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A review by outcolder
Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat from Mayflower to Modern by J. Sakai
5.0
I've seen some shady negative reviews on goodreads and it seems like they're from people who haven't read it. Sakai is definitely not anti-Marxist. He quotes and refers to Marx often and sympathetically. He does the same with some points from Lenin's book on Imperialism. He does write about Marcus Garvey, but only in the chapter about that time in history, and he makes it clear that Garvey was a capitalist and that is not what Sakai envisions for the Republic of New Afrika. So I think maybe some butthurt CP people are just writing reviews based on what someone told them this book was and I ask them to recognize that all struggles against oppression are interconnected and you can't build a mass movement without listening and reading the voices of the oppressed.
There are some appendixes in this PM press edition including an interview with Sakai that left me optimistic about the Settler mindset fading away or being 'replaced' to use the settler term for it. Nowadays, with the "Freedom Caucus" making the "Tea Party" look normal by comparison, the masks are off and people who want a more just world are more ready to confront these settler myths. Earlier this week Ben and Jerrys posted something about giving the stolen land back, and maybe that's not worth more than a Sacagawea dollar but it seems a million miles from when the CIO was betraying people of color. Obviously, decolonization is going to be a long, painful, at times violent road, but it's really a key part of turning off the doom loop. Reading this book with an open mind is a step on that road.
There are some appendixes in this PM press edition including an interview with Sakai that left me optimistic about the Settler mindset fading away or being 'replaced' to use the settler term for it. Nowadays, with the "Freedom Caucus" making the "Tea Party" look normal by comparison, the masks are off and people who want a more just world are more ready to confront these settler myths. Earlier this week Ben and Jerrys posted something about giving the stolen land back, and maybe that's not worth more than a Sacagawea dollar but it seems a million miles from when the CIO was betraying people of color. Obviously, decolonization is going to be a long, painful, at times violent road, but it's really a key part of turning off the doom loop. Reading this book with an open mind is a step on that road.