is the great uniter and the primary contradiction to struggle on against capitalism.
but solidarity is a beautiful and powerful thing.
-harjit
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Y'all are FUCKING MORONS. If you think I'm a white supremacist, maybe you should wake the fuck up.
I NEVER SAID RACE ISN'T A FUCKING ISSUE.
GET IT THROUGH YOUR FUCKING SKULLS.
What I did say CLEARLY is THAT YOUR BULLSHIT PICTURE BOOK 'CRITIQUE' OF PRIMITIVISM IS GARBAGE. That your shit is so fucking weak that instead of arguing with AP, some douche bags tried to have it LABELED AWAY.
WEAK SHIT.
Ask the motherfucker in the white power shirt in N.C. last weekend what I think of white supremacists. He wasn't ready to fight, but if you show up at Gilman for one, you better be fucking ready.
P.S. while xharjitx is thinking of moshing peregrine, be careful cause the other guitarist would only deserve 'half' your rage. HAHAHA. Maybe you should tell him what a white supremacist I am.
Oh yeah, and if you're looking for racism among anarchists, there are actually racist anarchists that we've been fighting all along. Or maybe you should take a second look at the TWO images with "People of Color" in Clifford Harpers' 'Visual Guide to Anarchism'. Or maybe think twice about standing behind leftist douche bag Marxists who've only every caused the genocide and slavery of indigenous ('non-white') peoples. Or MAYBE you should READ a zine before trying to write it off. Or MAYBE you should find how A MILIEU OF ANARCHISM THAT STANDS BEHIND MILLIONS OF YEARS OF PRIMARILY 'NON-WHITE' INDIGENOUS SOCIETIES, FIGHTS TO PROTECT EXISTING ONES, ATTACKS THE ROOTS OF RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC CULTURE, AND SO ON is RACIST, while a group of urban douche bags deciding that IMAGES of INDIGENOUS CHILDREN LIVING HAPPILY IS RACIST and then spouts off ONE PIECE OF HISTORICAL FICTION AS THE STANDARD FOR AN ENTIRE CONTINENT'S CULTURES has ANY GIVEN RIGHT TO DETERMINE WHAT IS OR ISN'T RACIST.
Or MAYBE y'all could THINK for a SECOND and try and see how any of what I said has ANYTHING TO DO WITH RACE.
Cause if I'm racist for being white and speaking, well, fuck, better toss the towel in and get a polo shirt, some dock shoes, and khaki shorts and just embrace it.
Are you blind or just dumb?
I didn't call APOC morons. I didn't say ANYTHING about POC. I'm saying this issue isn't about RACE.
It's BECOME an issue of RACE because some morons apparently can't argue good enough, so they'd RATHER WRITE ISSUES OFF THAN CONFRONT THEM.
So FUCK OFF.
And when did this ever become some APOC speaking for anarchist POCs anyways? I know far more anarchist POC saying this is SHIT than otherwise, and you best believe that if you're looking for a fight at gilman, they'll be standing with me. Not as KT the WHITE MAN, but as someone who will back up a friend who has been CARELESSLY ATTACKED for BULLSHIT REASONS by people with more MOTIVES THAN ARGUMENTS.
-Kevin Tucker
It has been a long time since I have fought...now I def can't wait to head out west...if anybody touches Kevin-IT IS ON...
And yes, kids will be getting their asses beat by a female who is only half white.
Cocoa
how can Kevin Tucker be racist if he shows solidarity with hunter-gatherers? who by historical circumstance happen to be mainly non-white. if anything, youre the real morons here cause you dont know shit about these people or the oppression these people have been under.
if you fucking assholes knew anything about these people youd understand that just about EVERY anthropologist who has worked with hunter-gatherers, before and in transition to settled life, have let them LEAD THEMSELVES, helping them with what they ask. Take for example, the Marshall's who have done 100 fold more than any of you pathetic shit bag anarchists in the city ever did by helping the Ju/'Hoansi get a bore hole drilled in the middle of the Nyae Nyae when settlement became state enforced and civil wars were conscripting people into state military institutions and their peripheries were war zones.
after reading "SHANEDANGERS" blog about the topic, it shows that you idiots have no clue what Kevin's interests are, while you throw around rhetoric fucking off in cities on computers.
try to act like hardcore shows are some battle ground for your pathetic lives. ive seen that shit before on the same white privilege topics over 10 years ago - why? cause me and my friends were on that shit while you dorks were still watching Nickelodeon in your upstate parents house shitting your diapers. hardcore and punk never fucking responded cause youre all pathetic, uncoordinated kids latching onto some ideology to feel like your life isnt a complete waste of time. also, the group we worked UNDER their leadership was a black socialist organization. who mostly worked there? WHITE PEOPLE. how hard was it for them to organization in the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago? TERRIBLE. why? because real people dont give two fucking shits about your stupid commie/anarcho ideology when theyre trying to feed themselves, work two jobs, pay bills and raise families. people would drift in and out and disappear. the only people who stuck were white people or college kids who had time to waste like yourselves.
the funniest thing is that you actually think your "judgment" on the zine at this "Caucus" was some held some actual power as a "threat." what a joke. go to kevin and the go light people next time instead of making yourselves look like assholes.
heckle all you want. thats all you got. youd be dead in 4 seconds flat if any real state violence happened to your shitty scene of politics.
eat shit,
karl - in solidarity for the autonomy of hunter-gatherers future, past and present
Wow!
I never expected that much feedback or threats. I hadn't even checked these comments in a while.
Kevin- You obviously didn't get the subtleties of my(/our) critique. By dismissing issues raised by POC because you believe your critique on race or lack thereof to be superior, you are just taking the White way out.
You, and all White anarchists, should be able to listen to the POC in our midsts for guidance on issues that directly affect them more than us.
It was never about some zine. It is about your attack on POC who spoke up.
(I love how you dismissed an organized group of anarchist POC with some "my best friend is Black" line!)
And solidarity with POC doesn't mean romanticizing peoples and ways of life long gone. Sorry.
Now for the threats, Kevin, Cocoa, & Karl...
Don't bother coming to the Bay lookin' for a fight. You have no idea.
Long live real revolution!
Death to lifestyle politics!
Maybe the author of this shitty blog and harjit and other defenders of any kind of industrial order should go and tell the remaining hunting and gathering peoples in Kenya, Brazil, Canada, Mongolia, Indonesia and a thousand other places that their way of life is "long gone" and therefore any solidarity with the wholeness of their cultures is just romanticization.
They (and the spirits of nearly every indigenous community [usually of color] on the planet since the beginning of civilization) will probably tell you that being against industrial society is the first and best kind of anti-racism.
aden-
haha, you feel you're qualified to tell us how to speak to our people?? we're way more connected to them than any white anarcho zine or white anarchist will ever be. so fuck off with the "you're industrial" bullshit just because we all have different critiques.
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