For over 500 years, the white colonizers of this hemisphere (and most of the world) have subjected people of color to lifetimes of enslavement, torture, occupation, internment, police brutality, poverty, drug abuse and so on.

Even after being beaten, raped, segregated, and silenced people of color the world over have risen up to their oppressors and oppressive institutions only to have their messages and rage co-opted by so-called “allies” within the mostly white progressive, anti-war movement – righteous anger channeled into more “acceptable” avenues whose purpose is not active engagement with that which oppresses us but in the creation of photo opportunities and press releases. In effect, we as people of color are not only further marginalized but tokenized as well.

In addition, we argue that the current anti-war movement is rendered irrelevant by its refusal to address the critical component of white supremacy. The racist anti-war movement is devoid of any self-critical process to acknowledge or address how white supremacy contributes to the oppression of people of color within the movement, so how could it possibly have an analysis of how white supremacy oppresses people of color around the world? Essentially, how can one speak of ending oppression while engaging in the same or similar (in principle) oppressive behavior one claims to oppose?

Aside from providing one the opportunity to pat oneself on the back, what purpose is served, or more explicitly, how are activists supporting the people of occupied Iraq and occupied Palestine by marching on the offices of warmongering corporations on a Saturday when no one is there?

Given this reality, if we as people of color maintain our continued involvement in their spectacle of “resistance,” outside of our disruption of this spectacle, it will further empower their smug entitlement and white supremacy.

Rather, we encourage unity between people of color in order to create nodes of actual resistance led by people of color.

Therefore, on Saturday, March 21, 2009 in Washington, D.C., radical people of color will stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine in our common struggle against white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, and oppression in all its forms and make our presence felt outside of what is conventionally allowed by the racist anti-war movement.

This will be a space of unity, empowerment, and self-determination wherein it will be made explicitly clear that we will no longer be marginalized, tokenized, and ultimately silenced by those who claim to speak in our names or in the names of our family and friends fighting for liberation around the world.

Meet us at 12 noon at 23rd St. & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.. Look for the brown and black f(l)ags.

Bring your voice! Bring your rage! Bring da noise!

A Brownie A Day Keeps Whitey Away,

D.C. Anarchist People Of Color

Philadelphia Anarchist People Of Color

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