I remember when I was a first year student in social work school. I was
learning social casework. What were they trying to teach me? Well, they
said they were teaching me to help people through this method called
casework. Now, some people came to the agency for counseling and they saw a
caseworker who was helping them to sort out problems. Some of that help
involved getting people to change the way in which they saw situations. In
other words, it meant changing their minds about some stuff. The first rule
we were taught was, "Start where the client is". That meant that we had to
listen to people. One never got into debates or arguments with clients
because even if one could win intellectually, one lost because the client
would become more and more emotionally resistant to what one was trying to
communicate. Well, of course, we're not caseworkers and clients here. No one
has come to the list with a problem, asking for help. But the rule about how
one can motivate change is probably just as relevant here and now as it was
when I was learning to be a caseworker.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2016 12:12 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Who is more relevant to us today? Marx or
Ella Baker?
Roger,
Much of my early years were spent in trying to "enlighten" others to my way
of thinking. I learned my lessons in the small tightly knit local communist
group to which my parents belonged. I learned to "inform" people, and then
to "correct" them if they did not grasp the Truth that I imparted. I
carried this fine technique into adult life, and as a blind man, I embraced
Kennith Jernigan because he also displayed those same teaching tendencies.
Only he was much better at it than I. The fact is, I turned off as many
people, maybe more, than I turned on.
Today, as I ripen with old age, I am more interested in finding out what
others think. While I am still grounded in my own "right thinking", I have
come to accept that everyone has, or should have, what they believe are
"right thinking" convictions.
Since I've learned that others have the belief that they have correct
opinions, even though they run at opposites to mine, I no longer feel that I
am the teacher of truth everlasting. I am a participant in an
interesting conversation. As a participant, I am able to take in
what others say without the need to point out the error of their thinking.
I merely post my own thoughts on a given subject. For example, Religion. I
say I am an Agnostic. You have raised some good points on the subject,
which I can't for the life of me remember. But some of what you say rubs
off, while some of what you say, I dismiss.
I state that I believe Religion is at the bottom of many of our problems.
Some folks become enraged when they read my ramblings, and they blast me
with the "True Facts", and damn me to Hell. I have learned that there is no
way on God's Green Earth that I will change their minds. If they were
children in my classroom, I would stand them in a corner for expressing
such wrong thinking. But since we are not in a classroom I do not see
myself as a teacher. I am just another fellow expressing my own thoughts.
I have great respect for you, Roger. You have much to share from your years
of education, formal and informal. But I know for sure that our brains work
differently. You operate on Facts, while I operate on more of a "touchy
feely" level. But I still see you, me and every person on this list as
equals.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/18/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Russian published edition of What is to Be Done? by V.I.
I suppose I do get a bit impatient at times. There is a certain
personality characteristic that I have always had. I have always been
very anxious to learn and to share what I have learned with others.
From my first day in the first grade I was very enthusiastically
pro-education. I expect that I would have started that earlier except
that I did not attend kindergarten. When I was in college I was on
track to be a high school biology teacher,, but there was some red
baiting that led me to switch majors. I still have always regarded
myself as both a student and a teacher, though, even if it is
informally. So I regard my role on this list as a teacher. I try to be
a patient teacher, but it really is hard at times. I find myself in
the position of being a teacher with recalcitrant, disrespectful and
arrogant students who think they know more about the teacher's subject
than the teacher. That will be extremely annoying to any teacher and I
suppose I may let my annoyance show through some times. I will admit
that taking the role of student is mostly less stressful. Since I am a
volunteer for Bookshare I am on the Bookshare volunteer list, for
example. The discussion is about the technical aspects of preparing
books for addition to the Bookshare collection. Most of the people
there are a good deal more technically knowledgeable than I am and so
there is little that I can teach them. So I take the role of student.
They help me out when I need it and do not belittle me and I of
course, do not belittle them and act like I know more about it than
they do. I simply do not know more about it than they do. Just
recently, for example, I had a copyright question. I am now working on a
Lenin and I did not see any copyright information on it anywhere, so I
described the problem and several people offered advice. It turned out
that their advice was wrong and I suspected it was wrong, but I did
not try to belittle them like I am belittled on this list. Finally one
person who knew where to look up the information found it and the
problem was resolved and I added another tidbit to my store of learning.
It is unfortunate, though, that when I switch roles from student to
teacher I face so much condescension. I will admit that that is very
frustrating.
On 3/17/2016 9:51 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Sorry Roger, as much as I appreciate your posts, you do project a
"tone". Sometimes it sounds like the old professor who does believe
he has all the facts, and at other times it sounds impatient.
I keep going back to my thought that this list can be an open forum
for folks to post their opinions, seek information, debate with
others, all in an informal setting. Since I do post to my personal
blog, I am able to go back a few years and read what I was thinking
at the time. Some of it is pure drivel, and some of it makes no
sense whatsoever. But it is all done with the purpose of helping
myself clarify stuff I'm fuzzy on. This is as close as I will get to
commenting on your style. While I would prefer that you did not find
it necessary to sound like the old professor, and correct other folks
comments, I guess that is the way you are programmed.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/17/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am sorry that assuming that I am assuming that anyone who
disagrees with me on any subject is less knowledgeable than I is
also a false assumption. However, there are some areas that I do
know and even though I do know those subjects it really does seem
that anyone who does not understand those subjects or who does have
a disagreement with me assumes that I am the ignorant one. I am also
sorry that I find that to be very annoying. I mentioned that problem
before. Try asking Dick how he would feel about it if any one of us
started lecturing him on chemical engineering as if he was the one
who did not know what he was talking about.
On 3/15/2016 9:40 AM, S. Kashdan wrote:
Roger,
I am sorry, but assuming that people are less knowledgeable than
you on any subject if they disagree with you is not rigorous
thinking, and certainly not rigorous scientific thinking. It just
may be that others are as familiar with Marx and even modern
Marxist scholars, and still disagree with the conclusions you and
your socialist faction have drawn from reading Marx's various
writings. After all, even Marxists of different tendencies disagree
about how to interpret Marx, and which parts of his writings are
relevant today, and which are not relevant any longer...
As far as I am concerned, the really important questions are
related to how to create better social relationships and more
social solidarity, in order to make some positive changes in the
world today for all of us. And, that needs to involve criticizing
the Marxist ideologists who have contributed to the mess in the
world today along with the non-marxist ideologists. And it means
learning how to support each other in all sorts of social ways, and
learning to help each other figure out things together rather than
turning to authorities above us. As Ella Baker used to say: Strong
people don't need strong leaders. For a little more about this
woman who deserves all of our admiration, see an article below my
name.
For justice and peace,
Sylvie
ELLA J. BAKER
Remember a life well lived
BY BARBARA RANSBY
http://www.progressive.org/mediaproject03/mprf503.html
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Ella Josephine Baker's birth.
Although
her name may be unknown to many, this remarkable woman was one of
the most influential people in the crusade for racial justice in
America.
An untiring voice for the dispossessed, a democrat and an
egalitarian in word and deed, Baker was a true American hero.
For more than 50 years, she traveled the breadth of this country
organizing, protesting and advocating for social justice. Her main
concern was the plight of blacks, whose rights, she argued, were
the litmus test for American democracy. But she was also concerned
with the cause of labor, the poor, Latinos and women.
Over the course of her life, she worked alongside some of the most
well-known civil-rights leaders of the 20th century. They included
W.E.B.
DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.
But celebrity did not impress Baker. Instead, she placed emphasis
on grass-roots organizing and local leadership. Her own humble
style is part of the reason why her contributions and
accomplishments are less known than those of many of her male
counterparts.
In the 1930s, while living in Harlem, Baker was a leader of the
cooperative movement and participated in demonstrations against
lynching, colonialism and fascism.
In the 1940s, she blazed a trail through Ku Klux Klan territory,
recruiting members for the NAACP and putting her own life at risk
in the process.
In the 1950s, she divided her time between Atlanta and New York,
struggling against police brutality and school segregation in the
North, and for basic civil and human rights in the South. She was
the first director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In the 1960s she was mentor to a new generation of young freedom
fighters.
Her political proteges included Julian Bond, current leader of the
NAACP; educator and author Bob Moses; Bernice Johnson Reagon,
founder of the musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock; Marian Wright
Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund; and Rep. Eleanor Holmes
Norton, D-D.C. All of these individuals began their political
careers in the ranks of an organization that Baker helped found in
the spring of 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Instrumental organization
SNCC grew out of the 1960 lunch-counter desegregation sit-ins and
was instrumental in the 1961 freedom rides that broke the color bar
on interstate trains and buses. It was the organizational force
behind Freedom Summer in 1964, which shuttled hundreds of Northern
college students into the South to work on voter registration and
education.
SNCC engaged in bold and daring confrontations with racism. Many of
its members were jailed and beaten, and some lost their lives. But
they helped change the racial landscape of the nation. Baker was
officially an adult advisor to SNCC, but she was much more. She
garnered resources, mended wounds (physical and emotional) and
offered strategic insights. She also put the inexperienced young
organizers in touch with local activists throughout the region who
advised, nurtured and supported them.
Her work with SNCC was the most fulfilling phase of Baker's long
political life. But after the organization began to unravel in the
late 1960s, Baker continued her work on other fronts.
Tireless activist
She opposed the war in Vietnam, supported the campaign for Puerto
Rican independence and lobbied against South African apartheid. She
was a relentless fighter on the side of the oppressed and
downtrodden for more than a half century. The large and diverse
crowd of notables and unknowns who attended her funeral in 1986 was
testimony to this fact.
Baker never thought of herself as old, even as her hair grayed and
her once-flawless brown skin relented to the pull of time and gravity.
"Being young is a state of mind," she once told a friend, "and
young people are the people who want change."
Baker wanted to change injustice, and she spent her life doing just
that.
It
kept her young. Her youthful life is one well worth remembering.
Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom
Movement, won the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize from the Association of
American Historians for the best women's history book in 2003.
