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1. 1 On September 27th, 2007, Lydia Bean said:

   This is in response to the post on why white progressives don’t get Jena…I posted on livejournal too, but I couldn’t see my post, so here it is again…

   Friends of Justice is an interracial organization, so we’ve been trying to use our contacts within the white progressive activism to take up the cause of Jena. But we’ve run into the same problems that you point out. I had to beg and plead for all the so-called “leading” progressive blogs to cover the Jena story, and then when 50,000 people showed up in Jena, they acted surprised, like I hadn’t been trying to get them to pay attention for months.

   Some of the problem isn’t just about race–it’s the general myopia of progressive wonks and bloggers in general to anything that’s not being run by one of their little circle of friends. Some people told me they didn’t cover Jena because they mostly write about “politics.” Apparently, something doesn’t count as “politics” unless it’s being supervised by a white man with a Harvard law degree. I’m white, and I run into some of hte same roadblocks because I don’t have the right connections, I didn’t go to the right college, I don’t think “politics” is just about this elite D.C. circle, and I don’t think top-down “professional” activism is the best way to do everything. But race makes everything harder–when it involves young black males who aren’t saints, a lot of white activists get agitated, nervous, just don’t want to do the work required to empathize with these kids–or take on the risk of defending them.

   After much work, I was able to get tpmcafe to talk about Jena here. They were the only blog I worked with who was actually very apologetic about dropping the ball. The rest of them keep stubbornly refusing to admit that there’s a ball.

   It’s not hopeless with white progressives, it’s just an uphill battle. I’m making some progress, but over the longterm it’s going to mean changing the power structure within the progressive movement as a whole. To their credit, the response to my writing on Jena from readers at tpmcafe was very warm. I think people were glad to hear about some real news, about a real movement, instead of just arguing about the finer points of policy.

   I’d appreciate your comments on my analysis:
   www.tpmcafe.com/blog/specialguests/2007/sep/24/a_new_civil_rights_movement_born_in_jena

   I kind of play nice in this blog post–I’m trying to catch flies with honey, etc. etc–but to be frank, what I learned from this experience is that race matters a lot more in the internal politics of the progressive movement than I ever imagined. What you’re pointing out is very real.

2. 2 On September 27th, 2007, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

   Hey Lydia, I heard yours and Alan’s songs on the Friends of Justice page the other night.

   I’ll respond in depth in a little bit, just wanted to acknowledge this.

3. 3 On September 28th, 2007, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

   I was going to comment at your blog, but I’m not in the mood to register for another website, just to comment, so I hope you see it here:

   LOL – I’m not saying the assertion is not true, because I really don’t know, but this is now at least the 4th entity that I’ve heard/read claim they broke the story: Friends of Justice, Howard Witt, The Final Call, somebody at USA Today, and I think some regional reporter. Again, not casting dispersion, just saying that it’s funny.

   Okay, now that I read the next couple of sentences (I’m typing my response in word as I go) maybe you one the ones who got the story to whomever was the first towrite about it nationally.

   Anyway, to the actual issues at hand: “These top-down tactics were designed for the de jure caste discrimination of the Old Jim Crow; they are powerless against the de facto realities of the New Jim Crow.”

   Aldon D. Morris, writer of Origins of the Civil Rights Movements would contend that the litigation model was largely ineffective then, that’s why King and the SCLC had to come along with a direct action model that catapulted the movement and pretty much displaced the NAACP’s litigation model. Or maybe not totally displaced it, but direct action became the much larger component.

   “The New Jim Crow calls for new strategy. We need civil rights organizations to do grassroots organizing”

   I’ve been making this same point vigorously for the last week, including when I was a guessed on a D.C. radio show Tuesday, via phone. I also agree with you that everyday cases like Jena 6 should be taken on. Again, going back to the analysis of that book, it looks like these organizations that you’re critiquing are falling back into the trap of the NAACPs 1940s & 50s thinking. Not only should they be taking them on from an ideological-strategic standpoint of effecting the broader movement; but they should be taking them on for the simple fact that those individual lives matter, and they deserve justice and equal protection under the law.

   “…the civil rights leaders of tomorrow weren’t on stage—they were watching from the crowd”

   Absolutely! It was community activist and bloggers that built this march, not Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Hell, they were late to the game, especially Jackson. And Sharpton admitted he learned about the Jena 6 from reading on the net.

   “We need to move beyond identity politics and develop a new narrative about our nation’s mutating disease of racialized inequality.”

   Good statement!

   In total, I pretty much agree with you overall analysis.

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