novembfif 1.2002 * J n t M t 2 5
sonal conversation back and forth called “A Rap
on Race,” in the spirit of James Baldwin and
Margaret M eades 1971 talk of the same name.
“O ur dialogue and the one we hope all of
you will engage in is about the necessity of forg
ing personal and organizational alliances
between people who live with and struggle
against the terror— the hum iliation and dehu
manizing impact of racism in the U nited
States— and those who are privileged by it,”
Vazquez says. “1 don’t believe anyone willingly
chooses to be either a target or a perpetrator of
racism. From birth, our race and class color our
worldview and give or deny us privilege. The
only choice we have is to stay in the cage or
consciously to dismantle it.
“I think people
make the choice for
alliance based on their
values, their capacity
for empathy and their
ability to understand
why it is in their own
interest
to refuse
racism. Too often, we
get caught in a blame-
and-shame game or in
traps of guilt that are
simply useless to the
work of creating sys
temic change in a racist
society.
“Becoming an ally
to someone doesn’t re
quire a degree in inter
national relations or
rocket science. It requires an ability to listen, to
empathize and to trust. It requires sufficient
introspection to know what your values are and
perhaps to change them. It requires a willing
ness to sacrifice privilege.
“A nd there’s the rub. Too many white people
will walk right to the edge of the cliff with us,
but they’re not jumping— not unless someone
can guarantee them a safety net. Well, there are
no guarantees. There can only be a resolute
refusal to live this way anymore,” Vazquez says.
According to Sweeney, anti-racism work and
a larger agenda of social and economic justice
benefit himself, his family and his community.
“Part of my heritage was to be raised in a
C atholic tradition of liberation theology that
emphasized social and economic justice,” he
says. “I concretely experienced these values dur
ing the 1960s when the farmworkers’ boycotts
were highlighting the injustices of the farm
labor system.
“I lived in rural M ontana. I remember being
exposed to farmworker living conditions—
shacks with no running water, lack of health
care, the difficulty of the physical labor in the
sugar beet fields and, most importantly, the chil
dren’s lack of education and schooling. I just
couldn’t understand how our society could
ignore the plight of the people whose sweat and
labor put the sugar on our tables.
“A t some level I knew I was gay at a very
early age. I couldn’t believe the basic ignorance
and assumptions about gay people. It made me
really question authority and power because I
couldn’t understand who made up these assump
tions, where people got their information and
how the assumptions and information did not
square with my reality at all. W hat I found so
inspirational about farmworkers was their will
ingness to challenge a system that ignored or
devalued them.
“My gayness gave me an appreciation for the
complexity of the world, that all is not what it
appears and the people who challenge the exist
ing power structure and the ’common wis
dom’— because of race or gender or class or sex
ual orientation— need to be listened to because
they might have information and experience
that I wouldn’t know. The isolation that accom
panied my gayness made me think how valuable
it is to have allies,” he says.
eynote speaker Mandy Carter, one of the
nation’s leading African American lesbian
activists, knows about the power of allies from
her 39 years of organizing.
“We live in a society where we are inter
dependent on each other,” she says. “We cannot
obtain societal and
legal wins without our
allies— nongay, people
of color, etc. A perfect
example is the recent
Sept. 10 vote in Miami,
where the anti-gay
forces wanted to repeal
an
existing
anti-
discrim ination policy.
A coalition of black
and Latino groups and
people came out in a
very public w ay...and
they turned out at the
polls to defeat the anti
gay measure. This hap
pened against the back
drop of the anti-gay
R
Sue H yde energizes volunteers during the first C reating Change 2002 H ost Com m ittee
meeting Feb. 27
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proponents using the faces and voices of a Lati
na woman and a black man! A nd they used the
words of the late Dr. M artin Luther King Jr. to
plead their anti-gay case.
“Let’s not forget that the very same forces
that are anti-gay are the exact same forces that
are anti-people of color, anti-women, anti-poor
and so on. A nd these forces are the ones that
want to find ways to ‘divide and conquer’ us all.
O ur LGBT movement shouldn’t fall into that
trap by limiting our goal to the ‘bottom line,’
that it’s all about being gay. How much longer
can we identify as a single-issue movement that
is ‘just about being gay’ as we struggle for equal
ity and justice? Are we about justice or just us?"
Carter asks.
“O ne of the most frequent questions we hear
over and over again in our LGBT movement is,
‘W hy aren ’t there more people of color
involved?* Yet, if we don’t include an agenda of
social and economic justice and freedom— the
very issues that most directly impact communi
ties of color— we should understand why they
aren’t involved!”
Vazquez adds: “W e need to keep our eyes on
the prize. T he econom ic and ideological under
pinnings of racism, sexism and enforced h e t
erosexism or any o th er form o f oppression are
formidable foes. It is im portant to remember
th at bigots are each oth er’s natural allies and
that poverty— or the fear of it— has the power
to seduce us all in to conformity. ‘Faggot’
appears right next to ‘nigger’ and ‘kike’ in C as
tro Street graffiti. ‘Q ueer lover’ and ‘fag hag’
are cut from the same mold th at gave us ‘nigger
lover.’ A mold forged by fear of change and a
loss of privilege.
“Unfortunately, our sacrifices to conformity
rarely guarantee us the privilege or protection
we were promised,” she continues. “Those of us
Continued on Page 26
"How much longer
can we identify as a
single-issue movement
that i s 'just about being
gay' as we struggle for
equality and justice?
Are we about justice
or just us?"
— Mandy Carter
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