A Debate: Do Greens Need a 'People of Color' Caucus?
EDITOR'S NOTE: My op-ed below is the first of a series to be published in Green Focus on applying Green values for people of color. Breaking the Democrat-Republicans monopoly on American politics requires the destruction of big city Democratic Party Machines to which many of us have emotional attachments. It's important for Greens to free our minds from the tyranny of Democrat-Republican old politics about race and ethnicity. Thus, we need to consider if we need a "People of Color Caucus" at all.
I am posting this essay on www.greencommons.com. Many will disagree vigorously. Good. Accept this challenge: Post a comment with your thoughts; write an 800-word op-eds for Green Focus and send it to don.boring@gmail.com .
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.
Black Power -- 1967
At the height of the civil rights struggle, Stokely Carmichael, a Howard University student, was regional director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He helped register voters and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Lyndon Johnson, with typical "liberal" cowardice, refused to support the MFDP against the all-white, racist Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic Convention. After two more years of "conservative" terror, Carmichael gave his first "Black Power" speech in Mississippi, urging black pride and independence.
MEChA -- 1969
The heroic struggle of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers similarly roused California's "sleeping giant." In 1969, students founded Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) - rejecting namby-pamby liberal "assimilation and accommodationist melting pot ideology." A MEChA leader at UCLA leader was a firebrand called Tony Villar. When Villar married the lovely Corina Raigosa he took the name Antonio Villaraigosa.
One lecture by Stokely Carmichael changed my life. For this young, naive, kid in "conservative" Virginia, Black Power was liberating in 1967.
"Hack Power" -- 2007
Today, I'm grieved to report that in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, those liberating slogans of my youth, co-opted by Democratic Party Machines, are used to rationalize 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." Failure generates calls for 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.
Political refugees come into our party with emotional baggage. People of color fear Greens using "white privilege" to abuse us. We don't trust our Euro-American brothers not to be forming a lynch mob around the next corner. Isn't that what white Clinton Democrats do when the going gets tough? So, we defend using the only tools we know: imitation Democratic Party caucuses for "difference" worship.
Time to reject this organizing model. Let's organize around ideas like the "Green for All" campaign (www.greenforall.org) to train kids in green trades and around issues like clean air, water, health care, and schools. Focus on winning elections with candidates like Green Party Mayor Gayle McLaughlin in the tough city of Richmond. Attack racist conservatives in Republican suburbs and sleazy liberals in Democratic cities. Banish fear and build trust by working and winning together.
Here's my last point. Twentieth century socialism and nationalism have failed. The only global visions left are corporate capitalism and radical Islam. God forbid humanity having to choose! Our Green key values are what the world needs now even if we don't have sense enough to know it. All my life somebody has tried to tell me where to go, what to do, what to like, who to love, how to dance, vote, and worship because of the group I was born into 58 years ago. I hate this! I'll bet a couple other billion people on this planet hate it, too. Every woman is my sister. Every man is my brother. Let's be the change we want to see.
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When I transitioned between 8th grade elementary school and freshman status in high school, I also moved from a tiny Illinois farm community in the smallest county in the USA to the giant (to my mind) city of Flagstaff, AZ. That was the year when Brown vs. Board of Education was finally being implemented. The Principal of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School (all black) was Wilson Riles... later to become Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of California.
The controversy that Dr. Riles had to deal with was one of the pecking order of racism. There were many Dunbar School parents who did not want to send their children to school with those "dirty ____". The solution was to condemn the building as unsafe. (It was later sold and used as a manufacturing facility.)
In California, Alex is going to be called another Ward Connerly after the black University of California Regent who was famously against affirmative action in eduction.
The first statement is an illustration of just how deep the roots of racial tensions went in this country. The second illustrates just how divided things remain.
Alex is right. The only solution is to be the change we want to see. That means every day, in every way to act as if race were not a factor, even when we know it is.
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente
So far I’m surprised and disappointed that I haven’t 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
I hope it is OK for a "working person" to respond to this thread. I would like to see a "People of Color" group form for the purpose of working together to solve common problems. For example, I am an active member of the NAACP and one of the duties members take on is to visit inmates in Southwest Riverside County's French Valley jail. The branch president approach me and asking about any chance of locating people from the Latino community to check out the Latino inmates in this jail. I am very sorry to say I wasn't able to do this and the idea of a People of Color working group might be a solution if the people can work together.
Thanks for your comment.
This is a good example of a good reason for having the caucus.
B.T.W. I am pleased that your NAACP leadership in broad-minded enough to care about out Latino brothers. That's the kind of thing that keeps hope alive.
Alex Walker
The problem I see with this, is that it almost always (not directly, but still by implication) excludes and demonizes "white" people. It implies that "white" people neither care, nor are capable of caring, about the problems faced by people of color. It denies them full access to some channels of communication that may benefit us all.
For instance, there is a large Latino population in the Congressional District in which I'm running. Unfortunately, I don't speak Spanish (un poquito solo). Since community communications are *all* in Spanish, I'm completely locked out from developing a better understanding of the very people I wish to help.
I respectfully maintain that, while the celebration of difference may be a good thing for cultural purposes, in the political arena it is counterproductive and potentially harmful.
Just my own opinion, and I appreciate hearing yours.
--Alan
Dear Alan,
Your post reminded me of a classic story from the annals of crazy New York politics:
Somehow, someway, I'd like to see the Green Party strong enough to do that to Richard M. Daley's Evil Empire in Chicago.
Why would Greens who claim to value diversity and sustainability have a problem with "People of Color" forming a caucus? Greens have been caucusing for years without "people of color". I doubt very seriously if "people of color" are caucusing out of fear or because of some separatist ideology. If that were the case why would they join the Green Party in the first place? Personally, I enjoy the cultural exchange, look forward to sharing experiences, socializing, the conversation, the passion, the meeting of the minds, the change of pace, the rhythm, the rhyme. It's not about imitating democrats or republicans it just something that people who have things in common do, it comes natural.
One would have to ask the question; Why would "people of color" forming a caucus pose a threat or generate fear among those who are outside of the group? Why would a "people of color" caucus make other Greens feel uncomfortable or be perceived as a threat to other Greens?
What about those "people of color" who don't want to belong to the caucus? Are they viewed more favorably or somehow more Green than those who do?
"People of color" for the most part are tribal by nature, with a legacy which is spiritually connected to mother nature, healers not destroyers of the earth. Being Green comes natural to most of us. Sometimes we just need to get together among ourselves to handle our business. Why should it even be an issue or the subject of a debate? Every life form, every animal, every species on the planet naturally congregates or instinctively gravitates to its kind.
As far as this writer is concerned its the natural thing to do.
For more information visit the Black Caucus Website: http://gpblackcaucus.blogspot.com
Peace,
Diane F White
and have been condemned for it. Being white, middle aged and middle class I understand fully that I cannot understand completely what the Black Experience is like. Similarly I can't completely understand what the Latino, GLBT, Disabled or Elderly Experience is like. Even so, real life experience inside the Green Party has shown me that these caucuses can have negative impacts on the GP.
With the notable exception of the Lavender Caucus, none of the caucuses can be said to have helped grow the Green Party. The Women's Caucus leadership outright lied about their numbers, and kept one of Michigan's most effective Green leaders from joining for over a year because she was a pre-operative transgendered woman. The past leadership of the Black Caucus ran that caucus into the ground, and allowed one of my state's best activists to become so unhappy that he quit the party altogether. Even with such high profile Latino Greens as Matt Gonzalez and Peter Camejo, the efforts to organize a Latino Caucus seem to have been unsuccessful.
I dis-agree with you Alex if you are saying that affirmative action has no role to play any longer. I don't believe that affirmative action is destructive to minority communities, and do believe that we as a society must make reparations for past abuses of groups, not only individuals.
All that said, I am open to caucuses...IF they can be shown to benefit the whole. Within the Green Party, I don't think that case can be made.
Sorry Alex...I can't disagree very much. Maybe next time. *Grin*
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Interesting discussion.
I have mixed feelings about if there should be caucuses for separate identities in the Green Party. I identify as "white." As a woman, I do believe that it is beneficial sometimes to have a place apart to discuss things. There is such patriarchy in our society, that with almost any man in the room, the women's demeanor changes, and women's voices get more quiet.
I do think that it helps to have places for people of color to speak among themselves. Maybe it should be people of color and their allies. Because, in many groups where there are a lot of white people, no one is allowed to use the word "racism." It is just a breath of fresh air to be around people who can acknowledge that racism exists. (All the other time, we are all holding our breath about the elephant in the room.)
For better of worse, the Green Party of the United States currently has caucuses, and a method for creating new caucuses.
There is a committee--the GP-US Diversity Committee--which exists to nurture new caucuses, and to be a place to share issues of diversity. It is different than other committees, in that it is designed to be open to any enrolled green.
The committee's productivity and communications ebb and flow. Though, the list-serve they run is always a good place to post information about candidates of diversity, or issues relating to diversity.
If green would like to join, they can send a subscribe message, and wait for an answer back where they will get verification from their state party that they are a green.
The subscribe e-mail is: gpusdiversity-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
I am a non-voting member of the committee. I truly enjoy the fact of its existence, and hope for bright things from this committee. If you have trouble subscribing, you could let me know, and I will try to direct inquiries to the right people.
My e-mail is votewilder at yahoo dot com.
Peace,
Kimberly Wilder
I want to say first of all that I agree that we Greens are way too defensive when it comes to racism. I am a white man born and raised in the United States, a racist and sexist society. It should not be shocking to anyone when a white man raised in the US turns out to be a racist. Instead, we should all try to spot it in ourselves and recognize and resist it. I did not go to Reading, so I was not a part of the racism workshop, and I am sure many would disagree with my assessment.
I also want to make myself clear on one point. I believe firmly in self-identifying people coming together in organizations of their own design. I would have zero problem with "Green Women United" refusing to admit Steffie Loveless, but an official organ of the Green Party must meet a higher standard in my mind. Likewise, if "Lavender Greens" wants to demand proof of one's sexual orientation for membership, I have a problem with that, so long as they are an official organ. As an independent group of Greens they should be free to establish whatever rules they wish, but groups associated officially with the party, especially groups given voting status, have been more of a pain than a benefit in the past.
I'd prefer to see the party encouraging the growth of decentralized affinity groups of Greens. I can't help but thinking that the spirit of the Clamshell Alliance would guide us at least as well as the spirit of an old-politics caucus format.
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