Civil Rights & Liberties or "White Privileges"? Re: Green Party official busted at gunpoint

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 11:19 AM 11/4/01 -0500, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>>but Art is entirely right: only an ignoramus would act like she 
>>>did and then be outraged about what happened to her. she's an 
>>>ignoramus because she is privileged by white skin and middle class 
>>>status. only a white, middle class person who's never dealt with 
>>>the cops the way that cops treat people of color and poor whites 
>>>would be outraged that they got treated like shit when they 
>>>resisted power, authority, the law. it's a survival skill you have 
>>>to learn, blacks far more than poor whites, that's for sure.
>>
>>Due process, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, freedom 
>>of conscience, freedom of association, etc. are *civil rights and 
>>liberties*, to which *both whites and people of color* should make 
>>*vigorous claims of entitlement*.  Calling them *privileges*, white 
>>or male or otherwise, works against us (whatever our color, despite 
>>our intention), because doing so suggests that such are 
>>preposterous luxuries to which none of us should make a claim of 
>>entitlement & that whites should do without them since many blacks, 
>>Latinos, Arabs, etc. are often denied them.
>
>she behaves as a privileged white woman when she:
>
>1. writes a press release outraged at being searched and detained 
>without ever making one single gesture at the fact that this kind of 
>thing happens all the time to people of color
>
>2. simultaneously cops an outraged attitude at being mistreated for 
>engaging in civil disobedience while bragging to McCullagh about it. 
>well, duh, engaging in civil disobedience is supposed to get the 
>guys with guns pissed off. failure to recognize how awkward that 
>looks is privilege, plain and simple. any black person in her shoes 
>would think twice about exaggerating for fear of what it would make 
>her or his people look like.
>
>3. when she and others leap to the unwarranted conclusion that it 
>must be her politics, not her ticket purchasing habits that got her 
>searched and subsequent behavior that got her detained for 
>questioning. anyone who's been at all hassled by the cops knows that 
>half of it is about stopping you for the slightest pretense and then 
>getting in your face so you screw up and give them a reason to 
>arrest you. which is exactly why i said i wished she'd just have let 
>the story rest on its merits: what a better opportunity for showing 
>how intimidation by the police state works.
>
>as i said, the situation--getting searched is bad enough as it 
>is--but writing a press release that suggests that she got searched 
>at gun point, got detained at gun point, and that it was because of 
>her politics was and remains an embarrassment to the left. she 
>clearly states that she was marked for a search and then offered a 
>flight at four. what kind of ignorant people does she think she's 
>dealing with when she suggests that her right to travel was impeded 
>because of her politics.
>
>kelley

My advice to leftists who wish to oppose police & other repressions 
by the state is, "Don't look for perfect 'innocent victims' who are 
at the same time politically correct & agreeable in every way, 
because you won't have _any_."  The point is to oppose the "USA 
Patriot" Act & other measures of repression any way you can, period.

Also, don't wait to oppose political profiling until you actually 
have cases in which such is _officially confirmed_ by airline & law 
enforcement authorities, because, by then, it will have become far 
more difficult than now to oppose it.  Demand disclosure & voice 
opposition _now_, not later.  Put them on notice that you do & will 
resist it if they dare.

Finally, you don't have to link your demands to the Oden case _at 
all_, if you feel "the left" is being embarrassed by her, though I 
disagree with you on it.  Some of your criticisms in fact make no 
sense at all, e.g., your claim that Oden engaged in "civil 
disobedience" (= consciously breaking law to make a political point, 
sometimes with a view to getting publicly arrested); not even airline 
& security officials made such a claim!

"This kind of thing happens all the time to people of color," but 
such is no reason for a white woman (or man for that matter) not to 
be *outraged* when it happens to her (or him).  To repeat, due 
process, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, freedom of 
conscience, freedom of association, etc. are *civil rights and 
liberties*, to which *both whites and people of color* should make 
*vigorous claims of entitlement*.  Calling them *privileges*, white 
or male or otherwise, works against us (whatever our color, despite 
our intention), because doing so suggests that such are preposterous 
luxuries to which none of us should make a claim of entitlement & 
that whites should do without them since many blacks, Latinos, Arabs, 
etc. are often denied them.
-- 
Yoshie

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