Prometheus 6: Multiracial coalitions

October 17, 2003

Multiracial coalitions

Like it or not, the United States of America is a multicultural nation. There are those who decry the fact, those who wish to change the fact. But it remains the fact, and any plan with more than local scope that denies the fact is destined for failure.

The plans of human rights activists cannot be allowed to fail. However, the multicultural nature of our society makes planning difficult. Each subculture in each specific location has both subtle gross differences in priorities and needs that often make it difficult to even decide what to do next, much less how to do it. There have been successes, though, and by studying them we can gain insight into the possibility of a general approach to building coalitions.

This is the purpose behind the Applied Research Center.

Launched in 1981, ARC was born out of the community organizing experience. Both activists and academics recognized a need for rigorous study of the practice of organizing and the need for solid research into the issues around which organizers were mounting campaigns.

During the early years ARC worked closely with the Center for Third World Organizing producing publications, offering trainings and embarking upon the Community Strategy and Training Initiative, a model effort to improve the practice of organizing that has since been replicated in several states.

Moving into the 1990s, ARC published Beyond the Politics of Place, a landmark study of community organizing. This report ignited a controversy still raging about the importance of organizing around the identity concerns of the marginalized: people of color, gays and lesbians, and women.

Their most recent publication, MultiRacial Formations, focuses specifically on community organization of multiracial coalitions. By examining six efforts from across the nation (two issues based alliances, three electoral based alliances and the develipment of Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition) MultiRacial Formations presents the issues without rose colored glasses:

…while the civil rights movement yielded significant gains in legal equality, structural racism remains evident in myriad arenas, from family income levels, to education, to prison sentencing patterns, to healthcare access. Yet, that reality is juxtaposed with a growing neoconservative, colorblind ideology where, “Race-conscious remedies, policies, and practices—such as affirmative action, minority setasides, and redistricting—are increasingly being critiqued, contested, and dismantled. Any hints of race consciousness are now suspiciously viewed as inherently racist and impermissible in a good, just, and supposedly colorblind society.”

This disjuncture between grassroots reality and prevailing theory represents a major challenge to organizations confronted with the centrality of race in forging viable alliances. An additional and unanticipated barrier is the impact of September 11, 2001, especially in immigrant communities where civil liberties are being curtailed. This provides a new set of issues in the move towards multiracial formations.

Having been at this since 1981…in fact, having essentially created the “identity” political approach to organizing…ARC is very good at this. The report is clear, concise and closes with general observations, key lessons and suggestions for effective multiracial organization. And unfortunate though it is, I feel the need to point out that the first case presented is a coalition of Native Americans and White Americans against corporate mining interests in Wisconsin. The need to point this out is explained in the first chapter of MultiRacial Formations:

COMMON ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MULTIRACIAL FORMATIONS

The leadership of the multiracial formation is both shared and representational. It is often assumed that an organizational action or position is the end result of an inclusive process that considers the interests of all racial groups involved in the formation.
Multiracial coalitions are instruments that increase the collective voice and power of disenfranchised groups—particularly low income people of color.
Multiracial formations are also multicultural.
These coalitions will implicitly address cross-racial issues of competition for political turf and scarce financial resources. Even when coalitions are single-issue-based, they are often assumed to be vehicles for addressing racial conflicts internal to communities of color, and/or between whites and specific groups of people of color.
The aforementioned point notwithstanding, it is also assumed that multiracial coalitions are relatively easy to organize because groups of people of color have more commonalities than differences.
The most common form of multiracial coalition is electoral.
They are more legitimate and effective instruments for advocacy than monoracial organizations, particularly monoracial organizations of people of color.
These formations will be the primary new instruments for the democratic expression and participation of people of color.

Few of these assumptions are true in every situation.

Points four and eight are those relevant to the need to explain. It is generally assumed that multiracial coalitions are for the benefit of minorities in struggle against the mainstream, when it is often the case that they are the best method for White Americans to address their needs. Not always, but often. It is a message that Americans of all races need to understand.

Multiracial coalitions are difficult, challenging…and necessary. The Applied Research Center has done a great service in producing this work. And an equally great service by making it available for download as a PDF. Every community activist, everyone interested in working for justice, should get a copy.

Now.

Posted by P6 at October 17, 2003 10:48 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2010

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