PEOPLE OF COLOR REPRESENTED IN SMALL NUMBERS

The under-representation of people of color at many of the demonstrations, rallies and protests in the wake of the WTO protests in Seattle last November has been cause of some concern among activists and other progressives in the growing movement to liberate poor and other disenfranchised people from the crippling effects of corporate globalization by multi-national corporations.

As an African-American and Vietnam Era Veteran who did participate as part of the contingency sent down from the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco to protest the Democratic National Convention 2000, I personally found it odd that more people of color were not present.

Thanks very much for your comments. This helps to answer the criticisms from outside the movement by people who view it as being "a bunch of spoiled white rich slackers." Many of those critical people, I suspect, are members of the white hegemony who see white protesters as traitors.

I thank you especially for pointing out that many people of color feel they would be singled out for skull-cracking *first* by the LAPD and other law enforcement agents if they participated in public protest. Unfortunately, it seems like you're correct.

Nonetheless, I hope that the movement becomes more diverse, and I hope to be a personal part of that process.

Criticisms about the lack of color in the movement are necessary, and I appreciate your article, but in my experience, people of color were well-represented in the LA events. In some marches (Mumia march comes to mind), whites were a minority!

I was in Seattle and it was truly a sea of white faces, with only a sprinkling of color. Judging from the events in LA, from the focus of issues and the participants, much progress has been made in desegregating anti-corporate activism. This may just have been due to the makeup of the city of Los Angeles, or organizing that DAN/D2KLA did -- I don't know. In any case it was incredible to march in solidarity with latino sweatshop activists, Iraqi sanctions activists, Indigenous people, and all the other groups who came out. The demonstrations in LA were the most racially diverse I have ever been to. It gives me hope that we can diversify this movement.

As to why there are not MORE people of color hitting the streets about these issues, this is the core of the problem. Until the disenfranchised rise up and realize their power, our movement cannot progress.

I think LA gutted a lot of the criticism surrounding lack of diversity among protesters at WTO and a16 by proving that there has been an incredible amount of ongoing outreach and education since last year.

But why aren't people of color still not represented in porportion to the progressively enhanced levels of oppression they continue to endure at the hands of the state?

Commitment to divesity ensures depth in any forum.

peace

In Seattle we have one black councilman, Mr. McIver. He was on his way to the big reception in his new car, in his nicest suit. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) removed him from his car, had him spread eagle and searched him because of his color, according to him and independent witnesses. This distinguished man provided his attackers with his official city of Seattle business card, which has an embossed golden seal of the city of Seattle on it. The police ordered our city leader out of the area despite his explanation that he was a guest of WTO, which was holding the big party. This happened twice and he was unable to go. Now I’m a WASP, and during WTO I wore military garb with WTO stickers and carried flyers, photographed cops and gun ships, day and night for a week. I’ll admit many like me were arrested and held in a navy stockade without, well, you know about that, but I wasn’t challenged. This opened my eyes. You see, when my black friends come to see me, they run a gauntlet that I do not. If we stay up late and they drive home, they are less likely to arrive home safely because of racial profiling. If I visit, the chances of one of us being hurt are much less. What a crock! I can ignore this, only if I don’t care about the safety of my friends.

The police just gave the officer of the month award to the killer of a mentally ill black man, one SPD officer Thomas ‘Tommie gun’ Duran. Even the black SPD officers association ridiculed this insensitive act. As one community leader said, this is tantamount to SPD saying, “Shoot a Negro, get a prize”. At WTO I wondered why black and minority peoples were not out in force. Sure the AFL & CIO was representative of our county’s 12% black and 12% minority. The reason was as obvious as it was complex. You see, we were protesting the sovereignty of corporations in nations under the WTO. While the danger was obvious to all peoples democratic, the WTO being an unrepresentative body, colored people were the direct target of police repression in their own country and had less time to protest an organization which would bring oppression to all peoples when the Seattle police department was already killing them in order to keep them in their place. Our Black community primarily rallies in defense of itself and local peoples in need, because anything else would be dealt with in a lethal manner. In short, the police would kill black folks at the demonstration straight up. They were showing up at “why do you still kill us so often” demonstrations so religiously that the real question was why wasn’t I showing up at the ‘Why are you killing people who don’t look like me” rallies. I over generalize, but it’s my article and it’s true.