TRYING TO THINK
We decided to have this teach-in the day that the U.S. pulled out of the U.N. Conference Against Racism. One week later disaster hit the World Trade towers in New York City. Because no one moment is ever self-contained, we want to think together backwards in time; and through the present. These two moments --- the anti-racism conference and the Sept. 11th tragedy --- are historically linked in time. They are politically connected as well… we can not now, today, speak of them separately.

Our purpose is simply to open thought --- and grief closes us down --- so that we might think carefully about the times we live in… in the hopes it will lead to responsible action.

THINKING While Crying

By Zillah Eisenstein
Professor, Department of Politics

Delivered September 20, 2001. Written for a teach-in on the U.N. CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM held a week after the Sept. 11 tragedy.

We are told that we are at war
But I say no to this
Our government says it will bomb Afghanistan if needed to secure our way of life
But I say no to this
They were innocent people who died on Sept. 11
But I think
Most people who die in political wars are innocent
Iraq, Cuba, Palestine, Chile,
When we hear about Bush's popularity right now
We need to remember that
Bush was not elected by the popular vote
Many Blacks did not get to vote in Florida
They should not be held accountable for what he will do
I did not vote for him either
Neither did many of us
We need to remind him of this.

Bush's administration never took the U.N. Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance seriously
At first Colin Powell said he must attend as the first black secretary of state
Then just a small staff was sent instead
Next
The U.S. left --- said it would not tolerate talks of slave reparations or Israeli racism

The first U.N. conferences against racism were held in 1978, and 1983 to highlight the struggle against white supremacy and racial apartheid in South Africa

In 2001 the conference was held in South Africa to recognize the end of white supremacy there --- and to highlight the multiple and differing forms of racial oppression developing across the globe.

Durban was filled with peoples speaking against the many and complex forms of racial oppression.
Roma (gypsies)
Casteism and the dalits representing some 200 million untouchables
The Chinese occupation of Tibet
Russian genocide of Chechens
Treatment of the kurds
Sex trafficking of women of color in southeast Asia
Native Americans
Aboriginals of Australia
African Brazilians
Refugees and Migrants from everywhere

Some at the conference wanted to focus these racisms squarely in relation to global capitalism and its special use of peoples of color across the globe

That global capitalism heightens the poverty of marginalized people

That rich countries must be held accountable for what they do to the rest of the globe.

The Congressional Black Caucus wanted to discuss reparations for the slave trade and debt relief for African countries.

When Fidel Castro spoke he was completely embraced by conference participants for his defiance of the U.S. as the most powerful country in the world
He spoke of the connections between global racism and corporate imperialism
And he was cheered.

Here at home,
The same president who was elected without the black vote
Pulls us out of this conference against racism
The conference never makes the front page of the nyt until the day Bush pulls us out

A purpose of the conference was to sign an international declaration to condemn slavery and racial discrimination.
Who could be against doing this?
The U.S. pulls out because Bush says we will not make a formal apology for slavery
Bush uses Israel for a cover.
Some at the conference say that Israeli Arabs have an easier time voting than blacks in some parts of Florida
Zionism is attacked as a `new form of apartheid'. If the u.s. government disagrees, it should have stayed put and engaged the debate. It is not for the U.S. to silence this discussion, or any for that matter.
Instead, U.S. arrogance simply walks away.

We are all grieving now
At the loss of innocent life
There is no simple causal connection here.
There is nothing simple here.
Instead there is our complex world of politics
Which misnames and misinforms
But the grief should not silence the truths that the U.S. government and banks are not innocent.

Our moment of horror on Sept. 11 is lived again and again in places across the globe
The world is war-torn.
Yet Sept. 11's act of violent destruction
Must not be used to justify new acts of violent destruction

Only one person in Congress --- Barbara Lee, a black woman --- has said no to Bush's war machine --- at least until she knows more.
She obviously knows more than the rest of her colleagues

Bush says he will dedicate his administration to ending terrorism.
But what happens to us all in this process?
What about the civil rights agenda at home?
What about AIDS in Africa?
What about the dalits, and the roma and the refugees, across the globe?
What about precious civil liberties that are being curtailed?
What about the people who will die?
What about the 100,000 people who have already been laid off since Sept. 11

Bush says that Sept. 11 was an attack on the United States
But 67 countries are represented among the dead: black, and brown, and yellow, and mahogany, and vanilla, and chocolate, and white

The U.S. is the symbol of global capitalism and its racist wrongs to people around the globe.
Yet, the U.S. is filled with every hue of color --- every ethnicity --- every religion --- from across the globe.
Hundreds of languages are spoken.
NYC is the most humanly diverse city in the world.

So whoever these people are who have created such terror and grief ---
They got it very wrong.
They attacked symbols of U.S. power
Instead of dismantling power
They killed thousands of people in every shade of color from across the globe.

If we are to ever recognize the inclusivity of our global humanity --- which is the progressive potential of this very desperate moment ---
We must see ourselves not simply in terms of our unique differences but instead we must embrace our richly complex connectedness
Our identity cannot be nationalist with its known exclusivity.

The conference against racism was dedicated to tearing down the borders and barriers of racial exclusions
To create an inclusive humanity
The U.S. should never have walked out.
But the U.S. government would have no part in putting the complexity of racism in full view because
The other side of racism is the polyglot of peoples

The multiplicity of humanity --- which is an entirely inclusive imagining and hope if seen in its full glory --- is way too subversive to established systems of racism. It is this subversive side of ourselves that led so many to try and save another's life on Sept. 11. This alliance between ourselves and others across the globe denies blind nationalism, and with it unjust racism of global capitalism.

The peoples of the United States must demand that Bush, and Powell, and Ashcroft create no new terror-filled days outside our borders. We must say that we will not go to war against the peoples of the world, because they are us, and you, and them, and other, and different, and christian, and jew, and muslim, and hindu, and serb, and afghan, and pakistani, and iraqi

No to war

Yes to the wholeness and complexity and inclusivity of our humanity.

The U.S. should have never walked out.

We cannot allow the U.S. to do more damage in our name.