It is interesting how people tell on themselves unintentionally.

Now, I gave ms. damali ayo a forum to voice her displeasure. She did - however, the analysis part was MIA. Her comments and the organized outrage of her friends simply cast me as ‘da bad guy.’ I don’t mind that so much, but where’s the tofu?

Coupla things really stood out for me:

From (ironically) ‘you are mistaken’: “damali ayo has dedicated her life to this work. this is what she does for a living and is very outspoken that both artists and anti-racist activists get paid for the work they do. she’s way ahead of you. this is her full time pursuit and i see no reason why she should not get paid (and paid well) for it.”

AND, from the lady herself: “you think people are going to hire me to kick their ass if i say “bring me to your school, i’m gonna be a real bitch and tell you that racism can never be fixed?” no. they’re not. what will happen is that i present them some serious solutions- that yes, are easy to do- racism has some very easy to do solutions that people have avoided for too long. it’s time to stop making the excuse that this work is so hard that we can never fix it….it seems like you want racism to stay around so you can complain about it.

Let me get this straight: damali’s ‘way ahead of me’ in terms of believing that anti-racists activists should be ‘paid and paid well’ - by white people - to ‘fix’ racism?

Here are the problems with this framing of the issue by “You Are Mistaken”: Way ahead of me indicates that the ‘one-up/one-down’/'good-bad,’ binary system is in full affect. That is the thinking of the slavemaster. Good slaves are this, bad slaves are that; good white folks are this/bad white folks are that. Some people know, others should shut the fuck up and be led. That opposed to, there’s a bit of good and bad (and a lot of racism) in all of us; calling out the nuances of the behavior is critical in challenging that brainwash Euro-mentality.

One of the reasons I challenge white progressives is because, from experience, their good, stated intentions to the contrary, they act like racist pinatas, with their racism coming out the side of their neck. Well, I challenge black so-called progressives for the same reason. Racism is a virus, a mental illness; many if not most are morally, spiritually and intellectually compromised by it.

So when white people bring in the diversity speaker, they expect a little heat, but they don’t expect a full-on challenge to the racist system itself, to the system’s right to exist. They don’t expect static regarding the breadth and depth of this racialist, imperialist, sexist monster. They want exercises that ruffle the feathers - to a point. That sophistication - something that is lacking in the idea that you can ‘fix’ racism with a ‘personal touch’ - fails to understand how rhetorical challenges to the ways of white folks make it appear that the system IS working. That is the end these whites are after, NOT the actual destruction of White Disney.

They need willing (naive) non-white advocates for change who seek only to prune the roses in the concentration camp - as opposed to overthrowing it.

Money corrupts; when you make your work for REAL change your lottery ticket - you are compromised. You may not see the subtlety of it (not that there is any in this case), but you will “tailor your message,” and yourself , to the audience. (This, as opposed to tailoring the audience’s ear to your liberatory message - if you have one.)

If the audience isn’t charmed by your delivery, YOU DON’T WORK! You won’t get those referrals and those precious contacts that ms. ayo is working so hard for. If the work speaks for itself, why send out letters to the email network for help getting more?

damali asks…”“you think people are going to hire me to kick their ass if i say “bring me to your school, i’m gonna be a real bitch and tell you that racism can never be fixed?”

Look at these assumptions: ‘deepening the analysis/telling the truth’ is conflated as , ‘hiring me to kick their ass,’ etc. My doubt that racism can be fixed using ‘her’ methods and my skepticism that an approach that assumes that there are “easy to do solutions” to racism, crafted by an artiste who believes that “anti-racist activists should make good money doing the work,” is somehow unreasonable. Because I dont’ believe in her ‘program,’ I don’t believe racism can be fixed. Her way is THE way in this reasoning.

damali said…”it seems like you want racism to stay around so you can complain about it.” But who really profits from racism hanging around? What I do, I do for free. I’ve done radio, interracial dialogues, organized community meetings. And I do profit from that because I feel I am deepening my understanding of racism. I profit because I meet amazing people, on and off the net, who are trying to understand and END the system of racism/white supremacy. But I ain’t trying to get paid for it by the white man.

‘Fixing’ racism requires a mechanic, someone to get under the hood and repair it for the passive car owner. Ending racism does not. Ending racism requires all hands on deck to step up; not to be mechanics, but to be a demolition crew, to be landscapers, architects, visionaries. All of US.

{Mechanics need the system of gas powered auto transit to continue in order to make their money “fixing” them. An approach that seeks to eliminate gas powered vehicles altogether, would eliminate the need for a (racial) mechanic.}

The expert,messianic, race worker paradigm is dead: it only makes deluded slaves out of us all. It teaches us to sit in the waiting room of our freedom and let the one “who’s way ahead of us” lead the way. And what if they don’t know where they are going?

What if where they are going ain’t leading you to your freedom, but rather, is leading them to theirs?

The last aspect of this is a criticism I have of myself as well: how is a person of color working primarily with white people going to change the system? Is this not a form of mammying? Beulah fixing the good white folks and getting paid in cornbread at the same time? Now, I spend more time than I want to with white folks. Living in Portland makes it quite easy to do. And its been difficult to connect with people of color/black people cuz many of us are so beaten down, we won’t even look at each other, speak to each other.

HOWEVER, some of us are getting together in PDX to create a conscious community, trying to break down the resistance/break down the Willie Lynch syndrome in our souls. I invite you, damali and any other local people of color (latino/latina/asian/indigenous, etc) who want to connect with their community to contact me (antibes13@hotmail.com) and I’ll let you know when we are meeting again.

I know I want racism to end and I believe it can be ended - the external and the internal. I just don’t believe that a system of racism/white supremacy will hire people to dismantle it.