[WAsummit] US for All of Us

[Dottye Burt-Markowitz]

Jeff,

Thank you.  It's very helpful to have this information from you
about US for All of Us. I'm glad to hear that the group will not
be back tracking, but rather focusing on mobilization.  We could
debate this issue endlessly and get nowhere since, I believe,
feelings are very strong on both perspectives.

I would hope that anyone whose goal is racial justice would be
able to unite around what US for All of Us is doing.  We can't
afford to work against each other.

Dottye

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:55 -0500, "Jeff Hitchcock"
<jeffhitchcock at euroamerican.org> wrote:


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
-- 
Dottye Burt-Markowitz
Paso Training and Consulting
425 South Chester St.
Baltimore MD 21231
phone: 410-327-0134
pasoconsulting at fastmail.fm

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