Crashing WCAR

by John Burl Smith

Since being authorized by the Richard L. Kirksey, Jr. Memorial Foundation, Turnout 75% has worked to identify the root of racism in America. We have established that it is the system of legal economic slavery. The problem of racism for slave descendants began with America's first law: Article 1 Section 2 of the United States Constitution. This law makes the US a republic built on slavery. This pro-slavery document established the value of human capitol based on the agreement struck under the Great or Three-Fifths Compromise, i.e. white males = 1, slaves = 3/5ths, which locked blacks into the economic patterns reflected in the American economy today. This racism began in Virginia with Willie Lynch. Lynch's "Let's make a Slave" became the standard for turning Africans into the docile, submissive, self-hating creatures referred to as slaves. The purpose of Lynch's philosophy was to bring whites to the point of viewing the human being as a renewable asset. Based totally on skin color, the 3/5ths value became a fixed economic fact.

White society depends on acquiring cheap land and labor. Indigenous/Native people supplied the land and slaves supplied the 3/5ths labor. To maintain these two economic advantages, white Americans annihilated whole nations of so-called "Indians" and made lynching black men a picnic form of community entertainment. Ida B. Wells won international acclaim writing about lynchings in America. She escaped a Ku Klux Klan lynch-mob that burned her newspaper trying to trap her inside. Traveling in Europe, she educated the world about the desperately poor existence blacks endured under white supremacist mob rule in America. Identical to Germans, too many whites, like President-select G. W. Bush, Jr., deny white supremacist mob rule ever existed in America, but the unmarked graves of the "Women of Walton County Georgia" and racial profiling uncloak such denials.

Slave descendants have never been allowed to tell their story in their words. Blacks like Ida, Paul Roberson and Malcolm X escaped America's shores and spoke out about American genocide and racism; they became targets. Engaged in a war of words, high-tech communications have opened up new worlds of possibilities. Breaking out of isolation and uniting with the rest of the Diaspora is no longer a dream, it is a reality. The United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) provides such an opportunity. It will be the first international forum dedicated to discussing the number one issue facing slave descendants: racism. Racism in America has never been the focus of any international investigation of any kind; therefore America has been allowed to portray itself as the world's greatest democracy, while denying self-determination for Native American and blacks by maintaining them in economic slavery. Although, the world knows this to be true, slave descendants will not be allowed to state these facts at the WCAR. The Bush administration is blocking any effort to discuss racism in America by slave descendants.

From the beginning, Bush, through the U. S. State Department, has tried to scuttle this conference. Accepting inevitability, now he will end his boycott, if WCAR agrees not to discuss reparations for victims of racism, Zionism and indigenous people's claims. Bush wants to avoid the tremendously embarrassing spectacle of America defending racism. If you are not a part of the official delegation, the State Department is denying activists visa requests. Sisters and brothers in the Diaspora, this opportunity to make our statement is too important to allow Bush to silence us. We must organize against efforts to silence our cries for freedom, justice and equality.

Poets for Peace, an Atlanta artistic consortium, is calling for an "International Speak Out" on August 16, 2001 to dramatize our demand for a voice at the WCAR. Local sites across the Diaspora are asked to coordinate an e-mail campaign that day. We need to send as many messages as possible to WCAR demanding the right to discuss reparations, Zionism and indigenous people's claim. Moreover, people who were most adversely affected by racists laws and policies should at least be allowed a spokesperson, someone to speak freely without the restraint of their government. Local sites are asked to organize venues that provide those without direct access to WCAR e-mail access to participate in the "Speak Out!"

Like unwanted partygoers, we must crash WCAR. Breaking into the conversation with millions of messages will let WCAR know the Bush administration does not speak for slave descendants. If we want reparations, we must crash WCAR! Send e-mails to: vasic@un.org, tshiawl.hchr@unog.ch, saragon.hchr@unog.ch or lwiseberg.hchr@unog.ch and become part of the conversation.