Color of Anarchism Re: Protest ISO...

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Wed Jan 1 12:48:17 PST 2003


David Schanoes wrote:
> When you accuse the left of tokenism, what precisely do you mean. Tokenism
> historically has meant using one member of a group to continue the process
> of disenfranchisement of the whole group.
>
> Whatever our opinions of the left, I don't think tokenism applies.

I think that the charge of tokenism applies. Otherwise I'd like to hear another word for it. I'm referring to the methods that Left political groups engage in to recruit people of color for a variety of agendas. For many it is simply the desire to not be criticized for being all white. For others, such as the WWP amd RCP, it's to seek those faces and links with groups to give the organization what I call "revolutionary authenticity." No working class person is going to take seriously a vanguardist group that aims to "led the oppressed masses" if all the faces, and the leadership, in the group are white people.

And from what I've witnessed over the years, this also includes using people of color as window dressing at public events, or using them to do dirty work against competing groups. You see these token people of color speaking at rallies for these groups, yet they curiously never get to be leaders of said groups.

Chuck0

------------------------------------------------------------ Personal homepage -> http://chuck.mahost.org/ Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ MutualAid.org -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/

"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." ---Utah Phillips



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list