Reply to 'It's Racism, Stupid!' I want to appluad Lorenzo for his thoughtful, and well thought out response to "Dank". I have long been an admirer of you Mr. Ervin, I read your book "anarchism and the black revolution" and many of your letters, articles, and press releases over the years. I even signed petitions and sent letters to try to get you out of jail and / or out of trouble over the years. I thought your response was measured, and well thought out and articulate, but I also think you somewhat miss the point when you seem, by implication at least, to put a hierarchical status of racism over other issues such as class, and that your understanding of the conditions of poor white poople and even white people in the movement who aren't neccesarily poor, isn't exactly accurate either. I hope you take my response in the spirit it's written in and not an attack, I respect you for not blowing up at "dank" and trying to express yourself clearly to educate him. As a younger and less accomplished member of the anarchist movement I would not presume to try to "educate" you but I would like to share my expereince and perspective in the hope that you will understand where I'm coming from. I'll try to be brief. First of all, things all around the country, and all around the world for that matter, are not as "black and white" as they might appear in memphis. Racism as you well know has many hues and political and geopolitical ramifications these days. I'm sure I don't need to point out how racism of black people toward black people, of blacks toward hispanics, asians, and visa versa, has damaged and prevented the anti racist movements and the proletarian left in general, though granted not as much as diabolical white racism from the more empowered members of society. We also know that politics can make for strange bedfellows, such as when Zulu tribes were allied (manipulated, not doubt) with the Aparthied government in South Africa against the ANC. And I'm sure I don't have to reiterate to you the standard arguments against single issue poiltics such as the prevalent existence of racist feminist groups, mysogynist racial nationalist groups, anti environmental or pro capitalist single issue groups of various types... only by linking class and race, and all other relevant issues, can these problems be addressed... you almost literally wrote the book on this. But as you yourself pointed out sometimes its hard to understand another persons oppression if you haven't walked a mile in thier shoes. I'll also put it to you that these days racism even extends to black versus white in some areas. I grew up poor in New Orleans, a city similar to Mepmphis, but different in a lot of ways too. New Orleans is and always has been much more racially integrated than Memphis (or most any city in the country) has not had the same bitter history civil rights violence (though we had our share) and New Orleans has the strong culural influence of many other countries. When i grew up in this city, I was put in public school, about 4 years after it had de-segregated. My school, McDonough #15 was about 80% African American, and maybe 10% caucasion. My father was from Ohio and my mom is from France, so I didn't know much about the racial beefs which are a part of living in the south. I did quickly learn that white people were resented, and hated, by some people, and though I didn't know why, I quickly found myself in a position of having to fight. I got beat up a lot but eventually I learned to adapt to the environment I was in, and after a few years I was socially doing great. Unforutnately that meant to my parents and the school authorities that I was a behavior problem, school councilors felt that I was on my way to becomming a criminal, so in a panic my parents sent me to private school, which I was able to attend due to a scholarship. In private school, which was 99% white and very very upper class, my culture and habits, and manner of speach I had learned in McDonough#15 were very resented. Along with the other 5 scholarship students from my school (3 black and one other white) I was basically beaten and tortured the whole time and reviled by everyone except my fellow victims. I lost my scholarship after the second year and returned to public school, where I did ok and felt a lot better. I fell in with a group of punk rockers. But as a poor kid, with the attire and look of the working class (we did not wear outrageous punk rocker attire either, we couldn't afford it), I was still in for a lot of trouble. I was regularly stopped and searched by the police on general suspicion. When I was travelling in a mixed race group it was almost guaranteed we would be picked up as this was especially suspicious. I was arrested many times on minor charges. In New Orleans at that time you could get arrested just for being in the wrong neighborhood. I was detained by private security in the "Garden District" while walking through it to a friends house in nearby the Irish Channel neighborhood just for looking "suspicious" and having a screwdriver in my backpack. They turned me over to the New Orleans Police Department who arrested me for tresspassing, for walking down a public sidewalk. At the same time, when i was in poorer neighborhoods like the 9th ward or the irish channel, I and my frineds were subject to attack by groups of black youths. I was lucky in that a couple of times I was saved from being jumped at the last minute when would be attackers recognized me from school. As a young adult after a tour in the army I returned to New Orleans which was in a severe economic depression. I faced continued class based harassment from the police, and also, institutional harassment from black people in institutions such as charity hospital (the public hospital) the RTA (city bus system), the Parish Prison, the Welfare, public Utility and foodstamp offices. Also private instituions such as restauraunts and stores. I'm not saying this to be racist, but it's a simple fact of life. I personally didn't resent this as much as some people did, perhaps because I didn't suffer from it as much as people who loooked or acted more "white", but there was definately institutional harassment, based on race. For example, I know that if I go to the city court house to finds out the bond on a friend who is in jail, and there are 8 people in line behind me, if I'm the only white person, I'm going to have to wait until every other black person is served before I do. I take it in stride, I always felt that this is somebody elses fight, I just bring a book. But when I caught the bus to go back home I knew the bus driver would pass my stop if I'm by myself and no black people are waiting with me. When I did get on the bus, if there were a lot of young people (like when school just got out) I knew I could count on hearing racial jeers and catcalls, and sometimes getting pushed or punched in the back of the head until I got into a fight. But the same night I might go to a bar which was racially mixed and listen to music and dance with people of all races, and play pool, and etc., with no beefs or any trouble. That was the wierd thing about growing up in New Orleans. And on the flipside, if I went to the predominantly white, christian, and conservative Suburbs on a rare trip to the WalMArt or something, I could count on being followed by security, susiciously and hostiley looked at and dealt with by everyone I met. I use the past tense here because things have changed a lot in New Orleans since the earliy 90's and racial tension in the city itself, now that so many of the very racist white people have moved away to the suburbs, and the economy is so much better, has eased considerably. Anyway, the point of telling you this long probably boring story is to illustrate the only way I know how that a lot of white people do experience racism and classism. I feel like I expereineced the kind of treatment many black people get from white folks (such as being randomly searched and beaten by the police, always being watched when I enter a store etc.) I have been arrested more than 30 times for petty violations, all but two of which were based on such flimsy evidence the cops never showed up in court. Nevetheless, because I couldn't afford bail, a couple of these arrests landed me in jail for more than two months. I'm not trying to compare to your experineces of course mr Ervin, but I'm just trying to make a point. When I moved to California i understood racism better because I could see it applied to mexican immigrants in such a overt and obvious manner. I thought more about things in New Orleans, how for example, it was so much easier for a white kid to make bail and get out of jail. The larger scale of racism. So ultimately, I now know you are right, in an important sense the REAL racism is really only black against people of color, but also I think you have to be a little more understanding of people who like me, grew up under ambilivalent circumstances. And I"m not an usual case here. I could introduce you to dozens and dozens of frineds who grew up the same way. There is a stereotype on TV that all white people are rich and soft and conservative and all black folks are poor and hip and radical, and it's a myth perptrated by the system to keep us apart. If we had a more realisic understanding of each others situations we would go further to reaching our goals of revolution. And you know, I could go further than just poor white people, even kids who like those in Europe, have had lives of comfort and safety most poor Americans cant even imagine, if you take one of these kids who admittedly does come from that background, but dedicates their life to fighting fascism, lives in squats, helps the cause their whole life, gets in street fights with skinheads and cops on a regular basis, their whole life. You can't dis these kids. They have friends who have died for the cause, they have tried as hard as they know how. They may have a lot to learn but you can't dismiss their experineces and their struggle. Just my $.02 Drifter "Bob" #23rd Ward all -stars Back to Anarchism And The Black Revolution