[Sosfbay-discuss] Op-Ed on People of Color - for Green Focus

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Don, 

When is the next deadline for Green Focus submissions?

After all the web-surfing and blogging I've been doing on CA-37, now more than ever, I want to do that point-counterpoint I proposed a while ago about people-of-color in the Green Party.?

For this to be useful, we need somebody to do the "counterpoint."? As you all know by now, I myself, am very much against that peculiar?petite bourgeois black pseudo-nationalism that is now almost hegemonic among the African-American intellectuals. In my humble opinion, this peculiar style of politics is a throwback to the politics of the Democratic Party and liberal white universities?from the 1960s through the?1980s and into the 1990s.? Thus, Bill Clinton could crow about appointing a cabinet that "looked like America" even while they were busy screwing America.? Then, guess what?? George W. Bush, of all people, appointed a cabinet that was, arguably, even more "diverse" than Clinton's.? I mean, if color is all you care about then two Black secretaries of state and a Latino attorney general is hard to beat.? 

Frankly, one reason I left the Democratic Party was to get away from that bullshit.? I would hate to see the Green Party imitate the Democrats and go down that path.? Our?key values are not only?independent of?religious dogma and "ethnic politics" but our Green values are international and that is one of?our greatest strengths.? I want?a Green Party where a "Black issue" like, say, the criminal justice system and?the "Latino issue" on immigration are everybody's issues.? ????? 

I know I'm out of the mainstream, but I know I'm not crazy and I'm not alone.? Among big names, Adolph Reed, Gerald Early, Angela Davis, and sometimes Cornel West and Alice Walker agree with me? Adolph Reed is very active in the Labor Party (a waste) and his position is crystal clear.??His hometown is none other than New Orleans, Lousiana and?Adolph Reed went so far as to argue?that it was a mistake for progressives to frame the Katrina debacle as a "race" issue when, it's really more of a class thing.? In the world of big-league politics, Ron Dellums, Barbara Lee, Jesse Jackson, Jr. (not his daddy), John Lewis, and Cynthia McKinney should never have been Democrats.? In their souls they are Greens.? Having lived in both metropolitan areas, I gotta say there *IS* a qualitative difference between the "Green" Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee and the "liberal Democrat" Maxine Waters.? Maxine is a terrific liberal congresswoman, but just like old Ted Kennedy?back in?Boston,?Maxine sits atop a Big City Machine that ain't shit!???

To do this right,?somebody else must argue forcefully the other way.??I don't?want it to be said:?"Oh! Those Whites?Greens?trotted out Alex Walker to write what they like to hear."??I ain't no Green Clarence Thomas!? I want people to read?the two arguments side-by-side and reflect.?


Alex Walker??????
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