BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
RE: You’re White and Marched With Dr. King: So What?
My name is Eric Wattree. I'm a writer, musician, poet, and old school revolutionary from the 60s (Google me). While I understand your passion, as a former Panther associate (I was never a joiner), I've seen unbridled passion before, and it's ALWAYS counterproductive.
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Your position in this matter not only misrepresents the position of Martin Luther King, but also the realization that Malcolm X came to just before he was assassinated. What made Martin effective was he didn't run off angry and half-cocked like many of us. He didn't allow his anger to circumvent his intellect. He understood that Black people couldn't win the civil rights battle alone. He recognized from the outset that he needed to form a coalition by changing the hearts and minds of the American people, and then using the clout derived from that change to apply political pressure on our government. That's how things are changed in the United States.
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Yes, there was a lot of noise and commotion going on during the civil rights movement, but don't be misled. America wasn't afraid of Black people during the sixties, just as no one is afraid of us now. The powers that be have enough experience with Black people to know that all they have to do is call out the national guard and all they'll hear are crickets by nightfall - and besides, no battle has ever been won by flappin' lips anyway. So essentially, all the Netroots stunt was, was somebody's dumb and self-serving idea for a personal photo op.Again, battles are won by forming political coalitions - yes, political coalitions with White liberals like Bernie Sanders, who you so cavalierly flipped off - and also, inspiring people of every walk of life to embrace the cause of justice - justice for ALL. Martin understood this, and later, so did Malcolm. But due to Martin's resolve in this matter, and his refusal to see us slaughtered en mass by taking to the streets in violence (as many young hot headed idiots like myself were determined to do), we started calling him Martin Luther "Coon." You see, we were too young and dumb to realize that we couldn't out-scream injustice, and we couldn't out-fight the military. You must out-think injustice, and all those who insist on relying on anger over thought are a liability to both the people, and the people's cause.
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More people are turning out to hear Bernie Sanders than any other politician in America. So all you've done is managed to antagonize thousands of people who you should be trying to gather as allies. So there's only one word that adequately describes such an action - STUPID.
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We're In A Class War - Open Your Eyes
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Considering the content of the Republican clown car, and everything that the GOP has been doing, and saying, to undermine and divide the American working class, I find it next to impossible to believe that anyone acting with legitimate intent could be so politically naive and out of touch with reality that they'd believe that staging such a counterproductive political stunt would be in the best interest of either Black people, or the American working class. So I believe that stunt was staged by either a GOP ringer, or a political operative of one of the Democratic campaigns.
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It's my personal belief that Bernie Sanders' long record of civil rights activities - that go all the way back to when he was in the trenches with Martin Luther King and before many of his current critics were born - is clearly resonating with the people, and somebody's been caught off guard, because the people are beginning to realize that what Bernie's been saying for decades is absolutely true. We're in the middle of a class war, and we can't out-fight the 1%ers, because they control the military, we can't out-scream the 1%ers, because they control the media, and we can't out-spend the 1%ers, because they control 90% of the nation's resources. But here's what we can do - we can out-organize and out-vote the 1%ers hands down, and that's what we must do if we're going to survive as a free nation.
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On the other hand, if the people come together as a solid front, we can trump money. No matter how much money the 1%ers pour into their campaigns, if the people stand firm, the 1%ers can't win, because the only thing that money can buy in politics is votes, and we OWN the vote, if we would just wake up and recognize that.
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And finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention your grossly unappreciative and cavalier attitude toward the White liberals who believed so passionately in EVERYONE'S right to justice that they were willing to give up their lives so YOU could have one. Those were very dangerous times during the Civil Rights movement, as evidenced by the fact that John and Robert Kennedy, Martin, and Malcolm are no longer with us. So I'm simply going to assume that what I can only refer to as your disgustingly cavalier attitude toward the sacrifices of those heroes is a direct response to a gross ignorance of that era on your part. During that time, White liberals who fought for civil rights were considered traitors to their race. They were hated on a par with Osama Bin Laden, and many were kidnapped in the night and subjected to the most horrible forms of torture and death. Yet, you say, "So what!!!?".
But today it's about much more than just the hatred of Black people. Today, they're simply USING the various hatreds - of Black people, Hispanics, Muslims, women's rights, and gays - to entice social bigots to keep the working class divided, and to vote against their own interests, and for their own enslavement. It's about dollars, and a lack of sense. It's a class issue, and you're playing right into it. The 1%ers don't care any more about poor and middle-class White people than they do Black people or other minorities. So it's imperative that we ALL come together on EVERY issue as a CLASS, and stop trying to fight little skirmishes as individual factions. That's a losing battle. That's why we're still fighting Martin's battle fifty years later, because we have yet to learn that lesson. But it's a lesson that conservatives have learned well:
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SCOTT WALKER: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Eric L. Wattree
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.