[Fwd: Re: Staggering death rate for pregnant Black women]

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:

> For example, various church-related agitators in baltimore bemoan the lack
> of economic development in inner cities - more or less explicitly
> attributing it to racism.  But if they are so fucking concerned, why do not
> they do something to help the poor blacks who have to live in this stinking
> dump, like for example, opening a credit union as an alternative to the
> "check cashing" establishments that leech the poor of 10-15% of each check
> they cash?  Or opening food co-ops as an alternative to 7-11 stores vending
> greasy junk at inflated prices?  Or housing co-ops (e.g. by co-signing
> mortgages) as an alternatives to either absentee section 8 landlords or
> public "housing" (or rather warehousing)?  Is that beneath a "true
> revolutionary spirit" or what?
>
> wojtek


  Wojtek, I completely agree with you that a lot people use the word
"racism" in a demogogic way. Our friend Farrakhan, for example. And
Reverend Al Sharpton is another -- he sounds really radical, but
actually functions as a container  and limiter of political action (he
both led the marches and mass arrests after the Diallo shooting here in
NYC and called them off when he'd made himself a pack of headlines,
despite continued police shootings). And I agree too that to call
something 'racist" is often not to analyze it closely enough.
 But you know a lot of black churches are involved in the sort of thing
you describe.  In New York there's the Nehemiah Project, a coalition of
black churches and other groups that have built quite a lot of housing
in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Black churches and community organizers
worked for DECADES to get a real supermarket in central Newark, and in
harlem (where the latinos were opposed because they own the bodegas and
smaller supermarkets).  It is really hard to start up and keep going the
kinds of institutions you are talking about --   and don't forget the
churches and community groups have a lot of other problems to deal with
also, like AIDS, kids in trouble, various forms of urgent desperation.
Black churches run soup kitchens and food pantries, daycare centers and
sometimes elementary schools, they shelter the homeless, run drug and
alcohol rehab programs etc. There's a limit! I know you are talking
about pseudo-radical demogogues and things they could do that would be
more useful and practical.  But I think you want to avoid suggesting
that the blacks of Baltimore could solve their own problems through the
right kind of self-help institutions. When  the truth is there are no
jobs in Baltimore (johns hopkins is now the largest employer!), and
people who can afford to are moving away as fast as they can. And no
one's moving in!

Katha