Should we ask this question: Why *IS" the Peace Movement so White?

[KoKo]

Reading this article by Rev. Yearwood who protested in Conyers office for Impeachment...and the Comments to the article, it brought to mind the same question I asked myself at the protests I was able to attend before Iraq Invasion and after when there were so few African-Americans who attended. Even viewing C-Span's coverage of the DC Marches, I wondered why the movement was so White. Is this a question that is being brought up to divide us? Or, is it a question that deserves some further thought. :shrug:

-------------

Race is the Tripwire for the Progressive Movement: John Conyers and Impeachment
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-07-26 18:23. Impeachment

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.

On July 23, Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern and I met with U.S. Rep. John Conyers about the issue of impeachment. We delivered a petition for impeachment with one million American signatures. While we met, 400 activists waited in the halls outside of his office along with a hoard of media to find out what the outcome of the meeting would be. The meeting was a very significant moment for the progressive movement from a historical standpoint. The movement for impeachment and the immediate reactions to why John Conyers was publicly targeted on this issue reflect how race continues to be, as my dear friend Bill Fletcher says, the tripwire for the progressive movement.

Rep. Conyers is a great mentor to me and my respect for him is unquestionable. He has been fighting for peace and justice and civil rights for decades inside and outside of Congress. He is a man for the people and for America. So, it was a truly disappointing moment on Monday, when we realized – as mentor and mentee – that we do not agree on his role as the Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary committee to uphold our constitution by holding our President and Vice President accountable for their impeachable offensives.

-snip-

This moment is not about race, it is not about John Conyers, and it is much bigger than the divides within our movements. This moment is about our future as a country, because humanity is at stake. The Bush administration’s hunger for war has caused so much instability in our world that we face a state of permanent wars.

The challenge we face as activists and leaders is how can we possibly bring an end to this madness when the Democrats in power are not with us? We need a broad-based movement that can hold our elected officials accountable and to create such a movement we need to address our internal divides. The reason many African-Americans have interpreted our action against Rep. Conyers as racial betrayal goes deep into the tradition of the progressive movement. How we can begin to address this is something I will discuss in an upcoming article.

In the meantime, for the sake of our country and our world, let us all work to impeach Bush and Cheney now.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the President of the Hip Hop Caucus. The Hip Hop Caucus is a national, nonprofit, non-partisan organization meant to inspire and motivate those of us born after the ‘60s civil rights movement.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25125

[EFerrari]

1. Good question! Is the political class mostly white?

:shrug:

[1620rock]

2. Hmmm, good question. Maybe many minority members are...

...working so hard to 'put food on their families' they don't have time for the movement.
But I do know one thing, if a draft were in effect people of all races, religions, and economic status would rise up in force to end this war. Worked in Vietnam after all.

[burrowowl]

19. 'Food on their families' plus the fact that Blacks are signing up in lesser

numbers seems to me that there is an undercurrent protest that doesn't make the M$M.

[sniffa]

3. i bLame gangsta rap

tipper gore was onto something.

[NOLALady]

8. I disagree

I blame the ministers (some) who have sold their souls to the devil.

[applegrove]

4. Other people have other things to march about? I don't really know.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. We have worked really hard to bring more minorities into our local peace groups

I wish I knew what the answer was. We clearly are not doing an adequate job reaching out to them.

[KoKo]

6. We couldn't get any minorities to come on board to help with voting

bill in my state. We tried to get the Latino Dem Group head and the Black Caucus Head to help get the DRE Machines out and Paper Ballots in...and we got brushed off. It just didn't seem important...and I couldn't understand why. But, our group were activists who were not "INSIDE" the Party and I wondered if the Party Structure didn't want their insiders to deal with the voting issue. It was very disappointing because it was minorities who have been so attacked by the Rove Machine.

[rucky]

7. Minorities are still working for equality here at home.

If they're going to be an activist, they'll join ACORN or LaRaza before Code Pink.

[ellacott]

14. Very true

Many African Americans still don't trust many white groups, many have also gotten disenchanted in our political process. Reading "some" of the posts here I can understand. Many would rather focus attention to groups who they feel has their best interests at heart.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Could it also be that, Peace is for "sissies".

I know it's not very PC, but most African American and Latino men (this explaination doesn't really work for the women, but maybe the men influence the women in any given culture) might associate joining a Peace movement as being "unmanly" and there is still a stigma about being anything less than macho in certain ethnic groups.

In fact, it seems to me that even in white, Southern European cultures it's less prevalent to find men who support the peace movement (Italian, Spanish, Greek, etc. - Macho cultures in general) than it is in Northern European cultures. My family is 1/2 Italian and you should hear what they say about men (and me) when they hear about us going on Peace Marches. They will do anything to avoid appearing "weak", even though I think sticking up for what's right is the most courageous thing anyone can do.

Just a theory, who knows? :shrug:

[Lilith Velkor]

18. Rome and Madrid had the biggest protest marches

Maybe if you call it an "antiwar" movement, it sounds more macho. :shrug:

[NOLALady]

9. It seemed to me

that the Peace Movement of the 70s was also mostly white.

[Ezlivin]

10. The same with MPP, NORML and other drug-related groups

They, too, suffer from too much "whiteness."

I've heard that many African Americans are against any movement to legalize drugs as they have seen firsthand the destruction that drugs can bring.

But it could be simply that African Americans have been beset by so many social problems for so long that they are too weary to take up yet another cause, regardless of how worthy one may deem it.

[Judi Lynn]

11. By the time people start looking around at other people at a gathering,

then it probably shows that either the strength and conviction of the movement has deteriorated or that some people simply have a luxury of idle time on their hands to ruminate, speculate.

Most people simply don't have nearly enough time any given day to work in everything they feel MUST be done, and feel lucky if some of their objectives can be reached.

Marches, demonstrations against such a deliberate, calculating anti-human machine as the _Bush administration and its multiple attacks on humanity are all needed anyway they can be arranged. All measures have been taken to intimidate and pressure people to stay away, or to convince them it won't matter, since the machine is so powerful.

The time to analyze the composition of the demonstrators may lie somewhere far down the road, if ever. People do what they must with the time they have, and the opportunities. Hanging people up over questions about why any groups imagined insufficiently represented seems an unworthy preoccupation.

[treestar]

12. Black people are still a minority, therefore in a crowd,

even if equally proportioned, it will look mostly white.

[Lilith Velkor]

13. Why is the 2m+ prison population so Black and Latino?

The answers to both questions are interrelated.

[KoKo]

15. It's alot of people...many who are angry with the system they see in place....who could be VOTERS...

and so one does wonder WHO are the MINORITIES who are NOT in Prison? What agenda do THEY HAVE? :shrug:

[Lilith Velkor]

17. Just a guess

Their agenda is staying out of prison. This involves conforming to a much stricter code of behavior than white folks, along with a higher degree of religiosity.

As you may already know, in most states, you are not allowed to vote if you've been convicted of a felony. Your voting rights can be reinstated by the governor, but I have only met one person who went to the trouble.

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Whites have a much larger leisure class than African Americans

Blacks are more likely to be single parents or in households where both parents work outside of the home. If you are holding down a full-time job you don't have the time to travel to DC on a weekday to occupy a Congressman's office.