Black Voices for Peace Speak Out
by Roxanne Lawson

February 2002
Volume 39, Nummber 1

On the rainy night of October 16, 2001 a panel of Muslims and Christians, Academics and grassroots organizers, lawyers and students, clergy and lay people gathered at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC to discuss the "brave new world" that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon created. Civil and Human rights activist Damu Smith and the Howard University Law Student community called together a panel to discuss the newly declared war on terrorism and the subsequent changes in public sentiment and the political agenda of the United States government. Those assembled expressed concern at the reaction of the American public, media, and government policy stemming from the September 11 attacks. Black Voices for Peace, as an organization, traces its roots back to that night and those 300 hundred people who gathered to take a stand against oppression and war.

Since that first meeting Black Voices for Peace (BVFP) has become a national network of people of African heritage and others working for peace with justice at home and abroad. BVFP, along with the majority of the world, condemns those who carried out the attacks on the US. However, unlike the U.S. government, they want to see those responsible for these horrible crimes brought to justice with evidence presented in an open trial.

Since the September 11 attacks and the declaration of the war on terrorism the media's willingness to report the views of people of color had been poor. Among the September 11 victims both in Washington and in New York were large numbers of Latinos, Diasporic Africans and Asians. The media has seldom mentioned these victims or interviewed their families, and many victims of this horrible attack are being ignored because they are undocumented workers of color. BVFP calls for fair and equitable assistance for the survivors of victims of the September 11 attacks, and seeks to assist workers and communities that have been adversely affected by the attacks.

Three polls conducted by news agencies in the months following the attacks have unilaterally expressed the view that the majority of "Blacks" in the U.S. support the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Despite these kinds of reports, Blacks, through their traditional news media, via internet, and in meetings in people's homes, churches, mosques and community centers have been loudly expressing their disdain for the United States government's war on terrorism. In response to the declarations that African-Americans across the country are pleased with the policies of the Bush administration because he has chosen two "of our own" to have such important and prominent roles in his administration, many African -Americans are saying "NO." "NO" to the old ideology that people of African descent share a collective and cohesive political consciousness. "NO" to the idea that any Black person, anywhere in the government, is a boon for all Black Americans.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has publicly brought some of the problems of African and Caribbean "Third World" countries to the attention of the Bush administration and the world, and in so doing has done more in this area any other Secretary of State in history. Yet Powell is still far from a universal champion of the "issues of Black America." In reality, Black America has moved beyond (if in fact it ever truly resided in) the place where African-Americans, Caribbean- Americans, and African immigrants to America share a universal political commonality. Now more than ever, where we are united by Race we are divided by socio-economic status, educational attainment and political agenda.

Most people in the United States swallow the racist propaganda justifying the annihilation and wounding of thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, in Israel/ Palestine, in Iraq, in Colombia and Nicaragua, all in the name of protecting U.S. interests. Those opposing the war on terrorism are viewed as unpatriotic and traitorous. Those rejecting John Ashcroft's campaign of detaining innocent Muslims without trial are seen as supporting terrorism.

Many people of African descent living in America realize that whether someone is a terrorist or freedom fighter depends on perspective. A generation ago, Nelson Mandela, winner of a Noble peace prize, was jailed for being a terrorist. To George III of England Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were terrorists. In Victorian England, Gandhi's non-violent resistance and boycotts were considered an act of terrorism against the crown. As Martin Luther King put it, "We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary wad 'illegal.'"

Terrorists can also be seen as patriots; Martin Luther King, Jr. was a patriot when he expressed love for his country but at the same time criticized racism and US foreign policy, as were Mandela, Gandhi, and Thomas Jefferson. To many people in the peace movement the term terrorist is just as applicable to Madeline Albright (who declared that the thousands of Iraqi children that have died from US bombs and sanctions are "collateral damage") as is it is to the attackers of the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers. To them, a government that causes severe harm, injury, anxiety, destruction and death to people and nations around the world should be included in the list of terrorists.

Many people of African descent see this new "war on terrorism" as the next in a long line of moneymaking ventures that detrimentally effect people of color worldwide. As W.E.B. DuBois declared in 1917 at a peace mass meeting sponsored by World Tomorrow magazine in New York City, "the U.S. propensity toward war is driven by the greed for cheap labor and materials at the expense of people of color." In the name of the American people, the US government has supported dictators and violent regimes that violate human rights. BVFP speaks out against this attempt to build a world at the expense of people of color.

Black Voices for Peace demands an end to the unjust war on Afghanistan, an end to the secret military tribunals and trials, as well as an end to the abusive "preventive" detention measures which have resulted in the "round-up" of persons based on nationality, race or religious beliefs. They see this new race and religious based profiling that has taken root in America as an assault on not only civil liberties and rights but is an assault on our constitution and democracy. It is worth noting that the repressive USA Patriot Act was drafted under the Reagan administration almost 29 years ago to safeguard against "anti-American" sentiments like those expressed by Black radicals in the 1960s and 70s.

BVFP has also called for an end to US financial and military support for the Israeli policy of illegal settlements, occupation and violence against the Palestinian population. They are pressing for immediate and unconditional negotiations between the Israeli government and Palestinian authority to end the cycle of violence and bloodshed that has permeated that region of the world for too long.The members of BVFP see a direct correlation between the apartheid state of Israel to the Untied States during Jim Crow.

They believe, as an organization of peace activists, that the attacks of September 11 will be better understood through an examination of the root cause of war, violence, and terrorism. Ultimately, BVFP wants to rid the world of war, violence, terrorism and injustice by working to mobilize the black community in coalition with others of goodwill to support human rights, economic and social justice and peace.