Don’t allow the acts of solidarity Whites show in the #Ferguson protest fool you. These folks don’t represent the majority for one, and also, they will only protest up to the point it where it starts to impact their own self interest.
They will call for the arrest of a homicidal police officer, they will even call for the resignation of a corrupt or incompetent public official; but the moment we begin to organize for fundamental economic and social transformation, for larger societal justice those same Whites who protest with you will become your opposition, because they benefit from the larger system of White Domination, and will defend it to the end.
Just look at all the White who marched with Dr. King when he was simply seeking Integration and Assimilation, but then they turned against him when he concluded that this nation needed “Revolutionary change,” and called for an end to US Imperialism. The same will happen if the movement in Missouri evolves beyond protest and calls for reform.
The Whites who truly oppose White Domination and Capitalism don’t look to Black folks or our struggles to unite with, they have more resources and access to the Systems than us, so they can organize and attack without marching with us in the streets. Whites who are truly anti-White Domination don’t oppose it out of a want to save Blacks but out of an understanding that WD harms them and their descendants.
Gil Scott-Heron called the Whites who joined Black movements in the 60s “Four Year Revolutionaries,” because he saw all those Whites who were down with the Black struggle, and marched with the Civil Rights organizers flip after they finished college. These White radicals got jobs, invested in the stock market, moved to the burbs, and voted for Reagan; while the conditions they join us to oppose got worse and worse.
Harry Stein and David Horowitz are prime examples of who Gil was talking about.
So, as we find others joining the protest and the emerging movement, we’d better understand the lessons of the past.
Fred Hampton once stated that if Whites what to help the Black struggle, then they should organize within their own communities for justice and liberation, and “if we need you to pour gas on yourself and jump on Nixon,” we’ll let you know, “but until then work within your own communities,” develop you own movements. Malcolm X gave similar advice to White progressives.
There’s no need for Whites to join Black movements, there have so much shit they can work on independent of us, but would aline with the rest of humanity in opposition to Omnicidal White Domination.
The Black community needs a more sophisticated understanding of solidarity and alliances, and stop letting any one who simply expresses a desire to, join our movements. I’m sick of other Races getting more out of our struggles in the long run that us, and that don’t just apply to Whites, peep how the Black and Brown solidarity is playing out.
I’m sorry to disrupt the Kumbaya feelings folks are getting as they see more Whites take photos with their hands in the air, but our struggle is a scientific and multigenerational process that can’t be sustaining with good feelings, or superficial analysis.
