(As far as the anti-bigotry part of this blog, I decided at some point early on that I wanted to work around the edges of battling bigotry, offering ideas and information that most people are unaware of but which might help them here and there with anti-bigotry work. So that’s why there are a lot of posts that seem a little weird, including this one)
There seems to be a popular image of the American who's interested in N. Ireland from a republican/nationalist/human rights perspective. There's certainly some truth to it- probably about 90% of us are white, overwhelmingly Irish-American. But there are some problems with this. First, it simply isn't accurate and ignores the contributions made by (depending on what level of activity we're talking about) probably something like 200-125,000 people of color the last 40 years (maybe half those two numbers, but on the other hand, we are talking about a population of tens of millions and 40 years). It also has contributed to the failure by the American Left to take the issue seriously (by my estimate, on average left-wing organizations did a lot less than they should have done the last 40 years). It has also probably led many Irish-Americans to think that people of color have done nothing, and although that assumption doesn't justify anything, it has probably fueled the racism that many Irish-Americans have.
First, Brian Dooley, in 1998, wrote a book called "Black and Green: The Fight For Civil Rights in Northern Ireland and Black America." It examines the connections between African-Americans and Irish people in Ireland, and the significantly different (although far from universally negative) relationship between African-Americans and Irish-Americans (he spoke on this topic at an SJNI event we organized in 1998). I'm tempted to post here everything I remember, but I think I'll just hit the major points and encourage you to read the book yourself.
1. Frederick Douglas had a great relationship with Daniel O'Connell, the leader of Nationalist Ireland around the 1830s. He later had a great relationship with Charles Stewart Parnell, who more or less replaced O'Connell about 2-3 decades later. Douglas spoke in favor of Irish Nationalist concerns, and O'Connell encouraged Irish-Americans to support abolitionism, something which cost him a lot of support in America.
2. Marcus Garvey was a big supporter of Sinn Fein and the IRA during the War of Independence.
4. The Black Panthers were very interested in N. Ireland. When one member of People's Democracy, the militant, left-wing and student part of the NI Civil Rights Movement, came to America, she was made an "Honorary Black Panther."
5. After the Bloody Sunday killings in 1972 (when the British Army killed 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry) the Southern Christian Leadership Conference sent a delegation to attend the funerals.
6. Angela Davis is very interested in Northern Ireland. I can't remember if this comes from her time as a Black Panther or specifically from when Bernadette Devlin visited her in 1969 when she was in jail. She, at one point went out of her way to mention NI whenever she spoke publicly. Specifically in 1994 (and this doesn't come from the book, it comes from a tape of a lecture she gave in Harlem at a Black Studies conference), she compared African-Americans who are unconcerned about NI with those who are pro-life, homophobic, or anti-union. (UPDATE 3/26/16 A slightly different version of this is found online here, in a paragraph towards the top that starts with the word "beware."
A few other things about people of color in America and the North of Ireland, from my personal experiences and other sources besides the book:
1. Bill Fletcher Jr. in the last 15 years has held senior positions (at one time or another) in the AFL-CIO (as assistant to President John Sweeeney 95-2000), the Black Radical Congress (National Co-Chair, something like 2 years starting in 2001), and TransAfrica Forum (President, 20021-2004 I think?). When he was in Boston, for some time I think in the late 80s and early 90s he had a group called Boston Black and Green. At some point he made a trip to the North and spoke at some event, I think in Belfast and I think it was SF. He also spoke at an event in 2002 for Students for Justice in N. Ireland (he was there to speak at a different event for another group I was involved in, but agreed to speak at the NI event for free).
2. In recent years, basically the last 15 or so, a major leader of the American Indian Movement in Colorado has been Glenn Morris. Maybe because he's actually half Irish-American, he's very interested in NI, and spoke at an SJNI event we organized in 1998.
3. I knew a Chicano activist (Leo Griep-Ruiz) in Denver who was very interested. Once, in the late 1990s, when he interviewed (for a very popular local radio program) an American who spends most of his time in Chiapas, Mexico with the Zapatistas, they talked about connections between Chiapas and Northern Ireland (the guy with the Zapatistas had been in the North shortly before that). In 1998 he also did another N. Ireland interview on local radio (he interviewed Brian Dooley). UPDATE 3/3/09 As I mentioned in another post, Leo also introduced SF's rep. in America when she spoke at the University of Colorado at Boulder sponsored by SJNI in 1999.
4. At an SJNI event in 2003 we had an African-American Studies Prof., George Junne, give a talk about the connections between Frederick Douglas and Ireland.
UPDATE 2/23/18 5. In 1998 or 1999 I went to a fundraiser for the Chiapas Coalition- it was in Denver and for a group that supported the Zapatistas in Mexico. Because it was on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) I asked if I could say something about the death that day in 1981 of IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands. They let me and the response, from the crowd of about 200 people, was very positive.
6. When I visited the Pat Finucane Centre (they're a small organization with two offices in NI, but they're amazing, I'll do a post on them soon, give them lots of money) in 2002 an African-American woman whose husband was working on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was volunteering there (I think full-time).
7. UPDATE 3/17/20 See this, an article I found when it was published and that I've linked to from another post.
8. UPDATE 3/20/20 In the late 1990s a US Representative, Donald Payne from NJ, sponsored legislation in the House that would ban the sale of plastic bullets to the UK. He had traveled to the North and I feel safe assuming that some US corporation was selling the plastic bullets used in the North (or he was just really cool and pro-active, but I bet they were being sold to the UK). (Payne is Black)
9. UPDATE 10/18/23 In 2002 the Anti-Racism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America made me a representative of the COMMISSION (not DSA in general) when I went to the National Conference of Sinn Fein Youth that year. The head of that commission was Duane Campbell, a Chicano.
There's a handful of other minor examples I could give, but I won't. I want to move on to the next point.
Although I have generally been following events involving the North and SF to a moderate degree, and I did some searches on the web-site of Irish Northern Aid the group in America that supports SF (ignoring Friends of Sinn Fein and also groups that are significantly less officially in support), I have to take an approach to this similar to the one I did with the NY City St. Patrick's Day parade. I'll assume, based partly on some limited research I've done recently and how familiar I am with stuff up until about 3-4 years ago, that things are as I suspect; and even if they have changed (probably no more than a little), I'll still say this to hopefully make them stay that way.
SF and their American allies (I could probably say the same about some other Irish/Irish-Amerian groups, but I'm less familiar and I care less since I support them less) focus too much on Irish-America. In relation to America, SF frequently talks about Irish-America and only occasionally reaches out to people of color. In 1998 I read an organizing manual for INA (also known as NORAID), and it mentioned groups that INA Units should connect with. It mentioned Irish-Americans, Irish immigrants, I think 1-2 other groups. It said nothing about people of color (I'm almost certain it also said nothing about women's groups, LGBT groups, the Left (although there's a decent chance it did mention unions)). That's not to say INA have done NOTHING on this subject. In 1998 they published a report I had written about some events in my area that I organized for Brian Dooley, and provided a link for people who wanted to buy his book. There's a couple other tiny things I'm aware of, probably dozens nationwide the last 15 years that I'm not aware of. But that organizing manual is a problem, and the searches I just did on their web-site came up with nothing relevant.
I think that to one degree or another, there's a widespread perception outside (and also INSIDE) that political community that works on NI (from a republican and/or nationalist and/or human rights perspective) that people of color are simply not involved at all, which to some degree means that they are not getting the credit they deserve. Even worse, that probably fuels racism among Irish-Americans (it might have a similar effect on Irish people in Ireland).
At the 2002 National Conference of Sinn Fein Youth, I was representing the Anti-Racism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America. At the first event, which was a panel discussion that included two semi-senior SF members, I said during the discussion period that SF should reach out to people of color in America more (I also said the same thing about the Left in America, I might do a post on that some other time).
First, I think SF has probably little potential of broadening it's support among Irish-Americans. Setting aside the fact that as people die or drop out others will be born and get involved, I don't see them getting many new supporters by focusing on Irish America. The thing is, even considering that since they have their own issues it's unlikely more than a few will throw themselves into it, maybe something like 2,500 people of color will, to one degree or another do something if SF reached out to them more (I'm including attending events where it's a good thing if there are more people, such as when the media are present or politicians, especially Federal ones are present) (the figure of 2,500 would be spread out over something like 2-5 years; the point is that a lot of people would do something). Also, and I might go into detail about this at some point, but in general the last 40 years, all Americans who are interested in politics (excluding those who DID do a fair amount and some to the right of center who I don't want to see involved anyway) should have done much more than they did on NI.
I'd also point out, and I think this is a little bit relevant, people of color in America have a much better idea of what Catholics in the North have gone through than Irish-Americans have- that is, their experiences are similar.
Second, reaching out to people of color more would probably increase the credit that those who already do work on it get. Connected to that, and I'm not saying their absence justifies anything, and it only slightly explains anything, but if more people of color were involved, that would erode racism among Irish-Americans (and once again, among some of the population in Ireland). In fact, even if the response is only moderate, just reaching out might have a positive effect on racism.
Lastly, the involvement of more people of color would help involve the American Left more. Although nothing justifies the failure of the Left to do what they should have done the last 40 years, and there's a lot of things that explain it, one aspect is their mostly correct belief that Americans who work on that issue are entirely White. And I think most SFers would agree that it would be a good thing if the American Left got more involved. Although I wouldn't say we're at the peak of our power, we do have numbers to offer, we won't be turned off the way most Americans will be by SF's left-wing politics, once the Left is educated about it they're probably more likely than the average American to think positively about the IRA's past campaign (and even at this point that could help, if people understand that the IRA was almost always justified in what they did).
(to one degree or another, depending on how involved they already have been, I would say similar stuff about other groups in America, not just people of color)
(even with my limited knowledge of recent events, I can make a pretty good arguement that there's still a need for people to work on N. Ireland, I'll post something about that soon)
Let me leave you with one of my favorite stories. In 98/99 I was at an anti-prisons protest in Colorado (it was part of a conference). I had a petition in support of former IRA members facing extradition or deportation from America. At one point I went up to two people, one white, one black. The white guy said, "I'm Irish-American, but I don't support the IRA," and refused to sign it. The black guy said, "I'll sign it."
UPDATE 2/21/09
1. If more people of color and leftists (as well as progressives and liberals) get involved supporting SF, in INA for example, probably most of the conservative and racists (even in INA, there are probably some people who are a little racist) will stay around because they support the national liberation struggle/Peace Process, so SF will probably come out ahead on supporters.
2. As far as people to the right of center being involved, I have mixed feelings about that, and the further to the right you are, the less I want you involved, but I've always believed that involvement on this issue has the potential to nudge people towards the left (people who support anti-discrimination measures in the North might be easier to convince about supporting them in America), so I almost DO want them involved.
UPDATE 2/26/09 Eroding racism in the Irish American community will result in fewer people voting GOP which will be good for SF because it's pretty clear that the Dems are better on N. Ireland than the GOP is.
There's a related post here. and one here.
For an explanation of why I believe that ALL politically active Americans to the left of center should have done more, see this.
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