Received: from emout02.mail.aol.com (emout02.mx.aol.com [198.81.11.93]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with SMTP id WAA09135 for ; Sat, 28 Sep 1996 22:26:56 -0600 (MDT) From: Ologygrad@aol.com Received: by emout02.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id AAA08046 for socgrad@csf.colorado.edu; Sun, 29 Sep 1996 00:26:51 -0400 Date: Sun, 29 Sep 1996 00:26:51 -0400 Message-ID: <960929002648_319853309@emout02.mail.aol.com> To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Racism Upon reading a week of socgrad mail in one sitting, I was appalled to read the venomous spewings that Danny Winbush forced in front of our faces. Danny Winbush, this is directed mainly toward you, but I open my response up to the entire list. I would like to be able to participate in socgrad in a way that is respectful and interesting. On each count, Danny Winbush, your attack on Johnn Tan must be addressed. It is apparent from your many mailings that you feel left out. You don't feel welcome at people of color's groups, and you would like to demand, through sarcasm and attack, to be included. The sad fact is, however, that you are not left out of people of color's groups or their consciousnesses. Mailings such as yours are the very things that groups such as the one Johnn Tan advertised need to come together to deal with. Why would you ever want to undermine the efforts of a group to overcome their oppression and help others do the same, unless you were one of their oppressors? The argument that you just want to change the way they do things to make them more effective is not persuasive in this situation, considering that your mailings primarily address what *you* are losing or missing out on because of the way that groups such as ACT96 choose to organize. The fact that you consider yourself "forward thinking" and you "try desparately to identify with everyone" does not change the fact that Black women are paid 82 cents for every dollar white men are paid, or the fact that white real estate agents still deceive and manipulate Black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic home buyers in order to strongly dissuade them from buying in "whites'" neighborhoods, or the fact that Congress (mainly comprised of white men) repeatedly takes measures to keep immigrants from such countries as Mexico from obtaining the benefits of citizenship while turning a blind eye to the corporate managers and ceo's (mainly comprised of white men) who illegally employ undocumented immigrants for disgustingly low wages and simultaneously turn million dollar profits. That is, your attempts to "identify", while admirable, do not negate the fact that racism has *real* consequences which its targets must deal with. Further, your fascination with the "organization police" (checking your color at the door, checking your groups' demographic makeup, etc.) is very tired. The fact that a group of people want to organize in order to "address the rise of the Right; mobilize ourselves as students; learn skills & tools to become organizers; form a Northeast network of activists of color" etc. should not be a threat to you. If you are interested in achieving aims such as these, most groups would welcome your help regardless of your skin color or race or ethnicity. Those groups that would not, however, should be neither chastised nor condemned, because their choice to draw political strength from each other is an important and admirable act of agency in overcoming what plagues them. I don't feel most of your points are worth addressing. Further, I do not have faith that your claims of support for minority women, minority men, and white women were sincere, considering the incredibly bullish way you attacked Johnn Tan -- a messenger for a group of people who have come together to collectively figure out how to deal with the sort of racism you spout. If you would like to discuss what we call people and how we group them (or what the purpose and/or harm of doing so is), I welcome that. The fact that you chose to attack Johnn Tan instead of respectfully open such a dialog, however, makes me suspect of your motives. I hope that on socgrad and elsewhere we can move toward helping each other -- without attacking, without wondering what's in it for ourselves, and without working to undermine attempts to address and eradicate racism and sexism. I apologize to Johnn Tan for the rude and racist remarks of Danny Winbush, and offer my support for "ACT '96: an activist conference by, for, & about students of color from New Hampshire to New York City." Ivy Kennelly