>I'm glad that Njoki brought up point 2 because these discussions (and
>the criticisms from newspaper pundits) to some extent "disappear"
>activists of color and invalidate the actions of those who *did* attend
>A16 or were involved in the organizing.
As I mentioned in my posts, I did attend A16, but I don't think my criticism of the A16 style of running meetings, etc. would "invalidate" my actions or actions of those persons of color who likewise attended or organized for the event. Criticisms quoted in the ColorLines article came from A16 participants such as Luis Sanchez. In other words, criticisms are internal to the movement (if we can use this word to describe Seattle, A16, etc.), so I don't understand why Ms. Njoki Njoroge Njehu makes the following comment:
>(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
Armchair activists???
At 12:40 PM -0400 6/21/00, Doug Henwood wrote:
>[I asked Njoki Njoroge Njehu, the director of the U.S. 50 Years Is
>Enough campaign, to comment on the ColorLines piece, and the
>subsequent commentary here. Here's her response. By the way, Njoki
>is neither white nor American - she's Kenyan.]
>
>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;
Also, I wonder why it is on Ms. Njoki Njoroge Njehu whom the burden of spending "lots of energy responding and being bean-counters to prove that there was effort and resources put towards outreach to people of color" should fall? She's clearly "STRESSED OUT," as she mentions in capital letters. I hope it is not perceived that it is she who is responsible for "proving" (to whom?) that the movement has no problems.
Yoshie