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Thursday, July 2, 2020




BIPOC
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
JULY 2, 2020

A NEW TERM HAS EMERGED CONCERNING MINORITIES, “BIPOC.” THAT IS A NEW ACRONYN FOR “BLACK, INDIGENOUS, PEOPLE OF COLOR.” IT REFERS TO A GROUPING OF ALL PEOPLE OF COLOR. IT IS HIGH TIME THAT SOMEONE SPOKE OUT LOUD ABOUT THAT ISSUE. AS MUCH AS I HATE WHITE SUPREMACY IN ITS’ IDEAS AND PRACTICES, IT HAS DISTURBED ME THAT THE BLACK COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE HASN’T SPOKEN OUT VERY OFTEN OR STRONGLY AGAINST THE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST OTHERS, ESPECIALLY THE AMERICAN INDIANS, BUT THE HISPANIC AND ISLAMIC GROUPS ALSO, OVER THEIR SKIN COLOR AND HERITAGE.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. HIMSELF DID CALL HIS FAMOUS MARCH IN 1968 THE “POOR PEOPLE’S MARCH” ON WASHINGTON, AND HE SPECIFICALLY INCLUDED WHITES AND OTHER POOR GROUPS AMONG THEM. FOR THE POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN, GO TO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign. SEE BELOW FOR SOME EXCERPTS FROM THAT ARTICLE.

I ALSO WANT TO REMIND READERS THAT POOR AND WORKING CLASS WHITE PEOPLE ARE INTENSELY STRESSED AS WELL AS PEOPLE OF COLOR (POC) IN AMERICA. AMERICA JUST DOESN’T PAY NEARLY ENOUGH ATTENTION TO HUMAN PROBLEMS IN GENERAL. WE ARE TRULY A MONEY OVER PEOPLE SOCIETY. ONE OF THE SHOCKING THINGS TO ME WHEN I GO INTO CERTAIN PARTS OF ALMOST ANY CITY IN AMERICA NOW IS THAT THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF HOMELESS PEOPLE SCATTERED ACROSS THE COUNTRY. LET’S ACTIVELY BE FAIR AND HELPFUL TO ALL WHO NEED IT. JUSTICE FOR ALL.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE BLACK PEOPLE LIKE THE HISTORIAN JANUS ADAMS, QUOTED EXTENSIVELY IN THE STORY BELOW, LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE OF A DIRE NEED FOR WIDESPREAD AND DEEPLY RUNNING SOCIAL CHANGE. THE LIFE HISTORY OF BLACK PEOPLE IN A NUMBER OF PLACES IN THE WORLD, NOT JUST AMERICA, IS HORRIFIC, BUT IT IS NOT UNIQUE. THE NATIVE AMERICANS WERE ALL BUT EXTERMINATED, EXACTLY LIKE THE JEWS HAVE BEEN ACROSS EUROPE, SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE AND OCCUPYING THEIR LANDS. IN THE USA, IT WAS ESSENTIALLY A LAND GRAB, BUT OF COURSE WHITE SUPREMACIST HATRED OF ALL OTHERS WAS MIXED IN IT.

WHAT DISTURBS ME AS MUCH AS THAT HOSTILITY FACTOR, THOUGH, IS THE COLD-BLOODED WAY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOSTERED THE “SETTLEMENT” AND ANNEXATION OF LAND BY IMMIGRANT WHITES THAT BELONGED INDISPUTABLY TO THE INDIANS. WHEN THEY RESISTED THEY WERE KILLED. WHERE THEY SIGNED TREATIES, THE TREATIES WERE NOT HONORED, AND THE NATIVE PEOPLE WERE FORCED INTO RESTRICTED AREAS TO EXIST AS WELL AS THEY COULD. MOST OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE EAST WERE FORCIBLY MOVED OUT BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE WEST. THE BLACKS ARE THE GROUP IN THE EAST THAT RECEIVE THE MOST DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT, BUT IN THE WEST IT IS THE INDIANS AND THE HISPANIC GROUPS OF ALL KINDS.

IN NEITHER CASE IS IT JUST OR ACCEPTABLE. ONLY A UNITED FRONT CAN PRODUCE THE CHANGE THAT WE NEED IN AMERICAN SOCIETY, AND THAT MEANS THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER NEEDS TO LET OTHERS IN AS ALLIES AND FRIENDS, GO TO HISPANIC OR AMERICAN INDIAN DEMONSTRATIONS OVER THEIR ISSUES, AND PARTICIPATE MUTUALLY AND EQUALLY IN ECONOMIC CHANGE OF THE SORT THAT SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS HAS ADVOCATED. I STRONGLY BELIEVE, FROM WHAT I HAVE OBSERVED OVER THE SPAN OF MY LIFE, THAT ECONOMIC ISSUES ARE AT THE ROOT OF THE RACIAL STALEMATE IN THIS COUNTRY. NO MONEY MEANS NO ADVANTAGES OF THE SORT THAT ALLOW A CHILD TO GROW UP WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. THAT HITS WHITE KIDS AS WELL AS BLACKS WITH THE SAME DAMAGING BODY BLOW TO THE INNER SPIRIT. IT’S HARD TO PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ANY BOOTS.

TO DO OTHERWISE THAN MELDING OUR FORTUNES TOGETHER MAINTAINS A STATUS QUO OF THE WORST KIND -- MUTUAL HATRED AND DISTRUST ACROSS GROUP LINES. THERE IS NO WIN WHEN SO MANY ARE LOSING. BESIDES, WE WILL LOSE TRACK OF WHAT THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA AT OUR BEST ARE ALL ABOUT – A HIGHER PLANE OF BELIEFS AND A BETTER ACHIEVEMENT OF THEM IN THE WORLD OF DAILY LIFE. IN A GREAT DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW WITH MOTHER THERESA SOME YEARS AGO, SHE SAID, AND I’M PARAPHRASING IT, “SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO FEED THE STOMACH BEFORE WE CAN FEED THE SOUL.”

THEREFORE, I AM DELIGHTED TO SEE THE NEW GROUP CALLED BIPOC. IT FORMALLY AND SYMBOLICALLY MERGES THE PEOPLES OF THEIR VARIOUS SKIN AND LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS AS ONE IN COOPERATION AND RESPECT, WHICH MAY BE ABLE TO HELP MOVE AMERICA CLOSER TO THE DEMOCRACY MOST OF US WANT. THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT WE GIVE UP OUR INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CULTURES. I WILL STILL BE ABLE TO GO TO THE SCOTTISH GAMES IF I MARCH WITH BLACK LIVES MATTER. THEN AND ONLY THEN WILL BLACKS OR JEWS OR HISPANICS BE RELATIVELY SAFE, PROSPEROUS AND FREE. NO PERSON’S LIFE IS EVER ENTIRELY SAFE, NOR OUR LIVES WITHOUT STRUGGLE, BUT OUR PRESENT SITUATION IN THIS COUNTRY IS INTOLERABLE.

IT ISN’T JUST WHITES WHO DO THOSE THINGS TO OTHERS, EITHER. IN AFRICA I REMEMBER A WAR OF ATTEMPTED EXTERMINATION (“ETHNIC CLEANSING”) IN AFRICA BETWEEN TWO ETHNIC GROUPS CALLED THE HUTUS AND THE TUTSI. IN JUST 100 DAYS, THE HUTUS KILLED SOME 800,000 MEMBERS OF THE TUTSI POPULATION IN AN ATTEMPT TO “CLEANSE” THE COUNTRY OF THEIR PRESENCE, PRESUMABLY BECAUSE OF SOME TAINT THAT THEY WERE BELIEVED TO POSSESS. THAT IS USUALLY HOW THE THINKING GOES IN THOSE CASES. X IS INFERIOR BECAUSE OF THIS OR THAT. IT IS SICK THINKING, AND WE NEED TO “CLEANSE” OURSELVES OF IT. ON THE TRAGIC CASE OF THE HUTUS AND THE TUTSI, GO TO: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506.

WE CAN START BY INTERACTING IN OPEN PERSONAL CONVERSATION AND MUTUAL RESPECT WITH INDIVIDUALS OF OTHER RACES AND RELIGIONS. SMILING AND SPEAKING IS A GOOD PLACE TO START. ONLY THEN CAN WE INDIVIDUALLY FEEL “SAFE” AMONG A GROUP OF THE “OTHERS.” WE NEED TO BRING BLACK LIVES MATTER INTO THE REALM OF A FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL INTERACTION RATHER THAN ONE OF SOMETIMES BARELY CLOAKED ENMITY. THAT’S A GAME THAT EVERYBODY HAS TO PLAY FOR IT TO WORK IN THE LONG HAUL.

THE LINK THAT TIES MOST WHITE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY TOGETHER IS THE VIEW THAT IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR RELATIVELY GREATER MONEY AND POWER, THEY MUST BE SUPERIOR. PROFESSOR ADAMS SPEAKS OF THIS NEW GROUP IDENTITY BIPOC THAT BINDS THE NATIVE AMERICANS WITH BLACKS AND OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR AS A “DISTRACTION.” A DISTRACTION FROM WHAT?

THE NEED IS FOR THE LESS AFFLUENT, BOTH WHITES AND RACIAL MINORITIES, TO BIND THEMSELVES TOGETHER WITH ALL PEOPLE OF A SIMILAR CONDITION, INCLUDING CERTAIN OTHERS WHO HAVE A LESSER CHANCE OF ADVANCEMENT AS SUCCESSFUL INDIVIDUALS IN AMERICA. I AM INCLUDING IN THAT THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY, THE DISABLED, THE MENTALLY ILL, THE ADDICTED AND THE HOMELESS, TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE BRICK WALL OF INDIFFERENCE THAT SURROUNDS THOSE WHOSE LIVES ARE EASIER. “NOT IN MY BACK YARD” IS THEIR BATTLE CRY. THERE WILL BE NO GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED HOUSING OR HALFWAY HOUSES IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

BONDING TOGETHER IN THAT WAY, WE CAN WORK ACTIVELY TO ELECT BETTER AND MORE SYMPATHETIC REPRESENTATIVES AND LEADERS, REGISTER EVERYONE TO VOTE, SET UP USEFUL INTERACTIONS LIKE TOWN MEETINGS ON ISSUES OF INTEREST OR CONCERN, ACTUALLY RUN FOR OFFICE FROM THE CITY COUNCIL LEVEL ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CONGRESS AND EVEN TO THE PRESIDENCY. THE WILLINGNESS TO GET OUT IN THE STREET AND DEMONSTRATE OR MARCH IS A VITAL PART OF THAT ALSO, BUT MORE IS REQUIRED.

I HAVE BEEN IMPRESSED WITH THE BLACK LIVES MATTER PEOPLE I’VE SEEN EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. THEY HAVE SOMETIMES EXCLUDED, AND RUDELY SO, WHITES AND OTHER NON-BLACK PEOPLE WHO “DARED” TO JOIN IN WITH THEM OR SPEAK ON WHAT THEY CONSIDER TO BE “THEIR” ISSUES. WE ALL NEED TO WORK TOGETHER. GOOD WILL GOES BOTH WAYS. GROUP IDENTITY IS GOOD FOR DEVELOPING PRIDE IN OUR OWN CULTURAL TIES, BUT IF IT PREVENTS OUR NECESSARY INNER WORK AS AN INDIVIDUAL TOWARD A MORE ENLIGHTENED AND BETTER SELF, AND IF IT DIVIDES WHAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE A BROADER AND STRONGER MOVEMENT THAT CAN PROVIDE MAXIMUM PRESSURE ON THOSE WHO OPPRESS US, IT IS NO LONGER AN ADVANTAGE. RIGHT? I THINK THAT IS AN OBVIOUS TRUTH.

BIPOC: What does it mean and where does it come from?
BY CHEVAZ CLARKE
JULY 2, 2020 / 10:04 AM / CBS NEWS

The language used to describe racial minorities has fueled controversy in the United States for centuries. POC is widely used as an umbrella term for all people of color, but now a different acronym is suddenly gaining traction on the internet — BIPOC, which stands for “Black, Indigenous, People of Color”.

People are using the term to acknowledge that not all people of color face equal levels of injustice. They say BIPOC is significant in recognizing that Black and Indigenous people are severely impacted by systemic racial injustices.

According to Google Trends, the use of the acronym began to spike in May 2020, coinciding with the growing Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Founders of "The BIPOC Project" use the term to "highlight the unique relationship to Whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context."

But where does it come from?

Tara Young, a director at UC Berkeley who identifies as Black, Native American, Cherokee and Creek, believes the use of the term is a product of younger generations, but she appreciates its attempt to reflect both Black and Indigenous cultures.

"With older generations, they were so pushed to just choose one. You don't see a lot of people who are like 'I am Black, Native American,' or Black Indigenous in this case," she told CBS News. "It's trying to reflect both which I think is actually nice."

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David Dent, an associate professor of journalism and social and cultural analysis at New York University, said he is open to using the term to recognize the struggles that people in Black and Indigenous communities share.

"In some ways, it connects Native Americans or Indigenous Americans more firmly to the cause — to the continued threats of racism in our society. I think that on some level that connection hasn't always been cemented," Dent told CBS News. "It is important, certainly at this moment, to help draw a significant connection."

Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, also believes the term provides a foundation of unity.

"Many of our communities have a common foundation of civil rights challenges," she said. "While we do have strength in our individual identities, as Native people, as Black people, we also have within our communities a unity of our citizenry. Some of our citizens face challenges, both as an Indigenous person and as a Black person and that intersection of challenges, presents a unique position."

The coronavirus pandemic is taking an especially heavy toll on Black Americans, from high rates of unemployment to increased risk of infection. Sharp said the Indigenous community also shares those same elevated risks.

"We're dying in high numbers all related to the same systemic racism, the same systemic oppression and inequality and inability to access just basic resources and food that other people take for granted. We have to fight for it and we struggle to just have a baseline level of quality of life," she said.

"Those are the kind of things that draw people together."

Sharp said those areas of common interest are why it is important to have acronyms like BIPOC - to reinforce the collective experience between Black and Indigenous people.

"Somebody who identifies with the Indigenous communities of this country can feel the pain and suffering that has gone on for centuries of genocide," she continued. "And then to have another part of your identity of history, where your ancestors were enslaved generation after generation, and to have the pain of the failure of this country to reconcile build, generation after generation — when those two historical traumas intersect in a single human being, it's quite empowering and it's quite different."

VIDEO – UNDERSTANDING JUNETEENTH’S SIGNIFICANCE, 08:29

But not everyone is convinced about the positive impact of embracing the term. Janus Adams, a historian who was one of the first children to desegregate the New York City public schools, argues that BIPOC is "a distraction."

"As long as this country has been in existence, it's been a racial moment. The idea that White people are White people, but everybody else is a group? I have no problem with that for an alliance or organization because there are similar experiences of racism. But the idea that identity should be conflated, I think is ludicrous."

Instead, Adams would prefer if we referred to Indigenous Americans by their individual tribes.

"If we're able to know the difference or hear that there is a difference between French, Austrian, English, Welsh, then why can't we know that there's Sioux, Cherokee, Shinnecock, Mohican, why can't we know that and why shouldn't we know that? This is a continuation of taking away the identity of these people," she said.

"Everyone but White people lose their identity. White people keep their identity. White people keep their racial/cultural, nation-state, heritage identities, but Black people, Indigenous people, Asian people, Latino people all get subsumed into something."

Adams believes that using the term leads the public on a "dangerous" path that could lead Black people to another struggle for their identity. "We've already been through that. We've been through White and non-White. We've been through White and colored. I don't need another acronym to go back to that."

She suspects the development of this term lends itself to the lack of historical education seen among younger generations.

"If you don't know your past, you really don't know where you're going and then that brings us right back to a path that we worked so hard to overcome," Adams said. "They want to ally with each other. And they want to honor the fact that they're all in that together. But that is not the way to do it."

First published on June 30, 2020 / 10:41 AM

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



Poor People's Campaign
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the 1968 US anti-poverty campaign. For the 2018 US anti-poverty campaign, see Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.

[A READER OR EDITOR HAS OBJECTED TO THE STYLE OF THIS ARTICLE AND SUGGESTED CHANGES: This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)]


The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and carried out under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy in the wake of King's assassination.

The campaign demanded economic and human rights for poor Americans of diverse backgrounds. After presenting an organized set of demands to Congress and executive agencies, participants set up a 3,000-person protest camp on the Washington Mall, where they stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1968.

The Poor People's Campaign was motivated by a desire for economic justice: the idea that all people should have what they need to live. King and the SCLC shifted their focus to these issues after observing that gains in civil rights had not improved the material conditions of life for many African Americans. The Poor People's Campaign was a multiracial effort—including African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans—aimed at alleviating poverty regardless of race.[1][2]

According to political historians such as Barbara Cruikshank, "the poor" did not particularly conceive of themselves as a unified group until President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty (declared in 1964) identified them as such.[3] Figures from the 1960 census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Commerce Department, and the Federal Reserve estimated anywhere from 40 to 60 million Americans—or 22 to 33 percent—lived below the poverty line. At the same time, the nature of poverty itself was changing as America's population increasingly lived in cities, not farms (and could not grow its own food).[4] Poor African Americans, particularly women, suffered from racism and sexism that amplified the impact of poverty, especially after "welfare mothers" became a nationally recognized concept.[5]

By 1968, the War on Poverty seemed like a failure, neglected by a Johnson administration (and Congress) that wanted to focus on the Vietnam War and increasingly saw anti-poverty programs as primarily helping African Americans.[6] The Poor People's Campaign sought to address poverty through income and housing. The campaign would help the poor by dramatizing their needs, uniting all races under the commonality of hardship and presenting a plan to start to a solution.[7] Under the "economic bill of rights," the Poor People's Campaign asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with a $30 billion anti-poverty package that included, among other demands, a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing.[8] The Poor People's Campaign was part of the second phase of the civil rights movement. King said, "We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and poverty".[9]

King wanted to bring poor people to Washington, D.C., forcing politicians to see them and think about their needs: "We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way ... and we've come to stay until you do something about it.'"[10]

Development

Idea

The Poor People's Campaign had complex origins. King considered bringing poor people to the nation's capital since at least October 1966, when welfare rights activists held a one-day march on the Mall.[11] In May 1967 during a SCLC retreat in Frogmore, South Carolina, King told his aides that the SCLC would have to raise nonviolence to a new level to pressure Congress into passing an Economic Bill of Rights for the nation's poor. The SCLC resolved to expand its civil rights struggle to include demands for economic justice and to challenge the Vietnam War.[12] In his concluding address to the conference, King announced a shift from "reform" to "revolution" and stated: "We have moved from the era of civil rights to an era of human rights."[13]

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