Guilty of Being White

Boy, this article takes me back.

In the eighties, my working as the manager of the New World resource Center in Chicago, along with being a politically active punk rocker, put me in contact with some very interesting organizations. And individuals that peopled them. One such organization was the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee https://citylights.com/open-media-series/no-fascist-usathe-john-brown-anti-klan/

As evinced by their name, the John Browners worked the race issue primarily, some might argue recklessly, often directly engaging in pitched battles with the likes of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads. One such battle occurred in 1986 while I was doing my part fending off an invasion by C.A.S.H. (Chicago Area Skin Heads) of our local punk scene. Adult activists and a punk/anti-racist skin coalition confronted a larger group of mostly pro-KKK types demonstrating against a Gay Pride Parade. Things turned violent in a hurry, with objects being thrown and placard posts being brandished as spears. A bunch of people were injured, even a few cops, who had stepped in to prevent the situation from turning into a full-scale riot.

The thing that bugged me about the JBAKC — besides their communal lack of a sense of humor — was their stance regarding racial prejudices. Baldly stated, its members believed that it was impossible for blacks or other racial minorities to be racially prejudiced/racist. This philosophy (ideology: “white skin privilege”) colored every aspect of its activist work, including how white and black activists appeared together in public, along with how work was facilitated. No time for the minutest of details; but let’s just say that extreme deferentialism was the order of the day, which, to my mind, barely camouflaged a form of extreme white guilt, along with a very high level of condescension and patronizing that could not have escaped notice by blacks; and, moreover, was very often exploited by them, much to the consternation of young white punks like me who would have none of it.

Enter Chokwe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokwe_Lumumba.

I met Mr. Lumumba back then. He attended a few meetings or events that JBAKC sponsored and held at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was part of an effort to build support for his “Republic of New Afrika,” along with exploring solidarity efforts with Puerto Rican nationalists. Both groupings held controversial views regarding the origin and spread of U.S. imperialism, along with what was to be done to combat it.

With all due respect for the dead, Chokwe, sorry to say, struck me as a bit of a pompous ass who hadn’t bothered to either admit or examine the inherent contradictions of pairing black nationalism with socialism. The idea that nationalism was somehow a necessary stepping stone for formerly colonized/exploited peoples on their inevitable route to socialism had never borne itself out historically. Nor were there any signs of it bearing fruit anywhere in the world then, or now for that matter. It was, and still is, a dead end in the battle for hearts and minds, seemingly torn between joining the forces of McWorld or an international/multicultural jihad.

***I just recently discovered some documents regarding my political activist work with JBAKC at a website called “The Freedom Archives” that folks of a similar political or philosophical ilk might find interesting.***