Others' struggles are our struggles too

"It is only in such broad-minded willingness to do justice to all, even to his own temporary hurt, that the black man can prove his right not only to share, but to help direct modern culture." W. E. B. DuBois, The Crisis, November, 1917.

No one disagrees that the NAACP should be a "lean and mean" advocate for African Americans or that the NAACP cannot be "all things to all people."

Many, however, strongly disagree that African Americans, the NAACP or The Crisis ought to ignore or downplay the struggles of women, homosexuals, or Jews because there are African Americans who fit all of these categories. In acting against the oppression of these groups, we protect ourselves.

More than half of the NAACP's membership and much of its leadership is female. To imagine that only white women face discrimination, harassment or rape, or consider themselves feminists is to close our eyes and hearts to a sorry history of sexism by men of ever race and color.

The Crisis' first editor, W. E. B. DuBois, wrote in 1917: "[Als an intelligent, self-supporting human, a woman has just as good a right to a voice in her own government as has any man; and ... the denial of this right is as unjust as is the denial of the right to vote to American Negroes."

Jewish Americans helped found the NAACP. The alliance between blacks and Jews has continued, not without its strains, but Jews still vote with blacks more frequently than any other non-minority Americans. Each side in this association has recognized that it faces common enemies, but neither has been constrained from criticizing the other.

In August, 1922, DuBois wrote that "the same forces south and east that are fighting democracy in the United States are fighting black men and fighting Jews." This is still true.

The assumption that homosexuals somehow support "the exploitation of poor men and boys" is offensive and untrue. Moreover, supporting the right of homosexuals to be free from discrimination by no means limits criticism of sexual exploitation.

As a purely legal matter, dilution of black rights has occurred--anti-discrimination laws now protect a majority of Americans, ignoring the 13th and 14th Amendments, which conferred special protections on blacks. As a political matter, however, coalitions enhance rather than dilute support for civil rights.

By supporting the struggles of "others" -- people who we wrongly presume are not like us -- we strengthen our own struggle. We widen the protections that we enjoy, making them more secure. We win allies upon whom we can call when our rights are challenged.

And we take the moral high ground, reminding potential allies and enemies alike that we aren't in this struggle only for ourselves. The Crisis cannot close its pages - or its eyes - to the legitimate struggles of others who face oppression.

Julian Bond, an NAACP board member, is chairman of the Crisis Board and a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Feb/Mar 1998
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