NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8530

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From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: EYES WIDE OPEN AND COLOR BLIND
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{Excerpts from Issue #8, National Committee for Independent
Political Action}

                  EYES WIDE OPEN AND COLOR BLIND
                        by David Billings

(The following are excerpts from a speech given by David Billings
of the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond, at a conference
at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in March)

...Let me say this first: Racism is not just an issue. Those of
us who think so have the privilege to do so. It is an evil. It
does not go on and off the social agenda in America. Racism
kills. It is murder sanctioned by the state and its institutions.
Racism is cultural genocide. It is not to be a part of our list
of "isms." We must understand that when racism is added to any
other oppression--be it that of gender or class or religion--that
oppression becomes even more deadly and more insidious to deal
with. "Racism is evil, we must kill it", to quote that white hero,
John Brown...

   My first truth is this: You can't fight racism without
choosing sides. Vincent Harding, the black Mennonite theologiian,
put the question to song when he asked in the Civil Rights
anthem, "Whose Side Are You On?" Being anti-racist demands a
lifestyle change on all our parts. Acting normal in America is to
conform to racism. Racism is so ingrained, so infused throughout
the institutions and societal behavior patterns of our nation
that to be anti-racist in Ameria is to be a deviant--it is to act
abnormal. That is why John Brown is said to have been crazy--a
madman. For to be anti-racist and white in this society, you have
to be a little kooky.

RACISM IS WHAT, EXACTLY?

   Racism is not prejudice. It is not bigotry or discrimination.
Racism is not even hatred. These attitudes, beliefs and practics
can be and are manifestations of racism. They are ways of acting
out manifestations of racism. They are ways of acting out of
racist ideology. But racism is something more. Racism is a
structured phenomenon created and devised in the Europe of the
15th and 16th centuries to justify the economic, cultural and
religious oppression of people of color--Africans, Asians,
native and indigenous peoples, and people we now call Indo-Asian
or Arabs. It was created for the purpose of expropriating their
resources and appropriating their lands. Racism was exported from
Europe around the world as an ideological defense for greed,
colonialism and cultural imperialism. Racism is NOT (and herein
lies the HOPE for those who seek the Truth) endemic to all people
(not even to Europeans or "white" people as we have come to
prefer to call ourselves). And yes, all people can be prejudiced
and hateful or downright ornery and mean. But racism has to do
with the Power to carry out race prejudice, to enforce it, and ut
use it to control and dominate others. We will never eradicate
racism until we understand what it is. Racism is a contrived and
arbitrary structural arrangement that Europeans established to
define status and worth on the basis of "white-skin" privilege
with the state power necessary to legitimately back it up.

   Here is the hard truth for some of us: Racism, as different from
bigotry or prejudice, is a white people's problem. It has to do,
not with our biology or our genetics as white people, but with
our power.

...POWER, real power, in this world is in the hands of white
people--and if you doubt it or don't believe it, our recent
military excursion into the Middle East should have cleared that
up for you once and for all.

....This nation made incredible, historical, and foundational
changes in the way we live, work, and learn together gbetween
1960 and 1980. Deep and profound changes occurred in our society
that benefited everybody (and I emphasize everybody) because of
what we call the Civil Rights Movement. We are today losing those
hard fought gains , and we must organize to stop the efforts to
turn back the clock. But let's not ever forget that we---men and
women of color, white women, working class and poor white males,
the aged, the differently-abled, the gays and lesbians of our
society--gained because of the resistance and the struggle that
culminated in the 60's peoples movements. We didn't get to the
mountaintop, but we were out of the valley for a short time, and
we could see the shapes of the hills in the distance. But we have
been beaten back; disheartened by the lies and the myths fed to
us. There is no such thing as reverse discrimination against
white men in our society---certainly not as a collective,
certainly not as legislated policy, and rarely in private,
individual action. These are dangerous lies being spread to keep
us from coming together as a whole people---black, white, brown
mena and women together.

 ....Reverse discrimination is an old racist ploy to foment
dissension and division among working and unemployed people.
Working people and unemployed people whould dissent, not against
each other, but against an economic system that is unequal and
unjust. White men are not being passed over because of negligible
employment gains of white women and men and women of color. All
workers in the U.S. are being passed over b ecause of corporate
policies seeking to maximize profits by exploiting the low-wage
economies of other, invariably "third world" countries. Remember,
the truth is what will set us free--not the lies. The lies are
destroying us. We must kill racism....

(You can join NCIPA and subscribe to their discussion papers by
writing them at Box 170610, Brooklyn, NY 11217. A sub is $10.)
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