I learned
this from Angela Davis.
I wish I
could say we are great friends but I'm afraid we've never met.
Recently
Angela Davis, the famous 60's black activist, came to Hamilton to deliver
a speech: "150 Years Later: Abolition in the 21st Century." I
was very excited. And the city of Hamilton, true to working class form,
came out to see her with bells on! Beautiful old LIUNA Station was packed;
I'm sure there were more than 1000 people there. Davis spoke
eloquently -- and with visible passion -- about the modern prison system
in the United States, which she thinks has perpetuated slavery. The
facts, unfortunately, support her thesis. The U.S. has more prisoners, (and
prisons) than any other country in the world. And this is a new
phenomenom. In 1980 there were only 160 people in prison for every 100,000
in the USA; today there are 760 per 100,000. A disproportionate majority
of those serving time in U.S. prison are there for possession of illegal
drugs, and approximately 60% of the prison population is black.
Davis's discussion
of the relationship between racism and the prison system was fascinating. But what
interested me most was her deconstruction of the myths surrounding Martin
Luther King and Barack Obama. Davis told us our contemporary image of the
Martin Luther King doesn't match the real man. Apparently, near the end
of his life, King stressed that the issue of civil rights was not the ultimate answer in the battle
against racism. Davis quoted one of King's last speeches in which the great man
spoke of challenging the inequities of the capitalist system. The jist
of King's message -- and the heart of Davis's ideas -- is that in order to
rid our culture of racism we must make fundamental changes in the structure of
society. Davis was pleased to see Barack Obama elected president, but she took
the opportunity on March 27 in Hamilton to remind us that Obama is the black
president of a racist and imperialist nation.
So
what does all this have to do with us queers?
Well I would remind you of one
thing. The same day that all those nice gays and lesbians were
celebrating the possibility gay marriage might become legal on the steps
of the Supreme Court, Governor Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota was drafting
legislation specifically calculated to offer a constitutional challenge to Roe
vs. Wade. In other words, while queers were celebrating civil rights as the
ultimate answer to homophobia, Governor Dalrymple was proving to us all that,
unfortunately, you can't legislate away hate and prejudice, no matter how many
laws you pass. It's one thing to make it illegal to discriminate against blacks
or queers, its quite another to eliminate racism and homophobia from the human
heart.
Don't
get me wrong. I'm not against civil
rights. But the danger is that we become so hypnotized by civil rights
that we forget that new laws are ultimately a rather tiny, embryonic step for
man, not the giant step we need for all mankind. It really saddens me to
see those conservative gays and lesbians rallying on the steps of the
Supreme Court with their cute little kids, looking like they are on their way
to PTA meetings. They too closely resemble the middle-of-the-road gay civil
rights crusaders from the 60’s – the ones who ousted the Communist founder of
the Mattachine Society (Harry Hay) in order to establish a new, more acceptable
face of gay activism (focused on the law). Hippies and the summer of love
intervened -- and we all got very sexy and sexual for awhile -- but no. We’re back to civil rights again. Civil
rights are far easier for people to accept than the radical alternatives that
might make real change possible.
Those
who support undiluted capitalism oppose affirmative action, or any government
intervention that would help to mitigate racism and homophobia. And when – as
is happening today – certain people of colour and some queers gain access to
middle class jobs -- the only value they learn from capitalism is greed. The
capitalist system teaches us happiness can only be found by families who work
hard, bring home the bacon, and then consume endlessly, with mindless
dedication.
Remember
-- Rosa Parks wasn't just a nice little lady who was too tired to stand at the
back of the bus. She was a radical socialist activist. And in the later part of
her life she enjoyed chilling out with the likes of -- The Black Panthers!
It's
not just about civil rights. It's about resisting an unfair economic system and
seeking to change our deepest, most fundamental notions that too often remain
unchallenged.
Rosa,
knew!
Angela
knows!
And
I sure know.
Does
anybody else know?
