Ethnocide and American Politics with Barrett Holmes Pitner

Ethnocide is a word Barrett both coined and resurrected, referring to the destruction of a people’s culture while keeping the people. From Barrett’s point of view, Trump’s re-election is not cause for disbelief, but a glaring reminder of what America has been since its inception: a country founded by white men for the purposes of wealth accumulation, whose rhetoric of freedom and equality has always been tenuous alongside its prevalence of white supremacy and patriarchy.

 

In this conversation Jenny and Barrett discuss:

• Why Trump's re-election did not surprise Barrett and how it reflects something fundamental about American politics
• The bad faith and lies underlying American democracy
• The distinction between freedom from and freedom with
• The importance of language in addressing systemic oppression
• What ethnocide means and its origin
• Capitalism and ethnocide
• Existentialism and the notions of existence vs. essence
• White essence in the United States
• What identity means to Barrett
• Why the Hegelian dialectic and critical theory are essential to understand and combat ethnocide
• What culture means to Barrett
• Ethnogenesis: creating and birthing culture
• Barrett's Altars of American project: a ritual to combat ethnocide
• Eŭ-topia: a sustainable, good, nurturing place
• How we can transcend systemic oppression by cultivating Eŭ-topian spaces

 

Resources:

• The Crime Without A Name: Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America
• The Sustainable Culture Lab
• Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

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