drew dellinger - planetize the movement

2006: Year of the Racist Rant?

Incumbent Senator George Allen of Virginia lost his seat and imploded his presidential aspirations with a three-syllable word (and a long racist resume).

Mel Gibson lost his cool on tequila and exposed his extreme anti-semitism to the cops, and the world.

Three drunken fratboys from the University of South Carolina, thinking they were talking to a Kazakh reporter named Borat, revealed again the banality of hatred, proudly declaring their contempt for women, admiration for slavery, and the 'powerlessness' they feel compared to "minorities."

Now Michael Richards melts down, hurling racist threats from the stage. Surely some revelation is at hand....Ghosts of the land, specters of slavemasters.

The ghost of white supremacy is woven into the machine of the current system, from the drowning of New Orleans to the war on Iraq.

What are those of us who are white prepared to do to dismantle systemic racism? What are we prepared to see, recognize, observe, hear, say, read, learn, ask, challenge, interrupt, and give up? What work are we prepared to do? What movements are we prepared to support? What actions must we take to transform our racist past into real possibility?