[Sosfbay-discuss] Seeking Comments: 'Do Greens Need a People of Color Caucus?'

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Friends,  














So far I’m surprised and disappointed that I have not received a single negative
comment. C'mon people. I wrote this is to provoke a response.
Where are the "Identitarian" intellectuals who take this 
Separatist & Conformity Ideology as axiomatic?
Show yourselves!












Alex Walker


Los Angeles Greens












 









A Debate: Do Greens Need a 'People of Color' Caucus?



No - Let's Be The Change We Want to See


by Alex Walker 












"Be the change that you want to see in the world." -- Mohandas Gandhi













Let's have an "Urban Policy Caucus" on urban
sustainability, the "Drug War," large school systems, immigration,
etc. But please, no caucuses based on skin color. That's a throwback to the
1960s when "Leaders" pleaded for entry into segregated "smoke
filled rooms" of Democratic Party bosses and the Republican "Party of
Lincoln" became the "White Man's Party" of die-hard segregationists.













Americans revolted in the name of liberty and sanctioned
slavery. The French killed King Louis and crowned Emperor Napoleon. The
Russians killed Czar Nicholas in the name of socialism and consolidated his
empire under a corporate state. I have great personal respect for Greens
organizing this caucus, but I do not want Greens imitating race-obsessed
Democrats and Republicans.












. . . 












Today, I'm grieved to report that in all the big cities
of California -- Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland -- those
liberating Black Power slogans of my youth, co-opted by Democratic Party
Machines, are used to rationalize all manner of evil by reactionary preachers,
nutty professors, playboys, incompetents like Los Angeles Unified School
District bureaucrats, and outright gangsters like those promoting a
Black-Latino race war and killers from "Your Black Muslim Bakery" who
assassinated Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey in broad daylight.







 







Here's the group dynamic. First, "differences"
between "Us" and "Them" are wildly exaggerated. Next,
"difference" worship is declared a revolutionary end in itself.
Symbolic projects like naming lousy segregated institutions after Martin Luther
King and César Chávez; expressing conspicuous outrage over
"offensive" words and symbols; and pretending Kwanzaa is a real
"tradition" equivalent to Christmas creates an illusion of
"action." The inevitable failure of this feckless politics 
inevitably generates calls for even greater "unity" --
more separatism, conformity, and devotion to "Leaders." The only
mainstream criticism comes from the Far Right, which, of course, lends
credibility to bad "Leaders." This idiocy let's Clinton boast about
his cabinet of Yale corporate lawyers who "look like America." Even
Bush is lauded for the "First Black" mass murderer as secretary of
state and "First Latino" war criminal as attorney general. Scoundrels
like San Francisco's Willie Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
win applause parroting 1960s clichés even after betraying every decent public
and private commitment.












. . .







 






Read More and Leave a Comment at:
http://www.greencommons.org/node/870



 


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