I just have too many issues I want to talk about so we’ll just get em all out of the way:

* Think you’re going to be seeing a Democratic Revolution come January? Check out this blog entry. Oh yeah, big changes are in the works…can’t wait for it. And when you say, "but it’s better than what’s been going on." I will bitch slap you. Stop accepting mediocrity!

* Check out what’s happening in Mexico. That's M-Fers fighting for their democracy, for their right to have their votes counted. In 2000, lazy-ass pseudo-progressives just went looking for Nader as a scapegoat. In 2004, people just acknowledged fraud, but few were willing to do anything about it.

As a quick aside – check out the website for the movie American Blackout. I've seen the movie…pretty freakin powerful. Now that Congresswoman McKinney is about to leave office, I hope she keeps up the fight.



* I'm starting to get in my ususal holiday funk, combined with some other relationship stuff I'm dealing with. I'm listening to the station on one of the satellite radio outfits that does torch songs. (yeah, I know...not very manly...bite me) What the hell is this? Tom Wopat – one of the original Duke brothers from the Dukes of Hazzard – is a jazz singer! A song he did came on – not horrible. At least from the one song I heard, his voice isn't the strongest in the world, but it's not bad. Something not expected.



* I'll try not to make this last thing too long... I was reading an interview with activist, Adrienne Maree Brown in the latest Clamor Magazine. She’s done a movie about African-American women who have been raped called No! – the movie itself and how difficult it’s been to get the movie out there. But she kept bringing up a point that I have a real problem with. She’s very down on white people who work on issues that relate to black people (that's my summarization of it).

This is a concept that I've been struggling with for a while – what right do white people have to work on issues that are centric to the American black population? Should black people be the only people who should be working to improve black people’s lives? I'm not going to deny that there are a ton of white people who look at black people as victims – which is pretty condescending and disempowering. But if I want to work on issues of poverty (or rape in the case of this movie) and the majority of people in my area who are affected by this are black, does that mean I can't?

Let me give a more concrete example...poverty in my city. In my city, poverty is concentrated and the majority of people who are affected by it are people of color. Over 80% of the kids in the city school district live in poverty here…what a shock that the graduation rate sucks so bad. So, if I work on alievating poverty in my city does that mean I'm condescending to blacks & hispanics because I'm white? At first, I felt that I couldn't...then, as I became more embedded as an activist, I figured that I could get involved, but that it wasn't my place to lead; that I could use my talents as an activist to help achieve what black people in the community wanted to achieve. That's what I focused on – I would continually ask, "how can I help?" I think I gained trust in the black community to some degree, but I was getting frustrated. The more I was involved, the more I saw the division within the local black community. Coalitions would get together only to fizzle out soon after. As black people in town trusted me more they confided in me more – which meant I got to be privy to a lot of backbiting and accusations. It was pretty disheartening.

So I don't have an answer here, only questions...what about those kids I mentioned? The ones living in poverty? Do you think they give a crap about if I'm white or black? Hopefully not. They just don't want to live in the shitty neighborhoods they're in; they want to be safe; have a decent place to live; be respected. And if I'm an advocate for children (which I am) does that mean I can't advocate for black kids? If I do, does that mean I'm racist?

The problem with Ms. Brown's assertion / generalization is that I (or any white person) wouldn't work on behalf of a white kid living in poverty (or white woman who was raped) because if the kid is white, she can work her own way out of the cycle of poverty and that a black kid can't. While I won't dispute it is relatively easier for whites to do this, it’s still not easy nor fair for her to have to do this at all.

I'm not saying that the conditions Ms. Brown talks about don't exist, only that to generalize and say all white people have condescending, paternalistic intentions only divides. Don't tell me what I shouldn't be doing, tell me what you think I should be doing. I'll follow, I'm just waiting for someone to actually lead.

OK, have at it...

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