First, I appreciate the gracious way Wizard requests shorter posts. Although difficult for me, I will certainly do my best to do so as often as I can. Wizard has also reminded us of something very important to remember: that there is no one African American point of view. He says that "Mr. Edwards has a decidedly different point of view than those most often "heard" in the African American community." In my various trips to town and interviews with Mr. Edwards and others I continually saw this. He writes about racism and speaks stories that Whites often have no comprehension of and other Blacks don't want discussed. By combining historical interludes with contemporary chapters, he helps close this gap in understanding. This is important in any case but particularly to the case of mediation. There are between 30,000 and 40,000 Blacks in Minneapolis. And yet, less than 400 are members of the NAACP. If you count this as one way of voting, then one can say that it is a stretch to say that the NAACP represents the thinking of Blacks in Minneapolis. For the city to dismiss members of the community in favor of organizations that only offer name recognition is to dismiss the concept of community. The March 17, 1999 "Black Like Us" article in City Pages, reported on the NAACP elections then, in which the doors opened up with a long line of Whites waiting to vote. The same happened in the most recent 2002 election. How can an organization represent Blacks when the leadership is elected by Whites? As the City Pages article points out, at stake were "costly, long-term city and state projects," and thus the Whites voting voting wanted, as Mr. Edwards notes in his Chapter 14, the "right" Blacks in charge. They didn't want Ms. Seals to win then and they didn't want Mr. Edwards to win in 2002. They were successful both times. Peter Jessen, Portland
-----Original Message----- From: WizardMarks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 7:56 AM To: Mpls Forum Cc: Peter Jessen Subject: Re: [Mpls] (1) Council will duck mediation tomorrow, and (2) Minneapolis Human Resources Director resigns Peter Jessen wrote: >Chris raises excellent points. My guess is when you read Ron's [Edwards] chapter 16, >where he discusses mediation, you would have a different sense of that and I >do look forward to discussing it once you have had a chance to read that >chapter. > WM: Though this is an understandable pride in a work Mr. Jessen and Ron Edwards did together, I think it glosses the best reason for having copies to hand. Mr. Edwards has a decidedly different point of view than those most often "heard" in the African American community. When a group decides to tackle a problem, it is helpful to have a hologram, so to speak, of the issue. Mr. Edwards' book provides pieces of the issue. If we are serious about dealing with the issue of how racism afflicts us all, then it's prudent to hear the different voices. This is an argument for the public library's value to the community, of course. :-) I do think, though, Mr. Jessen, that one could distill the quotes down to something less than a tome. WizardMarks, Central > > >TEMPORARY REMINDER: >1. Send all posts in plain-text format. >2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. > >________________________________ > >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy >Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls > TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
