I was born in a tornado shelter in Alva, Oklahoma, not because there was a tornado overhead, but because that’s where my family was living at the time. That’s not my whole story, but I carry a life-long loyalty to my working-class roots.
I stumbled upon WBAI in 1973, up late studying to become a PA (Physician’s Associate) in Brooklyn. I volunteered at the church in the East 60’s. I’ve been a Listener-Member on and off ever since, continuously since the Shut-Down of BAI in 2019.
I want to address the sectarian divide at WBAI’s LSB over Identity Politics.
There is a basic conundrum the whole world is facing. The ultimate truth (that which is unchanging) is that there is one human race on Earth. Against a white background (snow), species turn white: bears, foxes, and humans. It’s a natural process, having to do with camouflage, mosquitoes, and Vitamin D. On the other hand, the everyday material reality truth is that, at every life phase, “People of Color” face increased suffering: oppression, sickness, injury, early death, due to the delusion of “white supremacy.”
How do we reconcile these contradictory truths? I attended an anti-racist workshop out of Spirit Rock, a Buddhist center near San Francisco, lots of zoom break-out rooms, and we came up with an answer. What we actually have are not different races, but different “racial location memories.” These are powerful experiences when we are very young, when we are told we belong to this or that racial group. It usually takes 3 or 4 of these memories for this unnatural “lesson” to stick, because as young children, we come with an innocence we will never get back until we face the Great Mystery again. These memories are usually painful for “Persons of Color,” and can be a relief for persons labelled “White.” That is also hard to admit.
I believe that Identity Politics was a phase we had to go through. Women had to separate from men to listen to each other, value each other, develop our leadership capabilities. I think the process was similar for “Persons of Color” after Stokely Carmichael kicked the “white” people out of SNCC in 1966.
However, fast forward to today: we had built a huge movement in the 60’s and early 70’s. We ended an imperialist war. By the late 70’s and 80’s, we were all silo’ed into our identity groups, no longer really effective at anything we tried to do outside of the traditional party structure. That was no accident then and is no accident today.
My basic politics will always be “Black and White Unite and Fight.” I have no problem with people who feel more comfortable with Identity Politics; however, I oppose people who weaponize Identity Politics for personal gain, whether to control a group, revenge a deep life wound, or for more traditional gains, money and position.
So, during this transition period, let’s keep up the conversation, and get through it!
Matilda Kay Williams