Silverstein on Dees

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Dec 15 07:34:29 PST 2000


At 03:47 PM 12/14/00 -0500, Doug quotes:
>Harper's - November 2000
>
>annotation
>THE CHURCH OF MORRIS DEES
>How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance
>by Ken Silverstein
>fighting the KKK. Another lawyer, Gloria Browne, who resigned a few
>years later, told reporters that the center's programs were
>calculated to cash in on "black pain and white guilt." Asked in 1994

Is not self-promotion what many self-styled champions of civil rights do? Not to mention those who make a comfortable living by speaking and writing against them? Singleing-out Dees creates a deceptive illusion that his practices are an exception rather than the rule.

In these days, the shibboleths and costumes of the past struggles have become mere marketing gimmicks to sell the moral and intellectual commodity produced by an army of college educated symbol manipulators. Most nonprofits use the services of professional fundraisers or telemarketers whose charitable sales pitch benefit mainly their own profits.

Charity, social movements, moral entrepreneurship and kindred "warm glow" or "grievance manufacturing" enterprises in this country are for the most part a sham to milk the gullible people with excess resources and the need of buying a clean conscience by chipping in a few bucks for "worthy" causes. This is, in fact, a modern version of medieveal "merit making" - the practice of the wealthy supporting hordes of professional beggars to "make merits" and earn social respectability and a place in heaven.

The real change can be achieved not by feel-good philanthropy but by a fat progressive tax and government programs, to which nonprofits can no doubt be valuable partners.

wojtek

------ NOTE: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer.



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