Where will the color be in Seattle?

As TUPOCC gets set to convene at the National Lawyers Guild convention in Seattle, we also mark our committee's fifth anniversary and the tenth anniversary of the "N30" WTO demonstrations in Seattle. We have the most opportune moment to re-examine questions that many of us, both whites and POCs on the left, were asking about anti-capitalism movements at the beginning of this decade.

Four months after N30, the anti-capitalism movement reconvened in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2000. ColorLines magazine asked, "Where was the color at A16?"

While Seattle is a relatively white location, D.C. promised a far better opportunity to mobilize people of color: its majority African American population has a long history of international action and other large East Coast populations of color are nearby.... Indeed, a significant number of people of color participated in the D.C. actions, as they had in Seattle. Still, A16 was probably proportionately even whiter....

Writing for the Village Voice, Andrew Hsiao captured the erupting class/race tension after N30 and A16, as the Republican National Convention loomed.

While the demonstrations electrified activists across the country, the fact that the ranks of protesters were overwhelmingly white has itself sparked protest. As radical black scholar robin d.G. Kelley, puts it, 'the lack of people of color involved in these demonstrations is a crisis.' *** [S]ome have groused that activists of color are missing the global point, or that their complaints are based in an identity politics that has been transcended by the all-inclusive politics of economics. Framing the issue this way, however, misses what's distinctive about new activism in communities of color.

I marvel at how that framing -- race politics doesn't get it -- continues to thrive. We saw it last fall, at the Detroit convention, when NLG members formed an ad-hoc "Marxism and the Law" committee. Following a pattern identified in Hsiao's July 2000 article, the predominantly white organizers of the "Marxism" committee never reached out TUPOCC -- or the Anti-Racism Committee, Anti-Sexism Committee, or Queer Caucus, for that matter. Why would they bother reaching out to the "identity politics" contingent?

For TUPOCC, coming into this convention, we can intuit that unless POCs raise the problematic issue of whiteness in anti-capitalism movements, it is doubtful our white "Marxist" allies will examine it. My doubts are not entirely borne of cynicism. "Where was the color" was a question never fully answered with respect to Seattle and the demos that came afterward. Bush v. Gore happened. September 11, 2001 happened. The invasions of non-white nations happened. Out of necessity, we shifted the object of the "where was the color" examination from anti-capitalist activism to anti-war activism. With the election of an African American president, neo-liberal corporate welfare and war continue to escalate. One cannot but assume that these trends add a certain myopic substance to the argument that "race politics doesn't get it."

If anything, this year's national convention should demonstrate that "race politics" does get it. TUPOCCers and other activists of color already know that race consciousness and class analysis have never been distinct politics. We also know that institutions that espouse anti-capitalism and other class analyses operate within immutable structural racism that only handcuffs their capacity to address economic justice issues. Often we only hope that our allies "get" these realities. At some of the events at the Seattle Convention, we will have the opportunity to speak to these realities concretely.

• The TUPOCC/ARC training Racial Justice and Equity will set the stage for a true reckoning between anti-racism and color-blind marxism as we establish an institutional assessment of racism in the NLG and work toward new visions for the NLG's anti-racist work.
• The major panel Police Occupation of Communities of Color also presents an opportunity to speak to the value of race conscious political organizing.
• The "hot topic" event Post-election Crisis in Iran: What Role for the U.S. Left? will likely explore the tension that arose this summer when anti-imperialist critics took issue with Iranian Americans' support for the reformist movement.

The gift of an "empty box" -- Senate passes hollow apology for slavery and segregation (S.Con.Res.26)

Press release from the office of U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (IL-01), on the meaning of the Senate's passage of S. Con. Res. 26, "A concurrent resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans":

[T]hough today the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution offering a formal national apology for slavery and the era of “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws that followed, the legislation stops drastically short at helping to repair the “centuries of economic and social damage” to generations of African Americans.

Rush said because S.CON.RES. 26 does not include the force of law, the gesture may fall on deaf ears when so many African-Americans remain trapped in systemic poverty and suffer from acute health problems due to a lack of access of quality health care. “Blacks in this country have suffered centuries of economic and social exploitation and while this resolution is noted for the spirit in which it was drafted, it falls short in addressing the systemic issues impacting African American communities as a direct result of racial segregation and economic injustice due to racism.

“The resolution further adds insult to injury by including a disclaimer against reparations, “he said. “This can be likened to a child unwrapping Christmas present only to find an empty box.” The non-binding resolution, which does not have the force of law, includes a disclaimer stating that the measure does not authorize or support reparations for the descendants of African slaves brought to the United States before the Civil War.

Also, today, Congressman Rush released a letter to President Barack Obama days before the president will travel to Ghana in what will be his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since being elected the nation’s highest officer. “I strongly encourage you to expand the commitment of the United States with Sub-Saharan Africa,” he wrote. “Our interest should far transcend the humanitarian concerns that have frequently underpinned U.S. engagement with the continent. Economic development, natural resource management, human security, capacity building and global stability as well as traditional humanitarian assistance are inextricably linked.”

Economic crisis yields support for Legal Services funding -- but not for prisoners and undocumented immigrants

Legal Services Corporation Changes Introduced | OMB Watch

On March 26, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced the Civil Access to Justice Act of 2009 (S. 718) that ends the LSC restrictions on the use of non-federal funds, except those related to abortion litigation. "Lifting these restrictions allows individual states, cities and donors the ability to determine themselves how best to spend non-federal funds to ensure access to the courts," said Harkin. The bill also seeks to increase the LSC budget from $390 million to $750 million.

According to a Harkin  press release, the Civil Access to Justice Act would remove "many of the restrictions currently placed on legal tools that LSC-funded attorneys can use to represent their clients. [. . .] In the spirit of compromise, the bill does maintain the prohibition on abortion related litigation as well as many of the limits on whom LSC-funded programs can represent, including undocumented immigrants (with limited exceptions such as victims of domestic violence), prisoners challenging prison conditions and people charged with illegal drug possession in public housing eviction proceedings." The measure would also create a program to expand law school clinics.

On April 7, the Brennan Center for Justice released a fact sheet that shows how the LSC restrictions harm foreclosure prevention efforts. Homeowners who are losing their homes to foreclosure are in need of legal help, yet the legal services available to them are limited and underfunded. The fact sheet details accounts of ordinary Americans and how the LSC restrictions have impacted homeowners in their struggle to keep their homes.

During this time of economic recession, there appears to be strong public support for legal services.  Reportedly, two-thirds of those polled on behalf of the American Bar Association said they favor federal funding for people who need legal assistance.

A Washington Post editorial on March 14 went even further. It asked lawmakers to "unshackle Legal Services from congressionally-imposed restrictions that have kept it from working more efficiently and broadly." For example, unlike most others who represent plaintiffs, Legal Services lawyers who prevail in a civil case are prohibited from seeking legal fees from an opponent. The editorial also called for support of the Harkin bill.

Finding Rev. King

Dr. King didn't just have dreams. He had strategy.

With Selma and the voting rights bill one era of our struggle came to a close and a new era came into being. Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and cup of coffee?

SleptOn.org:

[The] portrayal of Dr. King has been mass marketed as an accommodationist figure and is now so pervasive in our schools, media, etc. that it threatens to neutralize and placate the most ambitious, daring and challenging of King's critique along with his struggle to confront and organize against not only racism, but economic exploitation and militarism-imperialism as well.

From red lines to subprimes -- understanding race and mortgage foreclosures

It's not breaking news and cutting edge analysis, but the New York Times editorial board reminded readers today that

[t]he mortgage crisis that has placed millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes has been especially devastating for black and Hispanic borrowers and their families. It seems clear at this point that minorities were more likely than whites to be steered into risky, high-priced loans — even when researchers controlled for such crucial factors as income, loan size and location.

In perfect synchronicity, via RaceWire I caught these incredibly useful resources from the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State Univ that take us behind the opinion sections and into the data about race and the mortgage crisis/financial collapse.

• Subprime Lending, Foreclosure and Race: An Introduction to the Role of Securitization in Residential Mortgage Finance (pdf)
• Subprime Lending, Mortgage Foreclosures and Race: How Far Have We Come and How Far Have We to Go? (pdf)
• A Structural Racism Lens on Subprime Foreclosures and Vacant Properties (pdf)
• Reprint: Credit, Capital and Communities: The Implications of the Changing Mortgage Banking Industry for Community Based Organizations (pdf)

Blaming people of color instead of multinational financiers

Pundits (Coulter, Cavuto, Dobbs, etc.) have been pointing the public's attention away from banks and financiers as the US and world economies continue to flounder. they have targeted the Community Reinvestment Act (1977) as the point of origin for the mortgage crisis and are blaming everyone from Barack Obama to work-a-day folks who "have[] a good jump shot" (Ann Coulter's words...). wonder what she was coding there!

these conservative free-marketeer pundits have a lot in common with the financial experts and advisors who have run the 'developing world' into massive, generational debt. if the favored financial system is ruining a country, they seem to suggest, then blame the poor dark-skinned people, not the financiers.

Ed Morales, at The Progressive, answers back:


Bailout blame game unfairly targets minorities

But that line of thinking is extremely flawed.

First, since the Community Reinvestment Act was crafted over 30 years ago, why is it that only now subprime mortgages have created a crisis?

Second, most of the disastrous subprime loans were made by mortgage brokers and disreputable lenders unregulated by the Community Reinvestment Act.

Third, white and affluent borrowers took out 58 percent of higher-cost loans, with blacks and Latinos accounting for 18 percent each, according to data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

Blog Action Day 2008

via eHub...

Today is the launch of Blog Action Day 2008. If you're a blogger, you can register at the site. "Blog Action Day itself is on October 15th and on that day we ask bloggers everywhere to publish a post on the same day on the same issue, with the intent to hijack the conversation on the internet that day and examine the issue from a thousand different angles...This year we've got a really important issue - Poverty - and it's going to be really fascinating to see how people come at it from different angles."

More info:

If you have a blog, podcast or videocast, you can commit your blog or website to participate in Blog Action Day.

From August 15th to October 15th bloggers are asked to register to participate so we can track how many blogs will be involved, as well as their approximate audience size.

On October 15th participating blogs will put up a post, video or podcast about poverty. You many also wish to donate the day’s ad revenue to a poverty-related charity.