Op-Ed
Message to Ambassador Susan Rice: Return to the Durban Review Process
by Dowoti Désir and Malaak Shabazz
We are two citizens of this country. Ordinary in all ways with the exception of our perspectives: one speaks as a latter-day disciple of Malcolm X and the other as his daughter. Together we represent a cross section of African descendents in the United States expressing solidarity with the majority of the world community to demand the U.S. return to the United Nations Durban Review Conference II. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is the only document in contemporary history to give voice to the millions of people in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia who have and remain marginalized as the result of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance.
Everyday we are bombarded by emails from colleagues in Europe, Scandinavia, South America and around the U.S. scandalized and dismayed that the misspoken sentiments of a very few so-called anti-Semites, take precedence over the multitudes that seek to redress social, political, educational, and judicial ills that for generations plagued their lives. Often leaving them socially demobilized; economically stagnate; in poverty; and in the 21st Century still standing in the shadows of realizing their basic human rights.
Conversely, we ask how do those with the most access to social capital, material wealth, the media and the crop of legislative attendees lobby for their cause, and manage to dictate the destinies of over 70% of the world with the blessings of this administration? We are now fortunate enough to live in a country where a remarkably qualified man of African descent is President. We have a black U.S. Attorney General and even the head of the GOP is the same.
That Your Honor cannot claim to be the first U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations of African descent, is evidence of a short but steady chain of social progress made in the area of race relations in this country. But let us not delude ourselves in thinking racism has passed simply because a series of sensible, historical phenomena have occurred. Your achievements are the exceptions not the norm in America.
Look at any Black (American, Caribbean, African) South Asian, Hispanic or Arab newspaper in the U.S. for weekly recitations of the violence and discrimination conducted against their respective community members. From the sub-prime mortgage meltdown where a disproportionate number of Blacks and Hispanics are affected to the prison-industrial complex with its cradle to prison pipeline. It consumes the disproportionate majority of black and brown people [sadly triumphant in its excess of young black males in prison] is more tragic proof of the banality of oppression, the falseness of racial democracy and improbable entry into an enlightened post-racial era.
Unpeel the layers of multi-racial societies anywhere in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, to find the same patterns of economic, ethnic and /or racial segregation repeating itself as the infrastructure of marginalization, discrimination, in/difference, are repetitive fractal policies that deny the humanity of those most in need. Those are the individuals who are involuntarily silo-ed in their educational, digital, political, cultural, residential, religious and sometimes territorial milieus.
In the 1950's and 60's Malcolm X spoke of living in two Americas, one that had the possibility to affirm the dreams of indigenous, black, yellow, and brown people and another stubbornly deferring it into a nightmare. Almost half a century later we are still living in Malcolm's two Americas. His words ...we are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for the right to live as free humans in this society," still ring true. Brother Malcolm further insisted: the oppressed people of this earth make up a majority, not a minority - so we approach our problem as a majority that can demand, not as a minority that has to beg.
On behalf of the numerous organizations and their constituencies who have participated in the monthly World Conference Against Racism Human Rights round tables we have organized, we demand that United States return to the Durban Review process in Geneva come April 2009.
One of the great things about living in a democracy is the right to say "no" to those things that we perceive adversely impact us as citizens. But "no" is not an option in this case. Saying "no" to Durban Review II sends a frightening signal to the rest of the world. In essence that the United States is saying "yes" - it's okay to hurt, exploit, and waste the lives of millions with impunity. Neither the Jewish people nor the Jewish state stood for the abuse of human rights. And neither shall those of us of African descent remain vexed and insecure in a world that leaves us entrapped in all manners of deficit. We shall not remain without any form of mitigation, alleviation of, or compensation for our unsustainable circumstances. Ignoring, refusing or delaying our needs for change is morally unacceptable.
Perhaps not enough of us write, not enough lobby, not enough of us may connect the dots of daily acts of coercion, racism, discrimination we read or hear about everyday to broader world issues. But enough -- too many of us -- have suffered through systematic forms of oppression and respectfully demand our government, both elected officials and diplomatic envoys return to the task at hand!
Go to Geneva and listen and learn. Set a new legal precedence for reframing race relations and human rights in our country and in our world. In your wisdom, make plain the Obama agenda for serious social and economic reform domestically and globally: Support the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.
Dowoti Désir
Ms. Dowoti Désir
Founder, DDPA Watch Group
114 Edgecombe Avenue
New York, NY 10030
d2asogwe@earthlink.net Malaak Shabazz
Ms. Malaak Shabazz
Daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz
Trustee of the Shabazz Center