I started a response to Colin Rajah, but I didn't finish it yet, I have to go out of country for two weeks and I am a little STRESSED OUT!!! I'm going to try to finish it on my flight and hopefully will find a way to email it out and posted on a couple lists.
A couple of points though:
(i) We end up expending lots of energy responding and being bean-counters to prove that there was effort and resources put towards outreach to people of color;
(ii) Yes, there were few of us "People of Color", and the article and the 'discussions' are being very successful in "disappearing" us. And I for one greatly resent this! Any one who knows me, I am sure also knows that I/50 Years Is Enough (and we were not alone in this) went to great extent to ensure diversities (race, class, gender, geography, etc.) Of course we could have done BETTER!
(iii) I am also tired of observers, who have ONLY a glimpse of what it took and involved to organize the April Mobilization, being armchair activists/pundits who comment on many aspects that they have little to no appreciation and/or knowledge about;
(iv) The Mobilization for Global Justice (MGJ) struggled with diversity, local, and outreach issues, with varying levels of success, but made real good faith effort to mobilize and integrate local, working & poor peoples, and people of color issues in our work. From presentations and fora at Howard University, University of the District of Columbia, and University of Maryland (I spoke at several of them); events at African-American Churches (I spoke at 3); press conference for Latino and African-American media and of course they were invited and some were part of the MGJ's launching press conference, etc. etc;
(v) The only MGJ paid staff person (African-American woman) was an organizer hired to do outreach to communities of color;
(vi) 50 Years struggled to raise money to ensure the participation of colleagues from the Global South (total of 9), ACT-UP Philly, Just Act youth of color, Kesington Welfare Rights Union Activists, and the Miami Workers Center - race, gender, regional, and class diversity was very much on our minds; and I could go on!
Unless we end up some other place beyond where those "white people" who were involved feel guilty for being white (!) - its happening in all sorts of places - this is a harmful, unproductive, and destructive endeavor! One of the most enlightened response to this came from Courtland Milloy (sp?), an African-American (I think) columnist for the Washington Post, who stated something along the line that it was refreshing to see young, white middle-class kids fighting for something that was not self-beneficial. There are many wonderful things to be said about the April Mobilization, including it wasn't just the 25 of us who were there in April 1999. It was us and over 25,000 other activists! This is no small point, the best we'd ever done on IMF/WB issues was a couple thousand.
And lastly, for me the question is to my sisters and brothers of color. Where were you on April 16th?!
There is much to be said about this, but this I think is a productive response... We must continue to struggle on this and other issues. To paraphrase an old saying by Mandela, Its no Easy walk to Global Justice. I just hope and wish our colleagues would be constructive!