Page 2 The Skanner March 30, 2016
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Opinion
History of Black Women in the Peace Movement
I
n this Women’s History
Month, it makes sense to
reflect on women and the
peace movement, and espe-
cially on the African Amer-
ican women who have been
peace activists and have
played a significant role in
this movement.
The Women’s International
League of Peace and Freedom
(WILPF) was founded in 1915
in the midst of World War I. Its
first chair, Hull House’s Jane
Addams, cared deeply about
world disarmament. Early on,
though, there were criticisms
of WILPF and the peace move-
ment because African Ameri-
can were too often invisible.
In a book poignantly title, No
Peace Without Freedom, Race
and WILPF, Joyce Blackwell
writes about tensions within
the path breaking peace orga-
nization. In a similar book, “A
Band of Noble Women: Racial
Politics in the Women’s Peace
Movement,” Melinda Plastas
writes that African American
women combined the effects
of race, gender and war, and
“demanded a place for Black
women in the international
peace movement.
Mary Church Terrell was
involved in WILPF almost
from its outset, serving on its
board for a time. The D.C. doy-
enne, who was one of the first
African American women to
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
earn a college degree, was in-
volved in the civil rights and
social justice movements. A
teacher by profession, she
was one of the first women
to serve on the Washington,
D.C. Board of Education. She
played founding roles in
many justice organizations,
including the NAACP, the In-
“
Terrell was not the only
woman who worked with
WILPF during its early days.
Addie Hunton came to ac-
tivism early, working as an
organizer for NACW in the
early twentieth century. She
worked with servicemen
in France during the war.
Those war experiences per-
haps influenced her to work
as a peace activist during the
1920s. In 1926, she wrote a re-
port condemning US occupa-
tion of Haiti. Bertha McNeill
was another of the African
American women involved
in WILPF. She led the Wash-
ington, D.C. chapter, and also
African American women com-
bined the effects of race, gender
and war, and “demanded a place
for Black women in the interna-
tional peace movement
ternational College of Wom-
en, the National Association
of Colored Women (NACW),
and Delta Sigma Theta Soror-
ity, Inc. Some of her dealings
with WILPF were not smooth
— she was not re-elected to
serve a second term on the
Board of the organization,
to the chagrin of many of the
White women who felt that
Black women’s voices needed
to be heard on peace matters.
served as a vice president
of the organization for two
terms.
These women — as do some
of our non-African American
sisters like Media Benjamin
and Arandhati Roy — come
to mind in the middle of this
raucous political season.
Sane, calm voices are missing
in these presidential debates.
We are also missing a future
focus that takes the futility
of increasing militarism into
consideration. With the im-
migration crisis sparked by
conflict in Syria, the violence
maintained by ISIS, unrest
in the Middle East, and ten-
sion with Russia, not to men-
tion the number of US troops
still in Afghanistan and Iraq,
wouldn’t it be appropriate for
us to hear about alternatives
to militarism.
That brings me to Califor-
nia Congresswoman Barbara
Lee — the only person who
had the courage to oppose
President George W. Bush’s
push for military action af-
ter September 11, 2001. She
appropriately asked whether
our country was rushing into
war. Subsequent events sug-
gest that we did rush. “Weap-
ons of mass destruction” were
never found.
Many of us are quite fa-
miliar with Barbara Lee’s
peace activism, but far few-
er of us know much about
Mary Church Terrell and
Addie Hunton. While Afri-
can American peace activists
were few in the WILPF ear-
ly days, their contributions
were significant and, more
importantly, they paved the
way for activists like Barbara
Lee to advocate a peace agen-
da and a peace budget.
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Trump’s Hostile Takeover of the Republican Party
I
have repeatedly heard
many of the talking heads
in Washington, D.C. and the
Republican establishment
accuse Donald Trump and his
presidential campaign of en-
gaging in a hostile takeover of
the Republican Party. I agree
with them.
According to Investope-
dia, “a hostile takeover is the
acquisition of one company
(called the target company) by
another (called the acquirer)
that is accomplished not by
coming to an agreement with
the target company’s manage-
ment, but by going directly to
the company’s shareholders
or fighting to replace manage-
“
Raynard
Jackson
NNPA
Columnist
the party see no value in the
Black community because
they don’t think they will ever
vote Republican. These are
the consultants that go from
one losing campaign to anoth-
er, doing the same thing, and
wonder why they never win
an election.
In 2016, you still have peo-
ple in the party that believe if
market share by cultivating
substantial relations with the
Black and Hispanic communi-
ties, not just with words, but
also by his actions.
Trump’s national spokes-
man is a Black woman; his
state director in North Car-
olina is a Black man. No oth-
er presidential campaign or
party institution has Black
staffers in such a position.
Trump has publically stated
his goal of getting at least 25
percent of the Black vote. No
other presidential campaign
or party institution has made
such a goal.
The Republican Party will
continue to be an underval-
Many in the party see no value in the Black community
because they don’t think they will ever vote Republican
ment in order to get the acqui-
sition approved.”
Investopedia
continues,
“The key characteristic of a
hostile takeover is that the
target company’s manage-
ment does not want the deal
to go through.”
Typically a company is tar-
geted for a hostile takeover
when their assets are con-
sidered to be undervalued.
Trump sees the Black commu-
nity as an undervalued asset
within the Republican Party.
Unfortunately, many in
you seek the Black vote it will
alienate White voters, and
that therefore they should ig-
nore the Black vote.
Trump sees the Republican
Party and the Black vote as
an undervalued asset and its
management totally incom-
petent. He is right on both
counts.
The Republican Party, as
currently constituted, is
the party of old White men.
Trump sees a great oppor-
tunity to expand the party’s
ued asset as long as they hire
consultants who go from los-
ing campaign to losing cam-
paigns.
We have a national conven-
tion coming up in July, but
where are the Black staffers
who have decision making
powers? Where are the Black
delegates? Where are the
Black vendors? Will there be
any Black entertainment?
Yes, Trump does say some
incendiary things and can
be quite impolitic at times.
But like anyone who is thrust
from high school to the NBA,
there will be some growing
pains and many unforced er-
rors (LeBron James, Kobe Bry-
ant).
One way of trying to pre-
vent a hostile takeover is by
using a poison pill. The pur-
pose of the poison pill is to
prevent the takeover from
ever happening.
Marco Rubio said, “Trump
can’t win the general elec-
tion.”
Nebraska’s
United
States Senator Ben Sasse said,
“I will never vote for Trump.”
Defeated campaign staffers
constantly go on TV and talk
about how Trump can’t beat
Hillary or he will never get
the female vote.
They don’t really believe
that, but this is the poison
pill that the establishment is
putting up because they can’t
fathom the idea of an outsider
like Trump becoming presi-
dent and they have little to no
access to the inner circle.
Republicans have spoken
out more on racial issues
during the past two weeks
than they have in my entire
time as a Republican -- not
because they are so con-
cerned about racism, but be-
cause they think it will hurt
Trump’s candidacy.
Read the rest of this editorial at
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