Color of Anarchism Re: Protest ISO...

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Jan 3 18:05:47 PST 2003


At 6:27 PM -0500 1/3/03, W. Kiernan wrote:
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>> It's interesting that there are so many complaints about the anti-IMF
> > movement in the US. being almost exclusively white. Since most of the
>> victims of the IMF are "people of color," shouldn't there be more
>> solidarity coming from Americans of color? Why isn't there?
>
>Maybe if I were a black American and someone came up to me and said I
>should pay more attention to fighting the IMF's economic assault
>against, say, Brazilians, I might say, "screw that, I'm focusing on the
>social and economic battles right here in the U.S. against us blacks."
>I might even suspect that that guy is trying to distract me with
>irrelevancies from my main issue.

It might even cross the minds of a few black persons that some white activists seem suspiciously more interested in the welfare of people of color in faraway parts of the world than that of blacks in the USA, though black persons who entertain such thoughts for long (to the extent of getting them in the way of working with whomever they want to work with) wouldn't be many. I would say that most black people in the USA have yet to hear about the IMF and a movement against it. How many times do left-wing perspectives about them get publicized on TV and in local monopoly newspapers? How often anti-globalization movement activists actually go into local black institutions (churches, etc.) and neighborhoods and even _broach_ the topic, much less go further? Most black people have not been even given a chance to consider if they want to make it their issue at all.

Another problem is that youth activists for the anti-globalization movement have tended to come from what Wojtek has often pejoratively called the "campus left." Who goes to four-year colleges full-time, without working all the time while studying?

***** Immediate Transition to College

...Immediate enrollment rates for White high school completers increased between 1972 and 2000, from 50 to 66 percent. Among Black high school completers, immediate enrollment rates remained fairly constant between 1972 and 1978, decreased between 1978 and 1983, and then increased between 1983 and 2000, rising from 38 to 55 percent. Since 1983, immediate enrollment rates for Blacks have increased faster than those for Whites, reducing the gap between the two groups. For Hispanic high school completers, immediate transition rates remained relatively constant between 1972 and 2000. Thus, while White rates rose during the 1980s and 1990s, stagnant Hispanic rates during this time resulted in the gap increasing between Hispanic and White rates (see table 20-1 [Table 20-1 Percentage of high school completers who were enrolled in college the October after completing high school, by family income and race/ethnicity: October 1972-2000, <http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/section3/tables/t20_1.asp>].

<http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/section3/indicator20.asp> *****

***** College Enrollment and Work Activity of Year 2001 High School Graduates Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 02-288 http://www.bls.gov/cps/ For release: 10:00 A.M. EDT Media contact: 691-5902 Tuesday, May 14, 2002

...Recent High School Graduates and Dropouts

Among race and ethnic groups, a greater percentage of white graduates (63.1 percent) were enrolled in college than were black (54.8 percent) or Hispanic (51.5 percent) graduates. (See table 1.)

The vast majority of recent high school graduates who enrolled in college in the fall attended full time. Of these full-time students, 42.9 percent were employed or looking for work in October 2001, compared with 87.5 percent of part-time college students. Similarly, a much smaller proportion of students attending 4-year institutions (35.3 percent) participated in the labor force than students attending 2-year schools (71.6 percent). This partly reflects the fact that students enrolled in 2-year colleges were more likely to attend part time (31.3 percent) than students enrolled in 4-year colleges (11.3 percent)....

<ftp://146.142.4.23/pub/news.release/hsgec.txt> *****

***** Transition Rates by Race/Ethnicity

...The type of institutions that high school graduates first attend can affect their likelihood of completing a bachelor's degree. Students who begin their higher education at a two-year college are far less likely to earn a bachelor's degree than are their counterparts who begin at a four-year college. In 1994, white graduates were twice as likely to enroll in a four-year college as a two-year college after high school, black graduates were about 1.5 times as likely, and Hispanic graduates were equally likely to enroll in a four-year college as a two-year college.

Students who initially enroll part time in college are less likely to persist toward a bachelor's degree than those who enroll full time. Hispanic high school graduates ages 18-24 were far more likely to be enrolled in college part time, as opposed to full time, than were their white or black counterparts in 1994....

<http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c1/c1s9.htm> *****

***** Although traditional college-age students (23 years or younger) accounted for 57 percent of all undergraduates, 43 percent were age 24 or older. More than a quarter (27 percent) of undergraduates had dependents, 13 percent were single parents, and 80 percent were employed, including 39 percent who were employed full time. Also, 9 percent reported having some type of disability (see tables 35-1a and 35-1b).

<http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/section5/indicator35.asp>

[Yoshie: I'd love to see racial/ethnic breakdowns of the above stats.] *****

***** Educational Attainment Table 25-3 Percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds with a bachelor's degree or higher, by race/ethnicity and sex: March 1971-2000

White Black Hispanic

Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female

2001 33.0 29.7 36.3 17.9 17.9 17.8 11.1 9.1 13.2

<http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2002/section3/tables/t25_3.asp> *****

The gross college enrollment gaps between whites on one hand and blacks and Latinos on the other hand have narrowed considerably (though the gaps still persist, especially between whites and Latinos). However, whites are still much more likely to go to four-year colleges full-time than blacks and Latinos are, and whites are also more likely to be able to stay in college enough to get four-year degrees than blacks and Latinos are. This disparity, I believe, impacts the makeup of the "campus left."

At 6:27 PM -0500 1/3/03, W. Kiernan wrote:
>possibly blacks would do better to take a more global perspective

Experiences of the "Old Left" during the 20s, 30s, and 40s indicate that the "Old Black Left" benefited from lively political and cultural contributions of a considerable number of blacks from the Caribbean islands and/or blacks with ties to the Third International. Prominent issues such as opposition to the Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia and support for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War also infused an internationalist outlook into black communities. The same with the 60's radicalization, which was in sync with anti-colonial struggles overseas. Aside from the movement against Apartheid in South Africa, the same degree of internationalism has not informed black activism since then. Many of the most internationalist leaders then have been assassinated, imprisoned, or otherwise decapitated. The remaining revolutionary nationalist and pan-Africanist black activists have faced an uphill struggle to reverse the decline. The anti-globalization movement, if it clearly ditches protectionist angles and re-focuses itself on the demand to "Drop the Debt," may be able to invigorate the submerged strains of black internationalism that have never been expunged altogether, especially if the "Drop the Debt" demand gets accented with the Reparation rhetoric. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>



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