[Peace-discuss] Insular?

[LAURIE]

Bob,

While I have the utmost respect and even admiration for Imani and many other
so-called leaders in the Black community, I think that we need to be mindful
of the fact that some of the leadership may be so in their own minds and not
in the minds of major or significant sub-groups within their community, they
may have assumed the role of self-appointed spokes persons for the whole
community while in reality only speaking for a specific small segment of the
community, or they may be persons who the majority white community has
selected to represent and be leaders of the minority community because they
are imbued with accepting the white middle class values and patterns of
behavior that the white community feels comfortable with and do not pose a
significant threat or a problem interacting with. 

I am not defending the unmentioned person in your post; but I have to ask
(somewhat rhetorically) who in the minority community have you spoken with,
under what circumstances, and in what fashion?  Do you hang out in the
community parks, clubs, and bars to hear the conversations of the common
community members talking among themselves?  Do you hang out with the young
20'year olds and teenagers on their turf during the times when they hang out
and carry out extended give and takes with them letting them set the agenda
and ask the questions, answer questions in their own way and language,
and/or set the rules of engagement?  Or do you mostly converse with
established middle class, educated, bureaucratically savvy, middle aged and
older, church going members of the community where you set the agenda and
rules of engagement, ask the questions, and decide what is an acceptable and
reasonable answer or response?  

I am inclinded to suggest that most of us interact with the established
visible activists who typically hold high official and/or bureaucratic
positions in the local established institutions and organizations, make a
middle level of income, have a reasonably good education, and are in our own
age bracket. Persons whom we deem to be reasonable, respectable and
responsible in accordance with our own class based societal values and
prejudices.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-
> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Bob Illyes
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 3:28 PM
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Insular?
> 
> I've asked around, Stuart. The answer I get consistently from
> African-American activists is that they are opposed to the Iraq
> occupation
> and to much of war, but that racism is a more important issue to them.
> 
> A separate problem that AWARE has is a certain individual (I can't
> quite
> think of his name) who likes to attack Obama and people who support
> Obama.
> Were you there at the meeting where Imani showed up to give us hell?
> She
> was right to do so.
> 
> Bob
> 
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