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

[Andrea Dorey]

Gawd, I get tired of people who can't learn from the last 30 minutes,  
let alone the past...and we'll *all* doomed to repeat, repeat, REPEAT!!
(disgusted)
Andrea

On Jul 5, 2007, at 12:10 PM, alexcathy at aol.com wrote:

> 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 jus t 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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