Dear Comrades: ---- An ugly, racist incident happened at the September 11-14, 2014,
conference of the North American Anarchist Black Cross (NA-ABC) which disrupted the
meeting and created conflict among activists there, after a young activist read a letter
from a white racist prison guard who opposed the parole of black political prisoner, Jalil
Muntaqim. The letter was read at the instruction of Brother Jalil to show the racist and
entrenched opposition to his parole by white cops and their fraternal and police
associations. We do not blame Brother Jalil, who has been in prison for decades and had no
way of knowing that black people would be sitting in the room when the letter was read,
nor the young activist who read the letter, not knowing how it would impact the black
people who heard it, and who later apologized for his error. We blame other activists on
the panel and other listeners who sat by or said nothing. We also criticize the NA-ABC,
which created a climate where this or another racist outrage was bound to occur because
the organization has never dealt with its own internal racism.
We especially blame the National Jericho Movement, which put on the workshop where the
letter was read and the Jericho representative at the conference, Paulette D'Auteuil. She
not only refused to apologize or correct the young activist, but made racially
inflammatory comments of her own, saying that blacks and other POC should ?just leave the
room,? rather than not reading such a letter in the first place, or even giving any
warning of its contents. She thus encouraged other racist letters to be read to a room
full of whites in the future, thereby advocating white radical racial segregation at
NA-ABC annual meetings, which already have few black or POC participants. This is an
absolute and utter outrage, and everyone should find this unacceptable. Then, Paulette
took the posture that it was ?all Jalil's fault,?and that we should take the matter up
with him if we didn't like it. As we have pointed out already, we hold Brother Jalil
blameless, and we do not believe he would intentionally attempt to embarrass or demean
other black people by forcing them to listen to such a racist and inflammatory letter. The
other Jericho representative at the conference, Kazi Toure, who is black, was not present
in the room when the letter was read. But after learning what happened, he expressed
embarrassment, chagrin, if not outright anger over the incident because he is black.
We therefore believe that Paulette should make a full public apology to the NAABC and to
us as participants in the conference for her misbehavior, or she should not be allowed to
attend further meetings of the NA-ABC. In addition, the entire panel where the racist
letter was read should make a full public apology for not stopping the letter from being
read, or failing in any way to rebuke the activist who read the letter. The panelists'
silence just enabled the activist to repeat all this racist guard's drivel, in what the
activist felt was a supportive environment of white people who ?saw no problem? with the
comments being repeated at a radical gathering, which included black people. Finally, the
leadership of Jericho should make an apology for this entire matter: for allowing the
racist letter to be read, failure to exercise control of the panelists, and the racist
misbehavior of Paulette as Jericho representative to the event.
And yet, all of this is just a reflection of internal racism within the North American
Anarchist Black Cross, and its organizational culture that is too white, too middle class,
and closed off from urban communities of color. It has never been healthy to have
privileged white people doling out support to black prisoners, while not building a
support base in the black community from which those prisoners come, and not recruiting
black and other activists of color. The fact that NAABC holds meetings on the side of a
mountain removed from the city, instead of in an urban space in Denver, speaks volumes
about your lack of black participation and community outreach. You are not making a
welcoming environment for blacks to attend. So this incident is to be expected in this
type of white environment, and it also explains how the majority of white people who heard
the racist comments thought it was ?no big deal,? that the speaker ?meant no harm,? that
black people who heard the racially offensive comment should not be disturbed, or were
being ?too thin-skinned,? or that this was all just ?racial agitation from Lorenzo and
people he brought.? The fact is that this racist climate was already there inside the
NA-ABC as a movement for a long time, and this was just the trigger for the latest
incident. The ABC in North America is a Political Plantation, a white-led movement with
serious internal racism, which it refuses to deal with, or even listen to peoples of color
when we point it out. Some of you even blame us for raising it in the first place, and
then refuse to make any changes. As one white person who did speak out from the audience
said: listening to the letter from the prison guard was like listening to a ?bragging
letter? from a rapist. If you do not want women to apologize for their own rapes by
demented men, why do you want black people to accept racist insults and then be faulted
for speaking out?
Do not expect us to passively accept such racist indignities, even from our own white
allies. On a personal level, the reading of the letter was the worst form of racist insult
to Lorenzo. He was raised in the segregated South in the 1950's; had white racist
vigilantes and cops put a gun to his head, then spit in his face and call him a nigger;
tell him he had no right to speak up; that ?niggers don't deserve civil rights,? and that
only the rights of white people mattered. In those days, Lorenzo was restrained from
speaking out because of the violent racism of the KKK and other white racists. Later,
Lorenzo spoke out as a young civil rights protester. He also heard plenty of vile insults
from racist prison guards during his 15 years as a political prisoner, including insults
from guards who opposed his release on parole. What would make you think that Lorenzo
wanted to hear these insults at an ABC meeting? He will never passively accept white
supremacy or its insults, even if it comes from from the mouths of white radical
socialists or anarchists, who feel that they are ?sincerely motivated? and thus blameless
in their own eyes.
We do not personally hold the Denver Anarchist Black Cross, which hosted the North America
ABC conference, responsible for this incident, or think the Denver ABC had any intention
for this incident to occur. However, we feel that the annual NA-ABC meeting is no longer a
safe space for us as black activists, and we will not attend any future events.
Nevertheless, because we care enough about ABC as a radical prison movement, and feel that
positive changes should come out of this incident, we are proposing these solutions:
12 Point Racist Recovery Program for North American ABC:
1. The NA-ABC must create a permanent anti-racist/anti-oppression committee, which will be
a semi-autonomous group able to challenge internal racism and call people out for
offensive behavior. However, it must also train all ABC activists in anti-racist ideology,
set new policies, and call for institutional change. This committee should also be in
control of all anti-racist communications of the group.
2. Every year at the annual NA-ABC gatherings, there must be workshops to talk extensively
about the dangers of internal racism within the ABC. Besides anti-racist workshops for
white participants, black/POC conference attendees should have their own workshops to deal
with the effects of white racism, and differences among ourselves. [For instance, at least
two Hispanics made two anti-black comments at the conference. One said that he was not
offended by the racist letter because he saw himself as a ?white Mexican,? and another
called Lorenzo a ?token who should not be allowed to speak for all peoples of color?].
3. We are asking the Denver ABC and NA-ABC to join with the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against
Racism and Police Brutality to create an online discussion list, ?ABC-Anti-Racist? to
discuss internal racism all during the period between ABC conferences.
4. We call upon the NA-ABC to provide a written disclaimer at the beginning of each
workshop forbidding panel members to use racist or oppressive language against any racial
group, nationality, or oppressed peoples. [NOTE: this rule cannot ever be used to stifle
discussions of internal racism and white supremacy.]
5. We call upon the NA-ABC to use the book, ?The Progressive Plantation: Racism Inside
Radical Social Change Groups,? as a study guide for ABC chapters and activists. We ask P &
L Press to print the book at no cost, and provide it to everyone, then hold consciousness
raising study groups. We will provide the manuscript for you.
6. Join with us as we create a ?Progressive Plantation? discussion page for activists on
Facebook, inside and outside of the ABC.
7. We call upon you to create a permanent POC standing committee within NA-ABC to propose
anti-racist internal politics for the entire group, challenge acts of racism, and involve
more POC inside the ABC. Even though we will not attend any more NA-ABC meetings, we
expect you to continue to work with us through this POC committee and other contacts.
8.There needs to be a process created and made part of the standing rules to expel persons
or groups engaging in racist or oppressive behavior. This should come after giving them a
warning.
9. When racist behavior takes place, the entire conference should shut down its workshops,
and deal with it immediately, and the ABC should never cover up or ignore such incidents.
10. The ABC must make anti-fascist ideology and internal anti-racist training a central
part of its politics.
11. We are not asking the North American ABC to completely divest itself` of political
prisoner support work for black/POC political prisoners and POW's from the 1960's or
1970's, or those contemporary campaigns they have started in the animal liberation,
radical environmental, and other such white radical campaigns. The NA-ABC, however, must
change its white privilege model of selective support of black political prisoners to one
of dealing with mass imprisonment of African/POC's, and the new generation of prisoners
since the 1980's. Jericho is fully capable of dealing with its New African prisoners, and
even those prisoners want the 20/50 plan applied to an overall campaign against mass
imprisonment in this period. The NA-ABC must have its own politics on this, not just adopt
Jericho's program. This will allow the NA-ABC to help build a new mass movement, work with
black/communities of color, and build coalitions with activists of color, both inside and
outside the prisons. [We had sent our mass imprisonment proposal prior to the conference,
which was adopted by the Mass Imprisonment workshop].
12. Although we do not believe than any organization can deal with internal racism in
isolation, we encourage the NA-ABC to try to deal with your problems internally if you can
do so, but caution you not to cover up or defend yourself from charges of internal racism,
but to implement or come up with viable plans to heal the group, rebuild unity, and show
respect to all who attend your events in the future. We believe that this is the moment of
truth for the North American-Anarchist Black Cross.
So this is our proposal dealing with anti-racist institutional change for the NA-ABC. We
are open to discussing this matter further by a series of online conferences with the
Denver ABC and others. This letter/proposal is not meant to be totally hostile or
accusatory, and is made in good faith.
Love and struggle,
JoNina and Lorenzo Ervin, (on behalf of the Black Autonomy Prison Federation and the Ida
B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality).
======================= RESPONCE ===================
Collective response to "Racism at North American ABC Conference" by JoNina & Lorenzo Ervin
We are writing as the crew that organized the North American ABC Conference, in response
to JoNina and Lorenzo's public letter "Racism at the NA ABC Conference.? We are nine
people spread across the country, from New York to Sacramento, in conjunction with Denver
ABC, and as such have a range of views on their open letter. This response is not a full
statement of all of those views, or even a consensus of what things we all agree on, but
rather a response required to urgently address the letter and to clarify information
within it. This statement is NOT to discredit, disqualify, disregard, or fault JoNina and
Lorenzo for their experience(s). The information provided is correct to the best of our
account, and is provided for the purpose of transparency.
We also note that our public response to this matter is made against our preference for
dealing with conflicts internal to anarchist movements. We are troubled by JoNina and
Lorenzo's decision to publish their letter on the Internet (including Facebook) in
addition to sending it out over our closed listserv. We find it inappropriate to publicly
handle internal matters, where anyone and everyone is privy to internal conflict, that
typically makes it difficult to move forward and lends itself more to internet flame wars
than revolutionary efforts to deal with oppression within our movements. We do not wish to
hide these issues or sweep them under the rug, yet we do value resolving internal
conflicts present in anarchist movements and our ABC organizing amongst
ourselves?autonomously, collectively, internally. Our preference for handling this
situation and the issues it raises includes dialogue between JoNina and Lorenzo, us as
conference organizers, members of the panel during which the letter was read, and all
other conference attendees and their associates. Thus, we would like to make it clear that
this response is being made public only in response to JoNina and Lorenzo's open letter.
We do not make any promises to address this matter in public forums in the future.
Before we respond, we are providing some context, especially for international readers who
expressed confusion about the situation. At the 2014 North American ABC conference, held
outside of Denver, Colorado, there were a variety of panels, workshops, and discussions
covering an array of issues around prisoner support. The panel in question was one on
?Playing Lawyer,? and featured speakers who talked about working on parole cases, working
on their personal and other legal cases, and finally, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests on behalf of Jalil Muntaqim's parole campaign. Jaili's parole was recently
denied, largely due to a letter-writing campaign conducted by prison guards and fraternal
police organizations. Racist cops and guards sent dozens of letters to the parole board,
and Jalil requested that a white activist, who is involved in his support and was a member
of the panel, read the letters to the panel attendees. The letters, most of which were
read aloud or had sections of them read aloud, became progressively more racist and
disturbing. There was tension in the air, some nervous laughter, and groans accompanied by
outbursts of ?What the fuck?? and other such exclamations. The final letter read was
comprised almost entirely of racial epithets and slurs directed at people of color in
general, and displayed a disgusting level of racism leveled against Jalil and all people
of color in the name of keeping him from parole. It is this letter, and the reaction or
lack of reaction to it, which prompted the open letter from JoNina and Lorenzo.
We acknowledge that internal oppression and privilege exist at the NA ABC conference,
within the NA ABC network, and within NA anarchist movements. At the conference, we have
experimented with various ways of addressing internal oppression (including, but not
limited to, racism) as a group. Last year, we held three fishbowl discussions: one on
race, one on class, one on sexism/patriarchy/gender. This year, we held two group
exercises exploring privilege and oppression within our groups and at the conference.
While these efforts are clearly not sufficient for countering our internal privilege and
oppression or from preventing incidents such as this one, we feel it is important to
acknowledge the work we have been doing in this area and are committed to do in the future.
As organizers, we are certainly accountable for what happens at the NA ABC conference.
With that understanding and with our commitment to addressing all forms of oppression
within our organizing, we have organized these conferences under this statement of purpose
and these points of unity:
?The Annual North American ABC Conference exists to provide an inter-generational forum
for anarchist, autonomous and anti-authoritarian people engaged in anti-repression work
with an emphasis on PP / POW support. It is a unique convergence of peers with an
expectation of dynamic participation in mutual aid. Moving in a direction of international
organizing, we aim to build and sustain working relationships, ultimately existing as a
much greater weapon against state repression. This event utilizes group discussions and
working groups where everyone is encouraged to participate equitably and where their
unique experiences and knowledge are valued. We facilitate a space that is 100% sober from
beginning to end out of respect to the boundaries set by the indigenous principles of the
event center. An added benefit is the creation of a focused working environment in which
to heal, learn, strategize and hopefully emerge with greater strength and resources to
better do our work. We seek to dismantle hierarchies, challenge privileges and break down
sectarian barriers within ourselves. Engaging in any oppressive behaviors will not be
tolerated and will be addressed immediately. We warmly invite the participation of those
willing to co-create this space in which we will further strengthen anti-repression work
and PP/POW support.?
We included this statement in our registration forms that went out to everyone invited to
the conference. We take this statement seriously and worked hard to adhere to it
throughout our organizing and during the conference. As conference organizers, we clearly
fell short of living up to all the aspirations in this statement, and for that we take
responsibility. We deeply regret that our failure to immediately address the harmful
effects of the letter being read in the moment hurt some of our comrades and made them
feel so unsafe that they are no longer willing to join us at future conferences.
Accordingly, we cannot stand by while blame is unjustifiably directed at people. JoNina
and Lorenzo directly called out Paulette D?Auteuil, the National Secretary of the Jericho
Movement, for comments she made during the panel discussion. We believe that the
statements made about Paulette mischaracterize the content and intent of what she said at
that time. Paulette, who neither organized nor was a participant on the panel, proposed a
hypothetical in which people of color attending the panel would have been warned of the
contents of the letter and would have had full control over how to handle it, whether to
read it or not, or indeed, to leave the room during its reading if they chose to do so. We
understand that the suggestion that people of color should simply leave during the reading
of a racist letter would have been a racist and inappropriate suggestion. Certainly we, as
the organizing crew (which is not all white), do not advocate or condone ?white radical
racial segregation? at this or any conference. To characterize a small part of Paulette's
hypothetical as an actual proposal, however, is unfair.
Paulette has worked to support Black political prisoners and prisoners of war for decades.
She was invited to this year's conference because of her dedicated organizing and will be
invited in the future for the same reasons. She can speak for herself as to her motives
and intentions for her comments and suggestions, if she so chooses, and we certainly do
not hold her or the Jericho Movement responsible for the panel or its content, as neither
she nor Jericho had any involvement in organizing it.
Yet there is responsibility to be taken for what happened and that responsibility was
taken during the conference, however imperfectly and inadequately in the eyes of JoNina,
Lorenzo, and others at the conference. The reader is responsible for reading the letter in
an insensitive way. He immediately accepted that responsibility during the panel and
engaged in discussions about the issues afterwards. Additionally, all attendees within
earshot are responsible for inadequately addressing the situation in the moment. We are
upset that the people in the room (many of us were in the room) collectively failed in
those responsibilities, and we are glad that most people engaged in difficult and
productive conversations about it during the panel, during the anti-oppression group
exercise immediately after the panel, and during the rest of the conference. Despite these
efforts, JoNina and Lorenzo are right that such inaction and failures reveal internalized
oppression that needs to be addressed.
Finally, we would like to address the other quotations included in the open letter from
JoNina and Lorenzo. None of the quotes included in the letter were spoken by anyone at the
conference to the best of our collective knowledge and it is problematic to present
statements as quotes when they were not actually spoken. No one vocalized that the
panelist who read the letter ?meant no harm,? the person who made the analogy about a
letter being from a misogynist never used the term ?bragging letter? even though what she
did say was not far off from that idea, no one said that JoNina and Lorenzo or any other
people of color attending the conference were ?too thin-skinned,? and no one said that the
protests of the letter being read were ?racial agitation from Lorenzo and people he
brought.? Additionally, the two attendees insensitively identified as ?Hispanic? (a
colonizer's term for colonized peoples) did not make the statements attributed to them in
the open letter. To put forth these fragments as direct quotes from anyone attending the
conference is simply untrue.
We are in full agreement that North American ABC chapters and our comrades should develop
in-depth, comprehensive, and continuous anti-oppression programs, including workshops,
readings, discussions, and continued support for political prisoners, prisoners of war,
and mass prison movements.
Further thoughts will be forthcoming, privately and individually if not publicly and
collectively.
With respect,
The NA ABC Conference Organizing Crew & Denver ABC
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