...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Monday, July 19, 2004
      ( 8:29 AM )
 
Under The Headlines
 
If you don't get the SPLC Report, at least check out the website and as much as you can monetarily support the Southern Poverty Law Center.  It's doing the work that the government, that the media, and that most of the rest of us can't or won't do.  Case in point.  Not one mention in the mainstream national media about this, but the major leaders of all the White Supremacist groups got together for a convention last month in New Orleans.  In addition to celebrating David Duke's release from prison, the leaders from three countries got together to create what they are affectionately calling the "New Orleans Protocol" in which they blame Jews and people of color for all the ills in the world.  Shocker, I know.  But this is no laughing matter.  Here's a brief list of who was in attendance and who signed the Protocol:
 
Duke, former Klansman and now leader of European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO);

Don Black, a former Klan leader and the creator of Stormfront, the Internet's first and most influential hate website;

Willis Carto, a primary architect of the Holocaust denial movement in this country;

Kevin Strom and David Pringle of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the organization whose founder inspired the Oklahoma City bombing;

Paul Fromm, head of the Canadian Association of Free Expression, a vehemently anti-immigrant organization;

Attorney Sam G. Dickson of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC); and

John Tyndall, founder of the racist British National Party.


And here's a little of what they are up to:
 

"The New Orleans Protocol," written by Duke, is a pledge by groups to work together to support the hate movement. It requires groups to aim their hate at their real targets, not at each other, and to advance in unity their vision: a nation for white people.

Some of the tactics discussed during a strategy session at the gathering included volunteering as Little League coaches, providing access to impressionable young children, and joining the Red Cross to gain credibility for their ideas.


If you think that White Supremacism is a marginalized idea and that those promoting it are outside the mainstream culture, think again.   Hate groups flourish in this country and they can because White Supremacy as a norm of our culture continues to corrupt our entire society.   Why do you think there is such push-back against multicultural teaching - and I'm not talking about the "holidays and heroes" token looks at leaders in different cultures, I'm talking about true multicultural teaching, where the cultures of all students are valued and shared equally, where each child's first language is honored and used to help them advance in their learning, where white teachers take into account the vast knowledge and resources that exist with their immigrant students and students of color as well as those students' families.  The entire platform of the GOP wreaks of white supremacism.  But the Democrats aren't innocent either.  The New Democrats of the last few decades have moved closer and closer to the GOP in all their economic tactics and their response to the problems in education - what's the difference anymore, some might ask?  Ignoring the economic disparities, the vast amount of poverty and hunger in this country, the abuse and discrimination of immigrants, workers, people of color, women and other non-white status holders has become the modus operani of the US government, no matter who is in power.
 
Hate groups are the outward expression of a deep, abiding problem in this country.  600 years of institutionalized racism and lack of compassion and true action to alleviate the burdents of the most vulnerable among us only makes the fomenting of hate and discriminatory laws more possible.  We need to stop ignoring the undercurrent of white privilege that guides this country and the constant oppression of those who deserve justice and truth.  We need to turn the white privilege on its head and start making this country into one of not only tolerance and refuge, but of the advancement of progressive ideas and a culture where true justice and equality determine the fate of all our citizens.

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