Re: Farley - Did the Green Party Betray Black America?

Just in case it's not already clear, I want to make clear to all, that
the quotes below by my name are excerpts from Jonathon Farley's article,
which I sent to this list two days ago. They are not mine.

Because I knew most of the story Kendall related below from our previous
correspondence, I thought Dr. Farley's article would be of interest. My
guess is Jonathon Farley would be interested too. Have you thought about
sending this story to him. 

Dr. Farley indicates in his article that he still finds to a degree
sometimes frustrating that the Greens are largely "alienated white
hippies...ignorant of black issues... " Not that whites in the greens
are particularly enlightened about African American issues. Still, the
structure of the Green party with the locals having a lot of autonomy,
gives an opening to black candidates, like himself to run campaigns that
emphasize the issues important them.

Dr. Farley's article is at  http://www.blackcommentator.com/farley.html

Dr. Jonathan David Farley, Green Party candidate for U.S. Congress from
Tennessee's 5th district ( http://www.votefarley2002.org )


I haven't seen any where near the degree of racism in the urban Chicago
Green locals I've had contact with, one of which I am a member of. What
I have seen is a little bit of condescending or maybe paternalistic
attitude in some members who want to make efforts to recruit more
members of color. I am very much of the view myself that concerned white
progressives who want to support African Americans and further the
issues important to their communities welfare should not make efforts to
recruit them into a white dominated group but support or join when
appropriate, African American lead groups working on these issues.
Something that requires the sort of self critical work that
whiteprivilege.com is all about.

Although I am still member of a Green local, that has a few really great
dedicated activists particularly in the area of housing and food safety
(irradiation, factory farming, etc.), I too have a lot of skepticism
about the Green Party's potential to effect positive change, rather than
simply divert energy to losing political campaigns. I'm not a real
active member but as long as we have a good local, I'll probably
continue to be supportive. 

Sharon

On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 12:03:07 
Kendall Grant Clark <kendall-4GNy1lrxftmrG/[email protected]>
Wrote: 

>>"sharon" =3D=3D Sharon Stade <[email protected]> writes:


sharon> " ... I didn=92t think much of the Greens.  They seemed to be=
 just
  sharon> another group of alienated white hippies primarily concerned =
with
  sharon> the environment, but ignorant (perhaps willfully so) of the i=
ssues
  sharon> that affected black people specifically...  That was before t=
he
  sharon> party in Nashville...  ...I was the only African-American in =
the
  sharon> house, and I figured that, since everyone there was a liberal=
, I
  sharon> wouldn=92t hear anything shocking.  I was dead wrong.  This i=
s what I
  sharon> heard=97and when I did hear it, I had to sit up and take noti=
ce:  =93The
  sharon> Green Party,=94 someone said, in another conversation, =93is =
the first
  sharon> party since the Black Panthers to support reparations for sla=
very.=94
  sharon> I was floored."

I know a bit about this. I was at the platform committee meeting in Den=
ver in
the summer of 2000, as the platform representative from Texas, when thi=
s was
voted on.

To say the Green Party "supports reparations" is a bit misleading. Firs=
t, as I
think I've written somewhere before, there were more people on the comm=
ittee
who *had no idea what reparations are* than who voted for them to pass.=
 As I
recall, the vote was 3 yays, 1 nay, and 12 abstensions, or something li=
ke
that. I remember explaining to a very important national GP leader -- a=
n older
white woman from Missouri -- that, no, reparations did not mean, as she=
 had
asked, "giving checks to black people without jobs", though I'm still u=
nsure
what would be wrong with *that*.=20

So, yes, it's in the platform, but the GP platform is a complete disast=
er;
*everything* is in the platform. It's there because it was the hobby ho=
rse of
one member of the platform committee, and no one else cared enough abou=
t it
either way to kill it. I wouldn't call that a sign of deep support.

As for rank and file support for reparations, judging by the Greens I'v=
e
encountered, it's also pretty thin, at least in the Southwest. More to =
the
point, I encountered heavy resistance from Greens every time I proposed=
 an
antiracist agenda or specific antiracist policy ideas.

I was asked to leave -- and eventually left -- the Greens in Texas for
refusing to stop asking the Dallas Greens to confront one of its leader=
s who
used the n-word and was openly racist.

But probably I'm just bitter. Or something.

Kendall Clark