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.
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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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