Not Showing Up: Blacks, Military Recruitment & Antiwar Movement
When I was the Southern Region Coordinator for Critical Resistance I once spoke at an event in New Orleans entitled What Now: War, Occupation, and the Peace Movement. I was asked specifically to address why more people most adversely affected by systems of oppression were not involved in local antiwar work. Many of the white attendees were very concerned about how to bring Blacks into antiwar organizing work.
One white attendee from a local organizing project told a story of his organizations commitment to connecting the war abroad to the war at home. The demonstration of that desire to connect with Blacks was to make the march route cut through one of the housing projects in New Orleans. I suggested this was a faulty strategy, since the march would draw additional police presence in an already overly policed community, in a city infamous for police brutality against Blacks.
This forum was not the first time I had heard this conversation, and nearly two years later, it has not been the last. In many organizations and activist circles, people can be found lamenting the same problem. More often than not, most affected means Blacks (and sometimes Latinos or immigrants, depending on the issue at hand). Even when the issue itself disproportionately affects Blacks, Blacks are not likely to be found in much of what the Left considers to be valid forms of resistance meetings, rallies, public forums, demonstrations, and the like.
The question that often underlies the discussion about getting people most affected involved is: Why are Blacks these days so complacent or unwilling to stick their necks out for a good cause? Does their lack of involvement mean Blacks aren’t doing their part to end the war in Iraq? What does their ambivalence about antiwar activism say about the Left?
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