Inspiration
Secondly, inspiration comes from an analysis of the organizational structure of the Tea Party movement, published in the National Journal by Jonathan Rauch, titled "How the Tea Party Organizes Without Leaders". It's a deep dive on the structure of the Tea Party movement, highlighting the Tea Party's self description of itself as not a spider, but a starfish structure movement (cut off a piece, it grows back, and a piece can generate a new starfish vs. a spider which if you knock it in the head, you kill the whole organism). Tea Party members take their inspiration on this from the book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, a business book by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, published in 2006.
What We Must Create
A radically decentralized political and social movement focused on the pursuit of our permanent interests which can end run the entrenched, captive office holders and national organizations to re-orient the political culture of the black community.
Why this Structure?First, radical decentralization sidesteps the dangers of over centralized authority; external co-option, internal corruption, and gradual calcification, all three of which prevail with most of the mainstream black organizations. Decentralization is inherently resistant to all three of these strategies.
Second, the system is self-propelling and self-guiding. If a good or popular idea surfaces in one part of the network, activists talk it up and other groups copy it. Bad and unpopular ideas fizzle out and the movement lives on even as people come and go.
Third, the network is unbelievably cheap. Everyone is a volunteer. Local groups bring their own resources. Coordinators provide support and communication, but the heavy lifting is done by the grassroots.
Why Should We Do This?We've got to move from our current ideological dead end to disruption of the ideological status qou, followed by education and activism to re-establish a shared multi-generational understanding of our permanent interests and the capacity to effectively pursue them.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of the 1960s attempted a movement using this same type of organizational structure. In 1964, SNCC switched from small groups of activists acting independently to a more centralized structure, after which SNCC eventually dissolved from internal dissension and a healthy dose of FBI/Government surveillance and repression. SNCC's more decentralized beginning didn't have the benefit of the tools we enjoy today, namely the internet and other forms of instantaneous, cheap, person to person communication to fuel the movement. We do.
Downsides
Headless organizations are better at opposing things than agreeing on the right affirmative alternative.
It's difficult if not impossible to negotiate compromise because there is no leader.
Who is Available to Populate This Movement?
Rationale: This group has tangible political/financial interests at risk in real time, an active frustration with the status qou that has nowhere to go and the requisite time and financial resources to engage. A significant portion are deeply embedded in the existing democratic party political structure and could be the subversive insurgent vanguard or the first line of counter insurgency defense. Nonetheless, a large portion is ideologically available to an effective movement.
African American college students?
Rationale: Potentially the shock troops of the movement? Willing and able to engage in protest actions first group cannot/will not? More flexible, more activist?
Who is Not?
The underclass/the very poor
Rationale: They are not equipped for the fight - lack of education, resources and preoccupation with surviving in an economy they can't participate in renders them missing in action, though potentially ideologically available?
What Are Our Permanent Interests?
"Black people have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests. ~Congressman William Clay1. Education that enables (education levels us up, not out)
2. Meaningful economic competency (we are competent capitalists)
3. Effective political literacy (permanent interests drive policy results)
4. Enforced socio/cultural accountability (viable family structure, safe communities)
What Should We Call It?
"Tea Party" as a moniker for this movement doesn't really resonate in the black community. What else could we call it? Coffee Hour?
Black Tea (submitted by twitter user @marshallfsmith)
I'm open to suggestions, though admittedly, this may be the least important thing to figure out early on.
Okay, What Do We Actually Do? What is our Action Step? What does starting this movement from square one look like?
That is a damn good question. I'm still noodling on it. I started this talking about ideological regime change. I don't entirely care for that formulation because I like tangible outcomes. By definition, this is pushing for intangible outcomes that eventually manifest themselves in different political action and policy outcomes.
In my mind, the action step must be action that intelligently and effectively challenges the policy status qou currently supported by mainstream black organizations and black politicians embedded in the democratic party structure As I noted earlier, the star fish organizational structure is geared more to opposing bad outcomes than affirmatively supporting good ones, so perhaps we start with identifying funky outcomes of the current status qou and come up with actions that challenge them?
One of those areas might be disrupting the traditional policy formulation process of the democratic party to move it more towards supporting our permanent interests. The Tea Party has effectively moved GOP politics (you can question the utility of where they've moved it, but you can't question their effectiveness in moving it). If we created a movement that was equally successful, we will have done something major.
What have you got?
This is a thought experiment and one that really requires audience participation and engagement. So this is one I really need you, the reader to step up to the plate on and comment. Have at it.
Logging you in...
everlastingphelps 36p · 636 weeks ago
Unfortunately, movements like that can't be engineered. No one knew Santelli's "taxed enough already" rant was going to take off like it did. The best you can do is lay the foundations so that when the trigger event happens, things can be brought up to speed quickly. If you try to engineer it from the top, then you get... a top down organization.
These are the hardest parts, though. First, black people have to have the will to do for themselves. The state is doing everything it can to stamp out individual will in black people. They've done a better job than 400 years of chattel slavery did, frankly. I don't know if that is going to come back in our lifetimes. Second, you have to realize that the TEA party is NOT your adversary in this. If a movement like this happens, they are your natural allies -- much more than any other national movement. If black people can't get over this myth that the TEA party is all about hating black folks, then you're throwing away a bootstrapping opportunity that will likely doom any new movement (the same way the TEA party would have been stunted had it not leveraged an alliance of convenience with the GOP.)
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A Political Season 53p · 636 weeks ago
You were doing okay till I got to your 3rd paragraph, where you just go off the rails and fall into the stereotype sand trap that nearly the whole of white conservative America seems to live in. Conservative white americans seem to have an absolute obsession with the idea that black people are utterly lacking in work ethic or self reliance. For conservative whites this seems to be the ONLY starting point you want to start with in a conversation about the aspirations of black folks. Your'e like "before we can talk about anything, we must address the problem of your laziness". Its probably the TOP messaging mistake the GOP makes repeatedly. Calling it a mistake is actually a bit of a misnomer, since this messaging in fact reflects the actual views of conservative whites, namely that blacks are lazy and lacking in work ethic.
Despite the fact that I recognize this issue, I still can be taken aback at how blithely indifferent conservative whites are about the challenge of engaging a political constituency which you positively INSIST on starting the conversation with by telling them they are lazy, brainwashed dupes of the democratic party, as you have basically said here. Conservatives actually think this is a recipe for serious political engagement, insulting blacks with this stereotype. Even more interesting to me is that you actually consider this willingness to essentially tell black people " you are lazy and stupid and if you just let me explain to you how the world really works and what you're doing wrong, things will be fine" as a virtue. You think of it as truth telling, rather than perpetuating a stereotype. So right there, we've got a major area of disagreement. You make these statements about "blacks" and worth ethic, with absolutely no qualification whatsoever. I'm black, I work everyday, etc. etc., so you are not talking about me, though how you said it would definitely include me. So its inaccurate there, but you clearly think you are talking about a majority of black folk, a number of black folk that is some figure of 51%+. That kind of huge sweeping generalization is simply not intellectually defensible. Sadly, it is the main thing that white conservatives want to talk about the most and highlight as the defining characteristic of black folks. You're a smart guy and it pains me to hear you make this same blunder. I could entertain a conversation about work ethic and related matters as an issue in certain segments of the black population. I do not however accept this idea that the majority of "blacks" lack the will to do for themselves, or lack strong work ethic and the like. That's the way you put it out there. Its a stereotype, a mistaken view not consonant with the facts, besides being insulting (thats a characterization about how its received, not a statement about how I feel).
As to the Tea Party being the enemy of black folks, its a related issue. If black folks don't regard the Tea Party as friendly to them, its because Tea Party folk want to roll out the same rhetoric you just did and tell blacks how they work ethic and self reliance is all messed up. And they do it the same way you do, in this unqualified, one size fits all manner. They want to have that conversation about lack of work ethic among blacks in front of any black audience. Gingrich will crow about how he's going to attend an NAACP national meeting, which will be composed of an audience of middle and upper class black professionals and working folk and talk about foodstamps. Santorum on the campaign trail talking about dependence and references blacks to illustrate his point. ( I know he said thats not what he said or meant, but I don't believe it). It's just crazy. Tea Party folks do the same thing, because among white conservatives, the idea that blacks are lazy is frankly predominant. So they are not "natural" allies, though there might well be a lot of common political ground to be had. But you can't be natural allies with people who frankly view your community as lazy and have some level of contempt for your community on that basis. You can't ally with people who don't regard you as having the same value they put on themselves.
everlastingphelps 36p · 636 weeks ago
Black people as an aggregate were improving in station and economic class since Reconstruction at a steady rate until the 60s, and then went into steep decline. That decline coincides exactly with the Great Society experiment and the massive expansion of the welfare state. Facts are facts. You tell ME what changed in black people in the 60s, because I don't think white people suddenly became less tolerant in 1965 than they were in 1915 when Birth of Nation was the most popular film.
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A Political Season 53p · 636 weeks ago
everlastingphelps 36p · 636 weeks ago
You should have just stopped there.
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