Systemic Collapse and Renewal

Gregory K. Tanaka

Systemic Collapse and Renewal

How Race and Capital Came to Destroy Meaning and Civility in America and Foreshadow the Coming Economic Depression

PETER LANG

New York • Bern • Berlin

Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tanaka, Gregory Kazuo, editor.

Title: Systemic collapse and renewal: how race and capital came to destroy meaning and civility in America and foreshadow the coming economic depression / Gregory K. Tanaka.

Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018012792 | ISBN 978-1-4331-4740-1 (hardback: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4331-4826-2 (paperback: alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4745-6 (ebook pdf)

ISBN 978-1-4331-4746-3 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4747-0 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: United States—Race relations.

Racism—United States—History. | Capital—United States. | Courtesy—United States.

Classification: LCC E185.615.S97 2018 | DDC 305.800973—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018012792

DOI 10.3726/b11627

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

© 2018 Gregory K. Tanaka

Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006

www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

About the book

In a time of great U.S. and global social unrest and unravelling, Systemic Collapse and Renewal presents a blueprint for how Americans can respond to that unrest by reclaiming and rebuilding our democracy. Part I of the book traces the deep, underlying sources of the disintegration and collapse. Through storytelling, case history, and ethnography, it examines how a small group of “elites” used ethnic diversity resulting from global migration to the U.S. as a distraction while they implemented a planned, behind-closed-doors strategy to seize the democracy and ruin the middle class. With the former representative democracy hijacked by these moneyed interests, this book demonstrates that it remains quintessentially American to believe that there is always a way out, and that the encroaching acts of fascism by “elites” can be pushed back and defeated. Tapping into this optimism, Part II of Systemic Collapse and Renewal sets forth a path for democratic rebirth. That path begins by examining that which was taken away: the shared meanings (cultural norms, beliefs, and behaviors) that are deeply American and can be re-taught, celebrated, and once again used by Americans to build social cohesion as a country. Part II also urges a new U.S. educational and social movement based on mutual reliance—and on the healing of wounds—for an increasingly diverse country. Democratic renewal begins with the simple step of sharing our stories and our dreams about how to make a better world.

Advance Praise for Systemic Collapse and Renewal

“Gregory Tanaka’s piercingly personal account of the slow burn of racism, coupled with his incisive analysis of how greed has choked American democracy, renders his book as timely as it is heartbreaking. Yet Tanaka also manages to inspire with his deep conviction that out of the wreckage a new kind of collective human spirit—a true democracy of the people—might arise. A gorgeous blend of autobiographical reflection and sociopolitical critique.”

Mari Ruti, Distinguished Professor of Critical Theory and Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Toronto

“Gregory Tanaka’s moving and illuminative text is equal parts memoir and analysis of the ethnocultural predicament as it has evolved from his 1950s childhood to the present. It covers a wide range of experiences and tropes, yet all of them significantly American—business competition, baseball, public education, participatory democracy, the immigrant experience, and so on. In its most concerning moments, the book is, as Tanaka would say, ‘an anthropology of collapse.’ But then again, as it moves forward, it is also ‘an anthropology of renewal.’ I read in it promise. I read in it disappointment. I read in it possibility. This book feels like America. And I loved it.”

Kevin Michael Foster, President of the Council on Anthropology and Education, Founder of Blackademics Television on PBS TV, and Associate Professor, The University of Texas at Austin

“In this remarkable book, Gregory Tanaka—education researcher, legal scholar, social scientist, and activist—traces the causes of democratic collapse to the loss of ‘shared cultural meanings’ whereby relentless individualism eclipses the values of mutuality and responsibility to community. Part autoethnography, part shared storytelling, and part cultural, historical, and economic analysis, this compelling narrative takes readers into the halls of corporate and academic power, interrogating the role of race and capital in the seizure of democracy, and asks ‘what it means to be an American.’ But Tanaka’s narrative is more than a critique of democratic collapse—it is most importantly a humanizing proposal for democratic renewal through collective action and uplift. This is a highly accessible book for an interdisciplinary readership of scholars and educators. Even more, it is vital reading for emerging generations of change makers, and for policymakers and the diverse publics they serve.”

Teresa L. McCarty, G.F. Kneller Chair in Education and Anthropology and Faculty in American Indian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

“Gregory Tanaka has written a powerful treatise that not only explains the causes and effects of the 2008 global financial crisis but also presents a thorough and convincing argument on why the United States—and its entire socio-economic-political system—must be drastically reformed now to avert extended systemic collapse. A must-read for bankers on Wall Street!”

Allen T. Cheng, Contributing Editor, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC

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