[Peace-discuss] Observations on Anti-War Anti Racism

[Marti Wilkinson]

Below is part of a thread where I responded to feedback regarding
criticism's I made about AWARE.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marti Wilkinson <martiwilki at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, May 1, 2008 at 10:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Fwd: [ExComm] Fwd: News-Gazette
coverage
To: "Morton K. Brussel" <brussel at uiuc.edu>


Actually the reason why I made these observations is through having attended
a few AWARE meetings - hence my 'valid' description of the demographics.
I've also participated in some of the local protests with AWARE.  The last
time I attended an AWARE meeting I actually made the suggestion that maybe
the organization might want to consider moving beyond the boundaries of the
Farmers Market and Downtown Champaign.  I suggested places like Country Fair
and Centennial Park to broaden the base. I'm even willing to suggest that
AWARE can schedule meetings at the Douglass Park Center or have a protest at
Garden Hills park.

CUCPJ has a pretty even attendance across racial lines and one of the goals
of this organization includes the word 'peace'.  Peace is a basic human
right, it's a civil right, and the people who are most likely to be sent to
war are also the ones who lack political and social capitol. This includes
poor whites like my three uncles who ended up being drafted and sent to
Vietnam.

Now while the lack of an 'official' leader may have a democratizing effect -
it can also have a disorganizing effect. Anytime you get a group of people
together someone is going to assume a leadership role - for some it comes
naturally and organization is an important and vital part of seeing to it
that everyone's voice gets heard. Regardless of the structure of a group -
one of the inevitable things that will happen is group dynamics and the need
to manage those tensions as they occur.

I see AWARE as a peace group with a lot of potential. I do not, however, see
it as an anti-racist group because of the physical lack of diversity. If you
want a loaf of bread to rise....then you need to add yeast.

Peace, Marti







On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 9:30 PM, Morton K. Brussel <brussel at uiuc.edu> wrote:

>  I believe, Marti, that you are not talking from experience in attending
> AWARE activities. Yes, the demographics you ascribe to AWARE "membership"
> are valid, but you seem unaware of efforts by AWARE to include minority,
> African-American, viewpoints and to engage in common pursuits and interests.
> It seems that unless an organization is mostly populated by
> African-Americans, there will not be a sustained attendance by the latter.
> It may be due to class (economic) differences, cultural differences,
> religious differences, educational differences, historical differences,
> etc., but it is a general problem to blend smoothly the
> interests/participation of blacks and whites.  It seems that among
> African-Americans, grosso-modo, that racial problems/conditions/interests
> are foremost, above those of foreign affairs or (even) civil rights, and
> that concern is not reflected in an organization like AWARE, where race is
> very important, but not dominant. As you imply, the matter
> of comfortability with ones cohort is essential.
> Some thoughts,  --mkb
>
> On May 1, 2008, at 4:39 PM, Marti Wilkinson wrote:
>
> AWARE has no "leadership" positions
>
> I stand corrected - however in any organization there are going to be
> people who stand out as natural leaders and this may be where the criticisms
> you are addressing is derived from.
>
> However, it's an observation that most of the individuals I have seen at
> AWARE meetings are predominately white and middle class. While there are a
> few individuals who attend both AWARE and CU Citizens for Peace and Justice
> the general demographics of AWARE doesn't have a strong minority presence.
> At least not in what I have observed. In order for an organization like
> AWARE to be more effective in addressing issues of racism and defamation the
> group needs to have a more diverse representation of people at their
> meetings.  Just saying that 'everyone is welcome to come' is not good
> enough.  Some of the literature I've read regarding critical race theory and
> social justice movements supports that. In particular writers like Thomas
> Nakayama, Stuart Hall, Raka Shome, and other individuals have made some very
> astute observations on this issue.
>
> We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
>  Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > >minorities really
> > >   have not been invited to be part of the leadership
> > >   of the peace movement.
> >
> > I'm not at all sure what you mean by leadership. AWARE has no
> > "leadership" positions.
> >
> > And no, Carl is not our "leader" as Bob Naiman seemed to indicate in a
> > post about a month ago.
> >
> > -karen medina
> > a white, middle class, overly educated, middle-aged female with nothing
> > better to do on Sunday evenings.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Peace-discuss mailing list
> > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> > http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> >
>
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>
>
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