[WAsummit] US for All of Us

[Jeff Hitchcock]

I'm on the strategy committee for US for All of Us and also helping with
tech support for the project. There is at least one other person from the
strategy committee on this list as well. It's helpful to me to hear this
conversation, and if people have any thoughts or concerns about the US for
All of Us project, I'd like to hear them. I can't promise to establish a
dialogue with the planners. Working on US for All of Us, it feels like there
are not enough people to do the work. That's just to say it's like most
social justice efforts. We're focused on several immediate simultaneous
demands on our time just to get the project going. Also, I was not part of
the original dialogue and planning among the people who drafted the
statement, so I can't speak from experience about what the statement writers
discussed.

 

I do know that discussion was long, and probably wide ranging, so I would
not be surprised if the matter of it being a white-identified effort was
discussed. Now that the statement has been drafted, there is no thought of
going back and revising it. Maybe in time something like that will happen.
But we have our hands full trying to build on the work that created the
statement itself.

 

I'm not sure if the issue Lou raised can be resolved. There seems to be two
approaches to white anti-racism, one being to eschew white identity and the
other being to work from within it. Somehow I feel they are both directed to
the same end, but in the here and now, they seem incompatible. This is not
the only contradiction that has arisen among people working for racial
justice. The black community, for instance, has long had a debate over
integration vs black nationalism (Martin vs Malcolm), and yet historically
it has been able to hold both views. 

 

It's clear to me the US for All of Us effort is white-identified. Aside from
that I think there is a willingness to embrace all views that are directed
toward achieving racial justice. People will have to decide for themselves
if they are willing to place themselves in the frame of the statement or
not. There is a feeling that we are still working out the details, so some
things may change or be clarified as we move ahead. But the US for All of Us
statement itself will probably stay as is for now. Our concern now is how to
shape and grow a network. What will that look like? How can it be a vehicle
for encouraging anti-racist action?

 

--Jeff 

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