From: Hank Roth <odin@halcyon.halcyon.com>
Subject: EYES WIDE OPEN AND COLOR BLIND
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:33:04 GMT

<< via P_news and p.news >>>
{Excerpts from Issue #8, National Committee for Independent 
Political Action}
 
                  EYES WIDE OPEN AND COLOR BLIND
                        by David Billings
 
(The following are excerpts from a speech given by David Billings 
of the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond, at a conference 
at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in March)
 
...Let me say this first: Racism is not just an issue. Those of 
us who think so have the privilege to do so. It is an evil. It 
does not go on and off the social agenda in America. Racism 
kills. It is murder sanctioned by the state and its institutions. 
Racism is cultural genocide. It is not to be a part of our list 
of "isms." We must understand that when racism is added to any 
other oppression--be it that of gender or class or religion--that 
oppression becomes even more deadly and more insidious to deal 
with. "Racism is evil, we must kill it", to quote that white hero, 
John Brown...
 
   My first truth is this: You can't fight racism without 
choosing sides. Vincent Harding, the black Mennonite theologiian, 
put the question to song when he asked in the Civil Rights 
anthem, "Whose Side Are You On?" Being anti-racist demands a 
lifestyle change on all our parts. Acting normal in America is to 
conform to racism. Racism is so ingrained, so infused throughout 
the institutions and societal behavior patterns of our nation 
that to be anti-racist in Ameria is to be a deviant--it is to act 
abnormal. That is why John Brown is said to have been crazy--a 
madman. For to be anti-racist and white in this society, you have 
to be a little kooky.
 
RACISM IS WHAT, EXACTLY?
 
   Racism is not prejudice. It is not bigotry or discrimination. 
Racism is not even hatred. These attitudes, beliefs and practics 
can be and are manifestations of racism. They are ways of acting 
out manifestations of racism. They are ways of acting out of 
racist ideology. But racism is something more. Racism is a 
structured phenomenon created and devised in the Europe of the 
15th and 16th centuries to justify the economic, cultural and 
religious oppression of people of color--Africans, Asians, 
native and indigenous peoples, and people we now call Indo-Asian 
or Arabs. It was created for the purpose of expropriating their 
resources and appropriating their lands. Racism was exported from 
Europe around the world as an ideological defense for greed, 
colonialism and cultural imperialism. Racism is NOT (and herein 
lies the HOPE for those who seek the Truth) endemic to all people 
(not even to Europeans or "white" people as we have come to 
prefer to call ourselves). And yes, all people can be prejudiced 
and hateful or downright ornery and mean. But racism has to do 
with the Power to carry out race prejudice, to enforce it, and ut 
use it to control and dominate others. We will never eradicate 
racism until we understand what it is. Racism is a contrived and 
arbitrary structural arrangement that Europeans established to 
define status and worth on the basis of "white-skin" privilege 
with the state power necessary to legitimately back it up.
 
   Here is the hard truth for some of us: Racism, as different from 
bigotry or prejudice, is a white people's problem. It has to do, 
not with our biology or our genetics as white people, but with 
our power.
 
...POWER, real power, in this world is in the hands of white 
people--and if you doubt it or don't believe it, our recent 
military excursion into the Middle East should have cleared that 
up for you once and for all. 
 
....This nation made incredible, historical, and foundational 
changes in the way we live, work, and learn together gbetween 
1960 and 1980. Deep and profound changes occurred in our society 
that benefited everybody (and I emphasize everybody) because of 
what we call the Civil Rights Movement. We are today losing those 
hard fought gains , and we must organize to stop the efforts to 
turn back the clock. But let's not ever forget that we---men and 
women of color, white women, working class and poor white males, 
the aged, the differently-abled, the gays and lesbians of our 
society--gained because of the resistance and the struggle that 
culminated in the 60's peoples movements. We didn't get to the 
mountaintop, but we were out of the valley for a short time, and 
we could see the shapes of the hills in the distance. But we have 
been beaten back; disheartened by the lies and the myths fed to 
us. There is no such thing as reverse discrimination against 
white men in our society---certainly not as a collective, 
certainly not as legislated policy, and rarely in private, 
individual action. These are dangerous lies being spread to keep 
us from coming together as a whole people---black, white, brown 
mena and women together.
 
 ....Reverse discrimination is an old racist ploy to foment 
dissension and division among working and unemployed people. 
Working people and unemployed people whould dissent, not against 
each other, but against an economic system that is unequal and 
unjust. White men are not being passed over because of negligible 
employment gains of white women and men and women of color. All 
workers in the U.S. are being passed over b ecause of corporate 
policies seeking to maximize profits by exploiting the low-wage 
economies of other, invariably "third world" countries. Remember, 
the truth is what will set us free--not the lies. The lies are 
destroying us. We must kill racism....
 
(You can join NCIPA and subscribe to their discussion papers by 
writing them at Box 170610, Brooklyn, NY 11217. A sub is $10.)  
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