Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 16:53:19 -0800 (PST)
From: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Reply-To: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
To: revs@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: Should We Be Silent???
In-Reply-To: <328C7000.6179@casmail.muohio.edu>
On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Rodney D. Coates wrote:

> If we take your position then there would be no progress, hell blacks
> would still be living under jim crow and black codes, women still denied
> the right to vote.  I guess you would tell those who oppose the death
> penalty that they should just stay home.  Those who are abused by unfair
> courts that favor big business to just forget it.  We should not
> pressure the dismal state of race relations in this country.  We should
> ignore the fiasco that was called welfare reform.  We should tell those
> in Rhowanda that to just chill out..the laws will protect them.  (While
> government troups kill innocent babies).  We should abide by the CIA
> selling crack in the inner cities of this country.  We should allow the
> dismantling of Civil rights laws by ultra conservatives.  We should not
> boycott Texeco.  We should all the desecration of native american burial
> sites..  Hell, we should do nothing...and watch all hell break loose as
> in St. Petersburb...That my dear friend is the result of doing
> nothing...bosnia is the result of our doing nothing, rhowanda is the
> result of our doing nothing, the increased number of hate crimes (going
> from 4000 in 1990 to 9000 in 1995) is the result of our doing nothing. 
> The LA riots was the result of our doing nothing.  And if we continue to
> do nothing...then prepare for what Carl Rowan perdicts as the Coming
> Race War in America...

Rodney and Samuel, chill out.

There's a huge, huge spectrum between "nothing" and "violence." And then you
can get into what kind of violence, but I'd rather not.

Lenin had a particular answer in "What Must Be Done?" You can read about the
results at http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/soviet.exhibit/repress.html

Gandhi and MLK had particular answers. They were both murdered, but they're
both remembered quite fondly by just about everybody. Moral leadership does
that. (The racist revisionist attempt to smear King in the grave does not
seme to be bearing much fruit, in large part because the MLK Papers Project
here is preempting most smears with honesty.) 

Mandela's answers were somewhere in between. They seem to have been the most
successful thus far, but then, we're still pretty early in the game.

I disagree with some of your characterizations above, but I hesitate to
express disagreement now because first I want to take a step back and say
that the reason we're all on this list is to understand each other and to
work on something in between.

-rich