[WAsummit] Fwd: ColorOfChange looking for help in MI

[Norma Smith]

I did get a quick response from my friend in Michigan. I'll paste some  
of her comments below. She did, by the end of her message, think of a  
student activist in her university department. She's passing the query  
on to that person. She herself works in a university-community  
partnership type project in Detroit.

What she says rings a bell in my current experience. I'm working  
mostly in community-based organizations that are mostly made up of  
people of color (Oakland Community Organizations -http://www.oaklandcommunity.org/) 
. OCO is so deep in its work around immigrant justice and, for now,  
linking that with health care bills, that we have not really stopped  
to pay attention to the Van Jones situation. Right or wrong, I  
understand that.  (and I may just be out of the loop; there is another  
thread of OCO that has been working on green jobs, and they may be  
more attentive to this crisis). I have brought it up in my mostly  
white synagogue, which is an OCO member, and folks agree that we need  
to address these right wing racialized smears. I'm continuing to share  
the wisdom and suggested strategies of this conversation with both my  
congregation and the larger OCO groups.

Begin forwarded message:

>
> Of course we've been following the absurd Van Jones issue.  I can't  
> believe
> Obama caved on that one.  It's pretty distressing that he (and the  
> majority
> of this country) has allowed the right to get so much traction.  And  
> I'll
> admit, although I knew the racist vitriol in this country is right  
> below
> the surface, I didn't expect this type of media domination or that
> "mainstream" society would be so tolerant of such extreme incivility  
> as has
> surfaced.
>
> Re: the Lansing event, I don't know of specific "white anti-racist  
> allies"
> groups out here.  Sounds like the University Democratic and student  
> groups
> might be the way to go.  The racial dynamics are quite different  
> here than
> in the Bay Area, and in my experience, we white anti-racist activists
> (non-students) pretty much work jointly within orgs which are  
> predominantly
> people of color.
>
> My tendency would be to let the Beck event pass.  People are  
> undergoing
> quite extreme hardship here--you know what a predominantly working  
> class
> state this is.  The folks I work with in Detroit are doing all they  
> can to
> focus on the positive, try not to be too discouraged or freaked out,  
> and to
> look for ways to leverage these extreme economic conditions for  
> longer term
> policy change while deepening their commitment to the service work  
> they do.
> I was at a meeting today in which the neighborhoods were feeling  
> really
> great about the huge numbers of folks they had served this summer-- 
> all of
> whom were in great need.

Norma Smith
The Edge of Each Other's Battles Project
5245 College Ave #424
Oakland, CA   94618
(510) 465-2094

The Edge of Each Other's Battles Project brings together social  
justice academics and community-based projects to work toward social  
change. The Edge Project produces community events, organizes sessions  
at academic conferences, and facilitates interdisciplinary, site- 
specific, collaboratively designed seminars, conferences,  and working  
groups on themes related to community history, culture, and politics.  
It provides opportunities for scholars to learn from and with other  
community members. The Edge Project is inspired by poet-educator- 
activist Audre Lorde's vision of cross-community alliance building and  
organizing for social justice. The Edge of Each Other's Battles  
Project operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the Agape Foundation  
- Fund for Nonviolent Social Change.

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