The Time to Build a More Caring and Just Society

By David DeHart (November 11, 2016)

It’s pretty difficult to sum up in words the disappointment and anger that comes from the election of a neofascist to president. We are going to see a lot of terrible things happening in the next few years, we are already seeing how bigots have been emboldened in their violence. But what is important to remember is that we still have agency, and this is the time more than ever to be intentional about your role in society.

As terrifying as it is to think of the possibilities for our friends, neighbors, and family who belong to the groups who will face the consequences of the election of an ego-maniacal white nationalist demagogue who emboldens violence against every marginalized group imaginable, despair without determination can lead us to complacency. We need to be there to support the people who will be most directly affected by this orange hate-spewing man-child. We need to be together in loving, supportive community. 

And perhaps the most important part, we need to stop being just individuals and join together in community to resist the horrible things that will be happening in the places we call home. Now is the time more than ever when we need to be active in our communities. We need collective action. We need to reach out to our neighbors, build community, and take charge over what kind of community we want to create and be part of. We have to resist collectively the escalation in violence that is coming. Collectively we can build a movement that says no to deportations of refugees, undocumented immigrants, and Muslims in our communities; that has no tolerance for racist harassment and violence; that responds with caring support and unflinching resolve in the face of violence against women (be that sexual, domestic, verbal, structural–through denying necessary services); one that actively includes and supports our queer and trans neighbors, friends, and family; one that does not accept the reproduction and criminalization of poverty and precarity; and one that will envision and build a more caring and just society.

This is a terrifying time to behold, and we cannot be made to face it alone. We must join together in our communities to be there for each other and to collectively resist what is coming.

And if anybody is feeling the need for venting, distractions, a hug, or anything in the wake of what is coming, I’m here for you all and will make time for you so feel no hesitation to reach out 🙂 <3

Love, Solidarity, and Justice

Organizing Takes Place in the Interstices

By Alexander Reid Ross (November 10, 2016)

““For some of us there was no one particular place, and we grabbed whatever we could from wherever we found space, comfort, quiet, a smile, non-judgment.” – Audre Lorde

Remembering today that the great burden of organizing takes place in the interstices, away from the obtuse and brutal burlesque that passes for radicalism in America. Organizing needs, wants, and desires; meeting, grinding, and arguing, bringing something out of a labor of love. We will keep to the method of freedom, holding true to ourselves and our communities. We will continue the struggle, only more intelligently and dedicated than ever before. Sending my love to everyone profoundly affected by last night’s terrible news. It is a new day today. Don’t mourn, organize.

Trump and the Habits of White Utopia (or How Mexican Philosophers Help Get me Through Election Day)

 

By Joseph Orosco (November 10, 2016)

 

In the late 1980s, Mexican anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla published his book Mexico Profundo, or Deep Mexico. In it, he argued that the lives and experiences of ordinary Mexicans living in rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods in Mexico continue to be rooted in Mesoamerican civilizations. Their understandings of work, community obligation, health, time, and harmonious coexistence form a connection to indigenous folkways that go back to pre-columbian societies. Most Mexicans may not recognize these habits, or themselves, as indigenous, but their everyday experiences are shaped by these much older cultures and practices laying deep underneath the modern ways of life.

 

I was thinking about Mexican thinkers such as Bonfil, as well as Mexican philosopher Jose Vasconcelos, when I walked to the university today, wondering how to make sense of the Trump electoral victory. My first appointment was with a Chicanx student who spoke in an emotionally tired voice, explaining she had been up all night with her parents who were trying to determine what sorts of work they would find if they were deported back to Mexico. I saw my colleagues in the hallways and later learned that some of them had broken down crying in front of their classes. One Muslim student told me he had been on the phone with friends all night, gauging their fear; one of them told him that calls to suicide hotlines were overwhelming some centers and they were having to put people on hold. One African American student worried about what his younger sibling was going to do growing up in this environment. Thoughout the day, my social media feeds filled with friends expressing amazement, disgust, and the feeling that they did not understand their country anymore.

 

The work of Vasconcelos helped me not to be shocked today. In 1925, he wrote a work entitled The Cosmic Race. In it, he tried to explain what he considered to be the main cultural differences between North and Latin America—the profound US and the profound Latin America, particularly Mexico. He said if you wanted to understand these two Americas you had to go back and look at the differences in their settler colonialism. These experiences created deep grooves and patterns into the culture and political development of the two societies that continue to shape modern life.

race

 

In the North, the white settlers envisioned a utopia for themselves, a place to venerate the accomplishments of English culture, and proceeded to exclude or exterminate nonwhite populations. In the North you found, “the confessed or tacit intention of cleaning the earth of Indians, Mongolians [sic], or Blacks, for the greater glory and fortune of the Whites.” This vision of white utopia propelled the extension of the United States all the way across the West. It also grounded legislation that excluded Asians from immigrating or from most civic life in places like California, propped up the Jim Crow segregation in the South, and the Juan Crow segregation in the Southwest that Vasconcelos directly experienced while he attended high school in Eagle Pass, Texas.

 

For Vasconcelos, what distinguished Latin America was the way in which racial integration and miscegenation was more acceptable. White supremacy still reigned, but the particular features of social and political life made the development of a variety of mixed racial identities possible (indeed, during the colonial period, places like Mexico and Brazil recognized hundreds of possible racial identities). Founding figures in Latin American independence, from Simon Bolivar and Jose Morelos, all recognized that Latin American republics would have to contend with multi-racialism in order to work.

 

What made me think of Vasconcelos is that he identified white supremacy as part of the profound United States—that is, as the deep tendencies that lie underneath modern society. According to Vasconcelos, the United States has learned very well is how to develop over time the practices and institutional policies of exclusion, marginalization, and eradication of non white peoples; these are the ready-to-hand tools that are reached for in moments of fear and crisis for white Americans. Trump’s campaign reached deep into los estadounidos profundo—the deep white supremacist toolbox. Voting data seems to reveal that, overwhelmingly, a majority of white people—men and women, rural and suburban, educated and non-educated alike—felt called to defend a society that Trump described as under attack by Mexicans, Muslims, and urban Blacks (among others). Despite his misogyny and promises to undo reproductive rights, most white women felt the need to protect that deep United States vision now in ways they did not just eight or even four years ago. This is not to say that all white people, or even the majority of white people who voted for Trump, have racial animus toward nonwhite people. I think what Vasconcelos would say is that they heeded the dogwhistle of white supremacy, the habits of whiteness, that lay deep in US culture and are turned to when times are uncertain.

 

And it is this part of Vasconcelos’s work that keeps me from paralyzing despair. It means that what happened with the Trump victory is not something new, something unexpected, or strangely out of place. It is something profoundly American. That doesn’t mean it isn’t something to worry about, and that some groups shouldn’t now worry about their safety and security; but it is a reaction that has happened time and time again in US history from the very beginning of our founding. To think that the habits of whiteness were eradicated with a decade long Civil Rights movement and that eight years of a black president have ushered us into a post-racial society is to naively underestimate los estadounidos profundo.

 

Vasconcelos attempted to offer a way forward. The Cosmic Race is an attempt to sketch an alternative to the white utopia of the United States. This involved a vision of a cosmopolitian world in which our racial categories would no longer work because their would be so much interbreeding that the ordinary person was profoundly mixed. It would be a place in which each person would see a part of themselves in others, racially speaking, and parts of others in themselves. The new religious forms of such a community would be based in faiths that emphasized love and compassion for one another. The politics would be socialist, a world in which everyone had an ability to participate in decisions, and goods are distributed according to need.

 

There are many problems with Vasconcelos’ utopia of the Cosmic Race. The history and politics of racial mixing in Mexico is fraught with lingering effects of racism toward indigenous and African populations and Vasconcelos seems to gloss over these events in order to sharpen his contrast between North and Latin America. And he doesn’t offer very much in terms of institution building—beyond hand waving at love and socialism, he doesn’t say much about what kinds of structures need to be put in place to build a world that stands up against the white supremacist utopia.

 

But what he aspires to is thinking about the history and politics of race in the Americas in order to develop radical alternatives; ones that respect and esteem the kind of racial mixing that was despised, and even made illegal in the United States in 1925. He wanted to imagine a utopia of elation, erotic attraction, and passion in which people would “feel towards the world an emotion so intense that the movement of things adopts rhythms of joy”. I think he calls on us not to despair in the face of white supremacy with its fears, stupidity, and its ugliness, but to envision a beautiful world of playful togetherness and sympathy amid our differences.

 

Radical imagination is also organizing work. As the great anti-white supremacist organizer Anne Braden wrote: “In every age, no matter how cruel the oppression carried on by those in power, there have been those who struggled for a different world. I believe this is the genius of humankind, the thing that makes us half divine: the fact that some human beings can envision a world that has never existed.”

Movements make change, not leaders: Election 2016

By Jasper Smith (November 8, 2016)

As we hold our noses and vote yet again, I remind myself that we need to be the change. If a president or politician is elected, the system is working well enough for that candidate. It is their job to run the government, and the government does some good things for disadvantaged people that must be maintained. It also serves monied interests that must be challenged. It would be wonderful if a president could lead change for the better, but it has rarely been that way in this country. The institution of slavery changed under Lincoln, but he did not lead it. The abolitionists led and pressured the government to follow.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.”

Just as there was no real abolitionist candidate, there is no real Black Lives Matter candidate now. The movement must move the leaders whoever they are, but some are more moveable than others.

White People, Save Yourself: Election 2016

By Teka Lark (November 8, 2016)

Thousands of poor Black families were hurt owing to Bill Clinton’s welfare reform, which also criminalized poverty. 2.5 million people were deported under Obama.

Totally cool with your support for Hillary. I get it, but please don’t think your vote is helping me as a Black woman. The Democratic Party does not care about my Blackness except during Presidential elections and even then the most the Democratic Party will pay for my vote is a chicken dinner.

Your vote for the Democratic Party isn’t stopping institutional racism or nationalism.

If you are white and middle class I advise you to vote to save yourself, because the only thing that will happen with a Trump presidency is a speeding up of the freefall of the petite bourgeoisie , creative class etc…whatever is known as the middle class. The few of the non-one percent left in fantasyland will get to see the reality that the rest of us live right now.

Vote to give your class another 50 years, because I don’t see this lasting beyond that.

I will be fine regardless of who wins.  My family has been here since the 1700s. We survived slavery, Jim Crow and Reagan. My Blackness will be fine.

You are not going to stop economic oppression of the lower classes by voting for Hillary. You do know that Latinos, Native Americans and Black people are being oppressed right now?

Native Americans, Latinos and Black people are being murdered right now. We are being denied housing right now. We’re being rounded up and jailed right now, so this doomsday scenario for you is already real for us right now.

If social justice is your point with your Democratic Party vote then there are a few more effective things you might want to do rather than continue marching along with the neoliberals.

Now if you want to save your gallery hopping, late model car driving and can afford a root canal a year lifestyle then vote for Hillary. By all means do that, but that isn’t being radical, that is self preservation and that is cool.

I am pro me too.

Since I am pro-me I am saying that Hillary isn’t going to help my institutional racism situation, she may help my creative class situation,  but institutional racism, nationalism, brutal capitalism, cops stopping me and other Black people for fun? No, Hillary won’t stop that…so if that is why you are voting for her, well…you should come up with a better reason like you like preserving your present day lifestyle.

Social justice has nothing to do with your Hillary vote or the Hillary campaign and that is OK, but you are not radical or groundbreaking.

Your Hillary vote doesn’t make you the bigger person. You get no cookies or thanks from me for not voting for Trump.

What you can do if you really want to make change is support building institutions that are making economic and social change and support them year around not just during the Presidential elections.

A new world is possible, but corporate America isn’t going to pay for it or help elect it.

Teka Lark is a journalist, poet and satirist based in the Metropolitan New York area. She is the founder of the Blk Grrrl Book Fair, Feminist Preschool www.FeministPreschool.com and the author of the upcoming book, Queen of Inglewood, to be published on Word Palace Press

It’s Over For Trump, So What Next?

By Arun Gupta (October, 11, 2016)

 

It’s over for Trump, so what happens next?

 

No modern presidential candidate has overcome a 4-point gap in October, and that was the margin before the tapes. The latest poll, NBC/WSJ, has him 11 points down in a four-way match, 14 points in a two-way match. There is noise in the data as it shows much of the drop is with self-identified Republicans. Some will likely return to the fold, but it appears college-educated whites and white women are now turning decisively against him.

 

If a double-digit gap holds then things get interesting. If Trump draws less than 40%, then that would likely flip both chambers to the Democrats because ticket-splitting is relatively rare. This would give Clinton a rare two-year opportunity to push through some modestly reformist legislation.

 

If the Democrats take back Congress, we will likely see an increase in the minimum wage. The battle will be over $12 or $15 an hour, with the Clintonistas and their “progressive” allies trying to block the $15 push, as The Intercept reported today. The other key issues around the minimum wage will be the schedule of increases, and exemptions, particularly for tipped workers, teenagers, disabled, agricultural workers, and immigrants.

A Democratic majority Congress would provide another opportunity for big labor to push for card-check legislation, but the neoliberal Clintonistas would fight it tooth and nail. The last big item on labor’s agenda would be an infrastructure program, and this is where it gets interesting. There would be a lot of conflict and horse-trading between labor, big environmental groups and sectors of capital over a mini-Green New Deal that might halt the accelerating rate of climate change if we are fortunate, but certainly not take the necessary steps to begin to reverse it.

 

Then there is immigration reform. This is even more complex, but there would be a push to legalize everyone covered by DACA and DAPA, but that covers only about 4.5 million undocumented immigrants. That leaves 6.5 million without legal status.The Clintonista M.O. is for complex half-assed reforms with a guest-worker program, an arduous “path to citizenship,” and increased enforcement and border militarization.

 

Some plan for student-debt relief and debt-free higher education is also likely. With Bernie Sanders going all out for Clinton, there is little doubt this was promised to him as was indicated at the DNC. Sanders will emerge as one of the most powerful figures in the Senate’s Democratic caucus, but I imagine any student-debt plan will also be complicated rather than a simple comprehensive fix. There was reports from a few months ago that Elizabeth Warren went all in for Clinton with the apparent understanding Warren would get some veto power over Wall Street executives being put in charge of financial regulation. Warren will also likely demand tougher regulation of Wall Street and more stringent rule-making around consumer financial issues, particularly debt, which is not a minor thing.

 

The most complex question of all is healthcare: Public option? Medicare for all? Or just patchwork fixes? Once again, the cautiousness of Clinton and deference to the ruling class makes any comprehensive and simple solution unlikely.

 

Obviously, there are many other important issues from policing, drug policy, and criminal justice reform to trade and foreign policy. Clinton is an enthusiastic supporter of U.S.-backed wars, coups, and interventions. But stopping this is pretty much up to the left. Unless activists can strengthen and revive solidarity, anti-interventionist, and anti-imperialist movements that can bring large numbers of people into the streets and creatively cause nonviolent disruptions, there is unlikely to be any attempt to rein in Clinton’s fondness for drones and despots.”

 

These are some of the battles that would break out if the Democrats take back both houses of Congress, and which the left might, *might* be able to intervene in and push leftward if organizations can figure out where the fault lines are, who to mobilize, where and when to mobilize, and how to create the type of disruptions that would force elite interests to offer bigger concessions.

 

And, yeah, I would love to see far more radical actions and policies implemented. But the left is far too weak and fragmented. It needs years of base and capacity-building before it could really flex muscle on a national scale beyond episodic outbursts.

It’s Game Over for Trump, but Not for the Need to Organize

By Arun Gupta (October 9, 2016)

Trump is toast barring something unprecedented like Clinton being forced from the race. He has a slim chance to staunch the bleeding, though not really recover, if he trounces Clinton in the debate Sunday night. But that is unlikely given a) that a town hall format plays to Clinton’s strengths and will showcase his weaknesses; b) his refusal to do debate prep and the likelihood the audience will be hostile to him and; c) he is likely completely disoriented at this point by the all the odious revelations from Friday.
With nothing left to lose, Trump is likely to double down on stoking the nativist hysteria he has cultivated for 17 months. He and his followers already have a burn-it-all-down mentality, so it makes sense for him to now try to undermine the legitimacy of both Clinton and the electoral process (don’t call it “democratic process”). If it wasn’t for the numerous tapes and recordings that surfaced yesterday, as well as the expose of Clinton’s Wall Street speeches, the big news might have Trump feeding rumors that Obama is ordering the Border Patrol to allow “illegals” to “pour into the country so they can go and vote.”
This is after numerous comments claiming the election was being rigged and calling on his supporters to engage in voter suppression. He pivots to these threats and lies when he is down in the polls and now that he is flaming out he will go all in.
Trump, a teetotaler, has always been drunk on power, and now he will go on one last bender. Don’t expect this hysteria to end and congressional Republicans will be happy to welcome the xenophobes, racists, and misogynists back into the fold so they can use them to try to hamstring the Clinton administration.
But the white nationalist movement has likely peaked for now, and he has discredited the Alt Right. That they won’t be working the levers of power is a huge relief. And they will likely descend into infighting, quasi-random white-male terrorism, and go to seed as more organized forces will concentrate on the state level and feeding bizarre anti-Clinton, anti-immigrant media conspiracies that worm their way into the mainstream.Democrats are poised to take back the Senate and have an outside chance to build a firewall to withstand the inevitable losses they will suffer in the 2018 midterms when they have 23 seats up for election and two independents who caucus with the Democrats (Maine and Vermont), while the GOP has only 8 seats to defend.
As for the left, it has distinct advantages if it can patiently organize militant movements that can make gains around policing, structural racism, climate justice, immigrant rights, healthcare, anti-imperialism, and income and wealth redistribution.  Showing that political, policy and social gains can be achieved will win more people to the left. But that militancy can’t lapse into collaboration with, or a defense of, the Democratic Party. And there will be significant clashes between the Left and big labor, mainstream environmentalists, and establishment feminist, LGBT, Latino, and African-American organizations.
But this is all welcome even exciting because this is the essence of politics, the fight for social power and conflicting visions of how society should be organized and function.

Never forget that Clinton and the Democrats are the enemy. They just present different threats and opportunities.
While we can envision some of the road ahead under a Clinton administration, much is unknowable. The paths we take depend on careful planning, creativity, foresight, and a refusal to ever compromise the principles of on solidarity, justice, and equality, and an unwavering belief in our collective ability to create a better world for all.

A final thought: Voting as an individual act is inconsequential. It is the mass aggregation of votes that has the potential to influence the outcome. At this point, it is game over for Trump, barring something truly extraordinary. So vote or don’t vote. If you do vote, vote for whomever you want wherever you live. It doesn’t matter anymore. My analysis was always based on what is happening on the ground, not the armchair ossified reading of history that passes for analysis on much of the left. The real question is not what you do in the voting booth on November 8. It’s what you do every day for the next four years after the election.

Women Are Not the Only Ones Offended by Trump

By Mark Naison (October 9, 2016)

As some apologists for Donald Trump have suggested, the type of language Mr. Trump used in the “Access Hollywood” video just uncovered is hardly unique to him. Unfortunately, they are right about this. Not only did Bill Clinton use it through most of his political life-something I know from first hand testimony as well as rumor-it can be found in locker rooms and work places all over the country wherever men gather without women present, or in such numbers that women are too intimidated to protest. Many men still consider the use of such language a sacred right, which is why some country clubs still ban women from their bars at certain hours of the day.

However, this is something we as a society have been working very hard to overcome as women have moved into positions of influence in our economy and public life. From police stations and fire houses to television stations and the trading floor of investment banks, women have fought a lonely uphill battle to end the normalization of this demeaning intimidating language and the actions that follow it. I have story after story from former students who joined previously all male occupations about the struggle they waged for dignified treatment from men who thought talk about women’s private parts or their own sexual exploits was an integral part of the culture of their workplace. The most horrifying stories came in the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s when women first began to break into law enforcement and the financial sector. They have been significantly reduced in the last few years.

So the question I ask is- do we really want to elect a President who is an unapologetic representative of this culture and who has lived it for most of his adult life? I had hoped we were better than that. That we were moving away from the toxic male culture that so many women have had to fight at the workplace,and unfortunately in their personal lives

But this is not only an issue for women, there are men who find it objectionable as well.

I am one of those men. I spent much of my time in the 1970’s playing sandlot football and schoolyard basketball in parks and schoolyards and gyms around the city. On some of the teams I played on, sexual banter and comments about women’s anatomies were an integral part of the conversation among men, to the point where it became a form of bonding among men from different racial backgrounds. I still have vivid memories of Sunday morning football games where the main subject of conversation was who people f….d the night before. As someone who was dating and eventually married a feminist, and whose life was enriched by many strong women friends, I found this discourse offensive and deeply troubling. But I wanted so much to be part of this team that I never openly protested. My protest, pathetic as it might seem, was complete silence. I just went out on the field and hit people, devoutly hoping my teammates would JUST SHUT UP.

I am sure there were and still are many men like me who would feel liberated if this kind of talk were no longer welcome where powerful men gather.

I hope they join with me and women across the country in assuring that someone with Mr Trump’s values and persona never becomes President.

Trump and Rape Culture: Let’s Get Free and Nourish Collective Liberation

By Chris Crass (October 8, 2016)

The misogyny and rape culture that Trump celebrates is wrong, period. Yes, I have women in my life who I do not want spoken of in that way, but I also have men and boys in my life who I do not want socialized, trained, and rewarded to dehumanize, degrade, and assault women. I do not want my boys or any boys to be expected to act in this way or face violence on play grounds or locker rooms for “not being a real man”.

I do not want my boys or any boys to suffocate the tenderness and fullness of their hearts and souls so that they can be real men in a male supremacist, misogynistic, homophobic, rape culture, rooted in a capitalist economy built on the daily and systemic devaluing of women’s labor, voices, and lives. 

I want my boys and all of our boys and men to grow up in and live in vibrant feminist culture dedicated to the liberation of us all from the might of patriarchy.

Yes, let us strategically target Trump as a misogynist as part of a larger effort to bring down his campaign and the GOP and yes, let us engage in these times to expand feminist consciousness, vision and commitment to action and transformation among men, men who have all been raised in this rape culture. Let’s get free, from what’s inside of us, and all around us that is poison, and nourish all that brings us closer, inside of us and all around us, to collective liberation.

Trump or Clinton? Either Way, the Oligarchy Wins

By Jasper Smith (September 28, 2016)

Either way, the oligarchy wins. In Clinton, they get an able and capable administrator who is solicitous of their interests and gives them the security and stability that they and their markets crave. Banks and billionaires are lining up to support the Clinton brand that brought us the Crime Bill, Welfare Reform, NAFTA, and militarism. They consistently prioritized war over the poor with staggering military budgets and declining domestic spending. She will ably maintain the status quo of injustice and increasing inequality with enough of a human face to forestall any genuine revolt or revolution. The Democrats chose not to offer a change candidate in a change election. Elizabeth Warren might have been a better match and mobilizer of the mood of the electorate. Still, Obama showed us how only minimal incremental progress is possible within the two party system. I look forward to a bolder, less constrained Obama as ex-president. 

Trump is more the change candidate the electorate is calling for. They don’t care that he is a lying incompetent hate-monger. They just want someone to blow up the system and don’t care if he gets blown up too. Voters understand the system is too entrenched to change with business as usual. Trump is not the same old same old. Voters hope we will rebuild new and better after Trump’s devastation. They don’t seem to understand that the oligarchs hold all the cards and though they do not relish the cost of cleaning up the mess, they will use crisis as opportunity to perpetuate greater injustice and inequality and roll back gains we have made like they did with the Great Recession, the Great Depression, and with every war and imagined enemy. Andrew Jackson is an apt historical parallel for a Trump presidency. He mobilized the disaffected to allow him to empower the powerful and enrich the rich.

Voting third party at this point is mere protest and not building a change movement. Neither Libertarians nor Greens are on the verge of challenging to be a major party. They need to build at the local level first. If the social libertarian right in the Libertarian Party could join in a new synthesis with the libertarian left in the Greens, there may be a chance to eclipse the Republicans as a second major party that was anti-military, anti-big business and anti-big government, anti-trade deals, and pro-immigration and social freedom and justice.

In sum, not much hope for this election, but hopefully Hilary will inspire many young girls and women who will lead us in the future riding a wave of demographic change and local community activism into a brighter future of greater justice and equality when the US chooses to be a modern nation that is more peaceful, compassionate, and equitable.

I’ll Never Tell You to Do Anything

By Teka Lark (September 22, 2016)

teka

When I owned a newspaper in South Central Los Angeles I endorsed one candidate over another. I regret that decision, not because I didn’t believe in the candidate I endorsed. I did believe in what that candidate stood for, but I believe the game of politics is evil.

When you endorse one person over another in politics you’re legitimizing the game. You’re saying you feel as if the game is fair. You’re saying that you think the game is a vehicle to get people to freedom. This system isn’t going to free anyone, not in its current format.

So why would I tell you to participate? I truly don’t even feel comfortable discussing it, because I feel it is as relevant to my life as what Beyonce is having for lunch.

Did I say don’t vote? No, I didn’t say that. Did I say to vote? No, I didn’t say that either. I know in this world of black and white and yes or no, there is this lack of understanding of gray or a nuance of opinion or even an opinion that doesn’t end with:

Vote for this Jack Ass.
I don’t believe in binaries.

Just because I don’t agree with something doesn’t mean I am implying people should do the opposite of what I think.

The game of politics is unjust. The two party system compromises with corporate capitalism and the Democrats are not the party of the people. I don’t believe in compromising with assholes. I don’t believe that for the average person that anything is going to change under anyone who does the “revolutionary” act of running for office. I don’t believe you can spare anyone from the side effects of capitalism by running for office. That includes the Greens and that would have included Bernie.

In Los Angeles year after year I saw the poorest sections of L.A .get poorer and poorer. L.A. did become safer (depending on your definition of safety), but that added safety was just for the “better” people coming in to gentrify. Let me state that better and not just regurgitate what keeps getting written to avoid talking about the details of power. Parts of L.A. were made safer for the investors who want to bring in people and projects that could make more them more money.

In Los Angeles I also saw the middle class disappear. In Los Angeles people are either very rich or very poor. This happened under Democrats.

Under a Democratic California, under a bunch of fake nonprofits, under a bunch of racially diverse Southern California based politicians, under a bunch of fake neo­liberals who used the poor for grants and think pieces the actual people of L.A. have gotten poorer.

Recently I moved to New Jersey. On my way out of Los Angeles I stepped over about twenty homeless young people. My friend traveling with me looked a bit disturbed. I tried to put their mind at ease by explaining how it was totally normal that people were living in squalor and sleeping in their own feces. I also explained that there is this nonprofit that is going to build them little houses. Little houses with no bathrooms or kitchens, but better than a cardboard box.

This explanation did not seem to make my friend more comfortable, so then I said, “The valet in L.A. is really cheap, that almost makes up for the other stuff.”

As I went through the other states I wanted to know, “Where are the homeless people?”
I actually kept saying, “There are no homeless people here, where are the homeless people?”

I was used to people being very poor in L.A. The poor are part of the Southern California landscape. They are like the Pacific Ocean and the Hollywood sign.

In L.A. poor college students live in tents surrounding the community colleges.

When I told people in New Jersey about this they said, “Oh they must want to do that. You guys in L.A. are so trendy.”

No, it is not some trendy thing they want to do. The young people here (and some of the old ones) are actually homeless.

And the thing is this, they are kept poor, because that makes more money. It makes more money to keep people poor in Los Angeles than to invest and make it nice. No federal monies, no grants, no tax break incentives if you work to keep a community nice and if it’s a Black or Brown community then why the hell would you want to waste any kind of investment on that when you can just over police it, keep it poor and make sure the jobs pay nothing…I mean with that you can write think piece after think piece on it, you can start all kinds of cool nonprofits, you can do art projects, you can do radio shows, you can do a sort of exploration and seem cool and liberal with your FB updates about how this person of color did this interesting thing and this person of color did that interesting thing…it is like doing missionary work, but you can get home in enough time for drinks and bike riding.

I will never again tell you who to vote for. I will never again imply that your life will be improved, because you punched a hole next to that politician’s name.

I get some people want to vote for the lesser of two evils, but you know…for me I guess because so many of the poor people in L.A. looked like me or maybe because I have empathy or something and don’t think anyone should have to live in squalor, so that the middle class can be numbed as it is dragged to the working class. I say fuck evil, all of evil, even a little bit of evil.

Teka Lark is a journalist, poet and satirist based in the Metropolitan New York area. She is the founder of the Blk Grrrl Book Fair, Feminist Preschool www.FeministPreschool.com
and the author of the upcoming book, Queen of Inglewood, to be published on Word Palace Press.