Co-Whites by Aniagolu Emeka;

Author:Aniagolu, Emeka;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UPA
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

*In an interesting article in Essence Magazine of April, 2008 titled: No More Marches, a writer by the name, Jill Nelson, makes the interesting case that those kinds of mass public protests have become “canned,” jaded, if you will, from cooptation or sterilization by the establishment. Nelson notes that: “For civil rights. Against police brutality. For workers’ rights. Against war. Against nuclear weapons. For women’s rights to choose abortion. Against violence against women. For protecting the environment. The list goes on. For four decades my credo was the postal workers’ motto, and “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” kept me from marching for a just cause. But I’m hanging up my boots. I’m through marching. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not conceding defeat, and my politics are stronger and more focused than ever . . . Marches have become so controlled—by the police, by march organizers, by leaders jostling for position and the next sound bite—that they’ve lost the elements of civil disobedience and resistance that once made them spontaneous, powerful and effective. The March 7, 1965, rally across the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, Alabama, led by activists Hosea Williams and John Lewis in support of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, was such a moment. Six hundred marchers were attacked and beaten by Alabama state troopers with horses, tear gas and billy clubs. That day became known as Bloody Sunday, and images of nonviolent protesters being brutalized were broadcast around the world. That march was a turning point in the struggle for civil rights. Forty-three years later, in another millennium, we’re still using the same technique, and to far less effect. These days, marches are carefully orchestrated spectacles for the purpose of allowing passionate people to come together and let off steam rather than massive, potentially uncontrollable manifestations of people’s demand for justice and equality . . . marches are now so predictable and scripted they’ve lost the ability to impact politicians and policy, to force transformation . . . We need new forms of activism and protest, or perhaps a return to the risky and resonant civil disobedience that was so effective during the civil rights, antiapartheid and other successful movements. This new century demands new strategies, ones that not only put us on a path to change but ignite real transformation.” (p. 132, Essence, March, 2008)

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