This is a photo of 26 year old Frederick Jermaine Carter, an African who was lynched in 2010 whereby the state authorities claimed it was suicide. They claim this brother went to a white neighborhood and hung himself, now does that make sense! I think not! State violence manifest itself in many ways, from blatant lynching (in 2010 no less), to blanket support for sub-prime mortgage lenders who defrauded millions of POC out of their houses, to state sponsored gentrification, and the concentration camps called reservations. Don’t tell us about ISOLATION!
As an editor of People Of Color Organize I am compelled to let everyone know that Neo, the author of “10 Conversations on Racism I’m Sick of Having with White People“, is not a contributor to our site. We frequently post articles and blog entries from other people’s site for information sharing and to get other people’s message circulated. Please refer to our disclaimer in the about page. Furthermore, it is our duty as editors, to put forth our position on various comments posted to the aforementioned article.
People of Color Organize does not subscribe to the myth that all races have the ability to exert racists actions. Many of the people who are posting here are mistaking name-calling for racism. Racism is the systematic denial of the basic necessities of life through state power. People of Color do not have access and real influence over public policy and we are the victims of state sponsored violence (e.g. Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Lovelle Mixon, and countless other African and Latino people incarcerated or otherwise shot down on the street). The contention in many of our lives is not about Caucasian people’s ontology of being “white”. The root of our problems are that our ability to have access to the necessities of life is constantly attacked by people who have continued their dominance under the banner of “whiteness”. This has resulted in people of European descent separating THEMSELVES from the rest of humanity. POC do not have the power to isolate you.
This website was created as a safe space for people of color and White allies in REAL solidiarty (not in denial or deflection mode) to have honest, constructive conversations based on objective reality and sound theory. We do not tolerate people of European descent coming to this site to dictate how we should voice our anger or communicate with our national oppressors, especially in the interest of sparing your feelings.
As a result, the editors of POCO strongly denounce the fallacy that people of color can also be racist. Our position on the matter can be found in this previous post by one of our editors.
We further contend that we will not be a forum for Caucasians to attempt to make people of color, who were enlisted by their oppressors to facilitate colonialism, the primary contradiction that explains our conditions. This is a disingenuous analysis that attempts to deflect your accountability as the primary beneficiaries of colonialism. We instruct you to see our position on this matter at our previous post or take such insidious arguments elsewhere.
Finally, for all the commentators who visited the site in recent days, there have only been a few to comment on, tweet about or recommend our new podcast about the Black suffering in the Congo (which is a real issue that we should be discussing). There are no instances on this planet of people of European descent contending with the grave and dire circumstances than Africans worldwide are facing. The Europeans who feel isolated should listen and learn about the hidden war in the Congo, and reflect on the tremendous isolation the people of the Congo must feel in light of their accepted death and dehumanization. There are almost 5 million people dead, women being raped by the neo-colonial military and a host of other life or death situations being perpetrated as you fix your lips to complain about your delicate feelings. Maybe listening to the podcast will allow these people who claim “isolation” to put their feelings into perspective and recognize the ramifications violent isolation has on people of color in the US through gentrification, ghettoization and in the so-called Third World.
Many of you mistake Black visibility or sharp, condescending tongues (i.e. Obama, athletes, super stars, name-calling etc.) with Black power, but when is the last time you worried about being in the wrong neighborhood or part of town because you were White? And don’t say when you went through the “ghetto” because you know and we know that the response from the state would be vastly different if something were to happen to a Caucasian in communities of color.
Listen to Ikonoklast Speaks and the Watershed podcast regularly, and then maybe you will truly understand why other commentators accuse you of making this posting about you. You will not hijack and misdirect our site, which is meant for people of color to have a forum free of frivolous criticism, and lead our readers down the classic road of white insecurity and an inability to be accountable, that is final, period!
Bravo Zari. I couldn’t have put this better myself!