Cut To The Chesa
Dwight Garner's New York Times review of "radical royalty" Chesa Boudin's Gringo takes no prisoners. Garner makes clear that Boudin's memoir of his travels in Latin America does little more than traffic in cliches.
But underneath all those cliches, no doubt, is a lot of politics, learned at the feet of Boudin's Weather Underground parents and mentors. Shouldn't we be hearing more about that?
Garner does quote some of the ugly nuttiness of Boudin:
About the political activities of his parents, Mr. Boudin writes: “Certainly violence is illegitimate when it targets civilians or intends to cause generalized or widespread fear, but my parents never did either of those.” At another point, he adds that his parents “paid a heavy price for their radical politics.” They didn’t pay that heavy price for their politics. They paid it for the part they played in the deaths of three men.
Anyone who can idolize terrorist parents like that must have plenty of wild things to say. The review should have concentrated on that.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:18 AM
2 Comments:
The article says:
.... he attended the University of Chicago’s private school ....What does this mean? Does the University of Chicago consist of two schools, one public and one private? Or might this refer to a private high school associated with UC?
....He enjoys playing what he calls “the gringo wild card,” that is, accruing the serendipitous benefits that come to those with white skin. "White skin privilege" was a key Weatherman concept (and one of the few Weatherman concepts not drawn from some version of Marxism-Leninism).
To a significant degree, they were right about this. For example, after the Days of Rage, the weather leaders were all arrested, charged with serious felonies, and then released on bail, since they were white and had rich daddies. Then they went underground. In 1969, any Panthers who attacked cops like the W's did in the Days of Rage would never have been out on bail before trial.
It sounds oddly racist when you go back and read the Weatherman writings about how they wanted to create an "army of white youths", until you read further and realize that the Weathermen were convinced that the vanguard of the revolution were the Black Panthers, and that after the revolution the blacks in America would rule -- and rightfully so -- and that as white kids, the best they could do was to form a junior cadre and help the black revolutionaries.
Basically, the Weathermen worshipped the Panthers. And from what I have read, the Panthers thought the Weathermen were nuts.
Having attended U of C, I didn't even notice the reference to the private school. I assume he went to Chicago's Lab School, a private K through 12 institution that many academics' children have attended.
The concept of white skin privilege, of course, has permeated academia today. Whether a concentration on the concept helps or hurts black people is an open question.
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