A.p.o.c.

[Red Apex]

I can't post the link but it is on there site ilvox .org


I'm half Nicaraguan and the rest is french and things like that, So I have had to deal with racism before, but doesn't this seem counter productive what A.P.O.C. is doing? I'm just confused but this seems like a racist act to me. If there is someone who is a part of APOC that could fill me in that would be great, because I'm sure as hell confused, arn't we all in this together?

the article is titled "smack a white boy"

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

They are fucking mental cases and should not be considered a serious attempt at overcoming racist stupidity.

[StalinFanboy]

The user Nostalgia on infoshop summed this whole thing up pretty well (He's an anarchist of colour, too).


So a bunch of batshit crazy buffoons come from out of town to a neighborhood they've never been to before, tell an anarchist convergence to get out of *their* community, and pretend it was an action against gentrification? I don't even know how much this is worth discussing, it's like having a political debate with some wingnut in People's Park about 2012 and Lizard People.

But seriously, what did this do but further highlight the irrelevance of a handful of anarchists to actual communities of color?

I remember being at the APOC caucus at last year's crimethinc convergence and at least one of the clowns responsible for this action was there whining about some white woman dancing in a grass skirt being cultural appropriation for a half hour. When I suggested that we use the rare opportunity of having so many anarchists of color in one place to discuss work we do in communities of color and ways we can become more relevant to these communities, his response was ":-|..........................". Ya'll are some scared to work in communities of color ass mutha fuckas, so you pretend to struggle against white supremacy by starting some dumb ass scene gossip that no one outside of your circle gives a flying fuck about.

If you really think a bunch of traveler kids rolling around in some dirt for 5 days is responsible for the gentrification in Garfield, you are out of your god damn mind. Wasn't the Bloomfield Garfield Corporation, the group responsible for evicting working class bars on Penn Avenue and working to raise property values in the neighborhood attempting to get the convergence evicted?

Ya'll are really on some astronomically dumb Symbionese Liberation Army, New World Order, Area 51 type bullshit.

10 years from now, I hope to be in the streets defending the commune from the police, while ya'll are going to be sitting in some room with 3 wingnuts working on your new zine and arguing about whether to spell "person" with a "y" or a "7".

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

I believe this is the article you're looking for:


or over 500 years, the white colonizers of this hemisphere (and most of the world) have subjected people of color to lifetimes of enslavement, torture, occupation, internment, police brutality, poverty, drug abuse and so on.
Even after being beaten, raped, segregated, and silenced people of color the world over have risen up to their oppressors and oppressive institutions only to have their messages and rage co-opted by so-called “allies” within the mostly white progressive, anti-war movement – righteous anger channeled into more “acceptable” avenues whose purpose is not active engagement with that which oppresses us but in the creation of photo opportunities and press releases. In effect, we as people of color are not only further marginalized but tokenized as well.


In addition, we argue that the current anti-war movement is rendered irrelevant by its refusal to address the critical component of white supremacy. The racist anti-war movement is devoid of any self-critical process to acknowledge or address how white supremacy contributes to the oppression of people of color within the movement, so how could it possibly have an analysis of how white supremacy oppresses people of color around the world? Essentially, how can one speak of ending oppression while engaging in the same or similar (in principle) oppressive behavior one claims to oppose?

Aside from providing one the opportunity to pat oneself on the back, what purpose is served, or more explicitly, how are activists supporting the people of occupied Iraq and occupied Palestine by marching on the offices of warmongering corporations on a Saturday when no one is there?

Given this reality, if we as people of color maintain our continued involvement in their spectacle of “resistance,” outside of our disruption of this spectacle, it will further empower their smug entitlement and white supremacy.

Rather, we encourage unity between people of color in order to create nodes of actual resistance led by people of color.

Therefore, on Saturday, March 21, 2009 in Washington, D.C., radical people of color will stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine in our common struggle against white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, and oppression in all its forms and make our presence felt outside of what is conventionally allowed by the racist anti-war movement.

This will be a space of unity, empowerment, and self-determination wherein it will be made explicitly clear that we will no longer be marginalized, tokenized, and ultimately silenced by those who claim to speak in our names or in the names of our family and friends fighting for liberation around the world.

Meet us at 12 noon at 23rd St. & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.. Look for the brown and black f(l)ags.

Bring your voice! Bring your rage! Bring da noise!

A Brownie A Day Keeps Whitey Away,
D.C. Anarchist People Of Color
Philadelphia Anarchist People Of Color

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

And yeah man, I feel you, I'm half Mexican half French/Irish but I consider myself Chicano. I understand the sentiment of this article here, though it's obviously problematic. I think there is a need to distinguish between a largely White power structure and White people in general, and it also generalizes the entire anti-war movement into one, homogeneous group.

I'm often frustrated with groups like this; I've worked with P.O.C. groups before, and honestly I've seen people lighter skinned than me saying that they don't want to allow White folks at meetings. I completely understand the desire to have groups with P.O.C. leadership focusing on P.O.C. issues, and I even understand the criticism that White folks tend to dominate groups when they join, but to claim that the entire antiwar movement is tokenizing and oppressing P.O.C. is absurd.

[SubcomandanteJames]

And yeah man, I feel you, I'm half Mexican half French/Irish but I consider myself Chicano. I understand the sentiment of this article here, though it's obviously problematic. I think there is a need to distinguish between a largely White power structure and White people in general, and it also generalizes the entire anti-war movement into one, homogeneous group.

I'm often frustrated with groups like this; I've worked with P.O.C. groups before, and honestly I've seen people lighter skinned than me saying that they don't want to allow White folks at meetings. I completely understand the desire to have groups with P.O.C. leadership focusing on P.O.C. issues, and I even understand the criticism that White folks tend to dominate groups when they join, but to claim that the entire antiwar movement is tokenizing and oppressing P.O.C. is absurd.

I understand the want for liberation of all races, but anarchism is not the place for "race solidarity", it's a place for all people who are being oppressed or stripped of their liberties. Is there is a difference between "whitey" and ALL WHITE PEOPLE.

[bcbm]

I'd like to point out that APOC is not a homogenous entity and while those who undertook the "Smack a white boy" action in Pittsburgh identified with APOC, not all APOC support the action, obviously.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Even beyond the sheer indefensibility of that one action, their politics (from the ilvox site, so presumably something most of APOC would defend (http://illvox.org/2007/07/292/)) still seem quite terrible:

the white working class and people of color have divergent interests. White workers just side with their own interests and the empire’s. Another conspicuous issue is the history of cross-class alliances among people of color in fighting colonialism. Read the histories of Algeria, Mexico and other countries and you’ll discover the internal contradictions of class become far less important when faced by the external contradiction of an occupying army. It’s the kind of history that swims against North American radicalism’s beliefs that classes don’t or can’t unite. Moving forward as anarchist people of color means understanding our allies, as well as our enemies, and what that means for our freedom.
So, white working-class people are the enemies of black working-class people, but black working-class people should unite with the black bosses who're making money off them? I don't think I need to explain how wrong that is.

[counterblast]

As an APOCer who helped to organize the APOC Conference in Detroit, I would like to clarify a few things:


First; APOC is not an organization.

APOC is a loose umbrella term for people who Anarchist or Anti-Authoritarian People of Color.

The people who took part in the action in Pittsburgh were not the core APOC organizers nor were they "agents" of the broader group.

They were individuals from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, & Chicago who worked autonomously.


Also, illvox is not the press office of APOC. It too is autonomously run/maintained.

[OneNamedNameLess]

and I even understand the criticism that White folks tend to dominate groups when they join

What?

[SubcomandanteJames]

How colored do I have to be to be a part of Anarchist People of Color? I have some Native American in me, along with my Irish, Scottish, and German. Am I "colored" enough? At what point did my race become too impure to join APOC?

[counterblast]

How colored do I have to be to be a part of Anarchist People of Color? I have some Native American in me, along with my Irish, Scottish, and German. Am I "colored" enough? At what point did my race become too impure to join APOC?

APOC accepts anyone who identifies as a person of color.

[khad]

How colored do I have to be to be a part of Anarchist People of Color? I have some Native American in me, along with my Irish, Scottish, and German. Am I "colored" enough? At what point did my race become too impure to join APOC?
Stop with the theatrics. Unless you have your tribal card to prove a certain amount of blood quantum (and even if you do), it is near certain that you are regarded as white by American society and accorded the social advantages of being white.