awhile back, i posted a letter i sent to the Earth First Journal in response to some blatant racism that has been going on within Earth First. They printed the letter (although cutting it in size a bit… but it was a long letter) a couple issue back. Well, in the newest issue, “john conner” replies directly to my letter in a brief letter to the editor.

if you read my original letter, you’d know that i was upset about the reactionary response of some well-known Earth Firsters to a letter challenging the groups to critically analyze how racism and privilege plays out within Earth First. I’m a firm believer that the first thing people with privilege can do when being challenged on their privilege is not to react. Usually, that initial reaction is defensive and self-serving. And certainly does nothing to challenge anything.

well, john conner (whom i know) decided not to heed this suggestion and just lash out in a spat of self-defense. he started by explaining that Earth First had, indeed, not scheduled on top of the APOC, Anarchist People of Color, conference (which he states is my “anarchist gathering” when i had nothing to do with the organizing of the event) because Earth First always has their camp-out on solstice. What he failed to mention was why Earth First decided to move the solstice campout to a week after solstice (months after APOC organizers had already scheduled the conference). Must have overlooked that tidbit.

He then explains that KEF, the southern appalachian faction of Earth First, has not engaged in just two kkk counter-protests, but nine. i was only aware of two in the past three years, but its possible that i was not made aware of others. then again, its possible he was going back further than three years. but that’s beside the point.

Nine symbolic actions, rather over the span of three years or nine, does very little to challenge an individual’s role in the institutionalized White Supremacy. Especially if those actions are against ten klan members in the middle of the appalachian mountains (i mean how many people honestly believe that under those masks are Senators or Governors passing racist legislation?). The klan is the least of our concerns in the fight again institutionalized oppression! But john conner is not interested in understanding how systems of power work. He is interested only in convincing himself and others that he is the more revolutionary, non-racist member of society.

Oh, and another thing, john conner finishes his letter letting us know that no one else was organizing these counter-rallies, just KEF. Funny, because i attended a couple of these demos with mr. conner (before we were officially introduced). i remember seeing a lot of people there, mostly people of color, who had nothing to do with Earth First. Most of them were high school students who had come with their own organization. In fact, i wasn’t there with Earth First. I had gone with a small group of high school students under the banner of Education In Action. But maybe the only people that count are the small handfull of White Earth Firsters.

Well, as a friend assured me this morning, “Earth First has a long history of excluding people of color and continues to alienate White allies who try to bring up the topic of racism. They aren’t going to listen.” I’ve said my piece. I know how powerful and blinding privilege is. I wish i cared enough about these people to keep putting forth the effort, but no effort has been shown on the other end, so I’m done with Earth First. I hope a major shift does happen and Earth Firsters do start to talk openly and honestly about how privilege and power shapes its activities and limits its possibilities. Until then, i’m moving on.

A couple of weeks ago, my sister recommended that i see the movie Crash. Of course my first response was “that movie about people who get off on car crashes?” (turns out this is a common response). She informed me that it was a new movie by the same name. How unfortunate.

When i asked what it was about all she could say was that it was about race and that she thought i’d be a good persyn to talk to about it. Well i finally got around to seeing it the other night. I definitely recommend it, especially to those of us self-proclaimed anti-racists. I can now see the reason for my sister’s difficulty in explaining the movie. Overall, it is just that - a complex portrait of the intricate and damaging ways that racism plays out in all of our lives. But the plot gets to be just as complicated as race itself.

The movie intertwines the lives of a slew of characters. Two White cops, a Latina investigator, a Black investigator, a white DA and his White wife, two young Black men, a Persian family who owns a small shop, a latino locksmith, a Korean man and his wife, and a number of other characters who find themselves bound by circumstance and generations of racist programming. One reason i loved this film so much was because it continued where most other films fail to go. Instead of creating a White-centered film (where the conflict is between White people and Black people or White people and Latinos or White people and Asians or so on), the film focused on how racism has created a dynamic of stereotype, bigotry, and hatred between all races.

A Black female manager for an insurance company yells at a White male cop (rightfully so) for implying that she is underqualified and only got the job because of affirmative action, and then she later goes on to yell at an Asian man with an accent for not speaking “American” after he hit her car. The hypocrocies are abound in this movie, which will hopefully allow for a more indepth discussion of how racism is systematically carried out horizontally(between people of color) and vertically(from White people against people of color).

While the movie could serve as a primer beyond racism 101, it could also prove to have some damaging effects from the non-critical eye. For example, someone who wishes to maintain the system of White Supremacy, whether consciously or not, could watch the movie and say “see, White people aren’t the only ones who are racist”. Its an argument i’ve heard time and again, and a Hollywood budget could potentially serve to legitimize this thinking. After all, we are (subconsciously) taught to defend the way we live, and therefore are always on the lookout for small ways to prove that the way we think and act are justified. Easier to justify the path we have always been on than to begin the work of creating a new path, eh?

Well, i say grab the machete and begin hacking. Watch the movie with a friend or a group of ya. In fact, you may want to watch it a couple of times (there’s a lot to it). Challenge yourself to think critically about what the movie is saying. Then pick up some books and start reading about how racism was created as a tool to divide people. And how different groups of people were pitted against other in order to maintain the status quo of those who have and those who ain’t got.