Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 02:42:20 -0400 From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki) Subject: M-I: [WILDER-L] Ex-cop leads "Euro-American Issues Forum" Forwarding this to the lists. Yes I agree with Rakesh these movements are far more important to discuss that Aldolfo's wacko theories on social fascism. I suggest that Chaterlee start with Stalin rather then the Social Dems in Germany or Cuba. What about the Hitler Stalin pact? Bob Malecki > >>Published Saturday, October 4, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News >>------------------------------------------------------------ >> >>Group embarks on white fight for civil rights >> >>By Ariana E. Cha >>Mercury News Staff Writer >> >>Crusading civil rights organizations, or havens for Angry White Males? >> >>The problem for fledgling European-American rights groups is getting >>accepted for what they say they are -- legitimate ethnic advocates. >> >>At the center of the debate is the San Jose-based European-American Issues >>Forum, which claims to be the nation's only civil rights group for >>European-Americans. >> >>As California is poised to become the first mainland state in which whites >>are a minority, the forum has yet to gain admission to a single coalition >>of ethnic organizations. It's been snubbed by San Jose's Unity Day >>organizers and San Francisco's hate crimes task force, among others. The >>coalitions say the forum is too emotional, too willing to pick a fight. >> >>The forum may seem like just the latest in a battery of grass-roots >>European-American groups that have popped up this decade in the Bay Area. >>But the forum is growing more quickly than predecessors like the European >>American Study Group, Resisting Defamation and the Celtic Coalition. It now >>boasts some 170 members -- and is taking the fight for white rights to the >>national level. >> >>Louis Calabro, co-founder of the 9-month-old forum, argues that fair >>discussions about race relations must include European-Americans. He has >>written to President Clinton urging that the group be included in >>November's conference on hate crimes. >> >>"There really has been a one-way conversation about race," said Calabro, a >>retired San Francisco police officer. "It has always been the >>European-Americans under attack, and the other ethnic groups attacking us. >>It gets into a shouting match, and they out-shout us all the time." >> >>Last month, Calabro's group filed a racial discrimination complaint with >>the San Francisco Human Rights Commission against four Bay Area civil >>rights groups that make up the National Voices for an Inclusive 21st >>Century, an anti-hate group, which has also denied the forum membership. >> >>"Certainly I would applaud and encourage any group that is truly involved >>in furthering civil rights," said Barbara Bergen, executive director of the >>Northern California branch of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, a >>target of the complaint. "But this group has been divisive." >> >>The forum says its main purpose is to change a perception of >>European-Americans as a bland, oppressive monolith. That goal is generally >>non-controversial. >> >>But its members' stands on many race issues pit the forum against >>traditional civil rights groups such as the National Association for the >>Advancement of Colored People. Most members, Calabro said, are against >>racial preferences. >> >> >>Spurred by Proposition 209 >> >>In fact, the 64-year-old San Bruno resident had been toying with the idea >>of starting the forum for years, but it was Proposition 209, the >>anti-affirmative action measure passed by voters last November, that was >>the spur. >> >>Calabro's group "is a reaction to feeling that you are losing power in >>society," said Fred Persily, executive director of the California >>Association of Human Relations Organizations. >> >>"They are trying to circle their wagons and guard what they feel is >>theirs," he said. "But it is flawed logic to think European-Americans are >>an endangered species. We still have racism and anti-immigrant sentiment." >> >>The forum, in turn, has accused other civil rights groups of paying scant >>attention to hate crimes against whites. Bergen said the ADL is an advocate >>for all victims regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion: "We keep >>going around in circles because we keep assuring them that's not the case. >>But they don't agree." >> >>Bergen and leaders of other civil rights groups say that the forum's >>biggest obstacle to becoming a respected organization stems from its >>tactics -- which they say border on the ridiculous. >> >>The European-American forum and its affiliated groups regularly pummel >>local newspapers and national publications with letters criticizing use of >>words such as "vandals" (which the forum defines as noble Germanic people >>who overran Gaul and Spain in the 4th and 5th centuries), "geek" (which the >>forum calls a derogatory term historically applied to European-American >>males) and even "white" (an umbrella term that the forum says belies the >>diversity of "European-Americans, North Africans and Southwest Asians"). >> >>"We don't accept the term white," said Dale Warner, acting secretary of the >>forum. "And we'll get in everyone's face and tell them that." >> >>Warner, a 56-year-old immigration attorney from San Jose, is well-known for >>his "Heal the Wound" crusade in which he unsuccessfully tried to convince >>prosecutors that they should treat the 1991 murder of a white student by a >>Vietnamese-American youth at Mount Pleasant High School as a hate crime. >> >>Forum members say that some misguided people believe that European-American >>groups are part of white power movements. In fact, Warner said, he is >>careful to weed out supremacists from the half-dozen or so >>European-American groups he has been involved with over the years. "If you >>could show me evidence that anyone in EAIF is a supremacist or separatist, >>I would quit in about two seconds," he said. >> >> >>Growing group >> >>Each successive monthly meeting at San Jose's Rose Garden Library draws >>more and more Bay Area men -- and women. Most members are >>European-American, but some are Latino, ranging in age from late teens to >>early 70s, Warner said. >> >>John Mallory, a retired personnel officer, said he joined because >>affirmative action programs have become political playing cards and an >>excuse to discriminate against whites. >> >>"Government, pushed by ethnic advocacy groups, is going in the wrong >>direction," the 60-year-old Saratoga resident said. "We -- >>European-Americans -- need to provide a balance." >> >>Even the group's harshest critics concede that many of the forum's concerns >>are legitimate. >> >>The forum, for instance, is working with the FBI to overhaul its method of >>collecting hate-crime statistics. While whites and Hispanics are divided >>when victims are counted, the forum notes, they are lumped together when >>perpetrators are tallied. >> >>Earlier this year, the group convinced the San Francisco Unified School >>District to include in its curriculum that people of German and Italian >>descent -- and not just Japanese-Americans -- were forcibly relocated >>during World War II. >> >>As minority students begin to outnumber their white counterparts, >>European-American cultural clubs are taking root at schools, too. >> >>What is thought to be the first European-American club was formed at a >>majority-Latino high school in 1991 in Anaheim amid much controversy. >>Students who supported the group said white students get short shrift >>because many counseling services for the college-bound are offered solely >>to minorities; the club's goal was to create a similar support network for >>white students. >> >>School administrators, however, generally have discouraged white clubs from >>forming because they fear they could turn into supremacist groups. >> >>The ADL's Bergen said students at several high schools in California >>recently have tried to form so-called "white power" clubs whose goal is not >>violent -- but still "extremist, to advance the interests of the white >>race." And many administrators say even European-American cultural clubs >>are superfluous because the curriculum already is dominated by the history, >>language and culture of people of European descent and that it simply >>provides an excuse to exclude minorities. >> >>At San Jose's Gunderson High School, white students banded together two >>years ago to form the European Student Union, but the club dissipated so >>quickly that it didn't even make it into the yearbook. >> >> >>Studying Europe >> >>But students at San Jose's Silver Creek High School hoping to resurrect a >>European-American club, started in 1994 but soon disbanded, say the study >>of Europe slowly is being watered-down in California's schools. >> >>Sophomore Victorio Corral said that given the choice, many Silver Creek >>students would rather study Asian or Latin American history than European >>history. And while the Spanish, Japanese and Vietnamese language classes >>are packed, the French one has empty chairs. >> >>When Corral first spread the word that he wanted to restart the club, >>several white students came up to him to inquire about his "whites-only" >>club. But after Corral informed the students that the club was open to >>people of all races and that its goal was cultural, they lost interest -- >>but students of color flocked. >> >>The new club officers say the big lure is that in today's California, >>European pop culture and food are a novelty students are curious about. >> >>Corral, the president, is Chicano. The vice president Cambodian-American. >>And the overwhelming majority of the members are non-white. >> >>"Here, everyone's a minority -- Mexican, Asian, black -- or white," said >>Kimberly Morris, 16, who in August transferred here from an almost >>all-white high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., and was one of the first to >>sign up for the club. >> >>"It's important that all students show their spirit about where they came >>from," she said. >> >> >>For more information on the European-American Issues Forum, call (415) >>952-8489. >> >> >In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is >distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior >interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and >educational purposes only. > >Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/ >PO Box 1055/Culver City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/ >Order our journal "Turning the Tide." mnovickttt-AT-igc.org > >Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Free All POW's and Political Prisoners! Abolish the >Racist Death Penalty! > > --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005