> I'm with Wojtek here. Silverstein is mad at Dees because (1) he's rich, a
> very bad thing;
he's made his money as a shameless racial opportunist. there is absolutely nothing to applaud about that.
(2) he spends his time beating up on the Klan, a moribund
> force, ignoring the fact that insofar as it is, Dees has a lot to do with
> that;
bullshit. the civil rights movement along with the breakdown of old fashioned whitness over the last 30 years is almost entirely responsible for that. dees is an apolitical civil rights pimp who has sentimentalized and, ultimately, devalued anti-black violence perpetrated by whites. to work against the klan with the fbi is not only deeply shortsighted, it is nothing but perverse.
moreover, having close friends who have lost husbands to the Klan and
> the Nazis, I am unimpressed by claims about their harmlessness;
i'm not sure anybody said anything about their being harmless but to provide aid and comfort to white liberals who NEED to believe that the klan is the big problem is not simply wicked, it is antithetical to any effort to build a serious freedom movement.
(3) Dees
> monitors hate groups in a supposedly anti-civil-libertarian way
yes, given the drug war and all that other anti-black, anti-civil libertarians rot, i'd say this is a major problem.
and shares
> his information with law enforcement;
as if anybody should assume that the law enforcement agencies are serious about anti-black crime.
apparently we shouldn't be bothered
> with what people who want to kill us and sometimes to are up to, nor tell
> the authorities about their plans to kill us;
yes, we should be bothered. and nobody should begrudge someone going to the police for help--despite the obvious fact that the police are not freedom's friends and are much less likely to be responsive to black folks concerns--especially if there is no where else to go. but to work with the fbi on an ongoing basis in a way that implicitly lends one's support to their whole snooping and espionage network, while all the while helping to improve their image, is not my idea of helping anybody.
(4) a bunch of people don't
> like him because he doesn't do as much death penalty and other socially
> conscious work as they would like, abd
ok, how many people were killed by the klan last year? now how many people were killed by the state? you do the numbers...
(5) unlike everyone else, hes ends
> out vacuous fundindraising letters.
and what, others are just jealous because they can't send out vacuous letters and reap big money. please.
>
> This is a reason to run a campaign against Dees? Silverstein and Cockburn
> are full of shit.
Silverstein and Cockburn are right on target. movement pimps need to be exposed and shut down.
Dees does good work shutting down the Klan.
he does good work making money at turning the klan into enemy number one, casting himself as "the good white" while willfully ignoring far more pressing issues affecting both rural and urban blacks.
He may or may
> not be a jerk.
yes as numerous former black employees have pointed out, he is not only a jerk but he does not like black folk very much.
He might do more than he does.
So why doesn't he?
What he does is good.
What he does is excellent self-promotion american style.
chris niles
I am not
> impressed by this attack and I am frank;y surprised that you are, Doug.
>
> --jks
>
>
> > >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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