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SCENES FROM THE IRANIAN UPRISING

HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009 $6.95

◆ MINORITY DEATH MATCH Jews, Blacks, and the “Post-Racial” Presidency By Naomi Klein DEHUMANIZED When Math and Science Rule the School By Mark Slouka ADRIANA A story by J. M. Coetzee Also: Breyten Breytenbach and Richard Nixon ◆ REPORT

MINORITY DEATH MATCH Jews, blacks, and the “post-racial” presidency By Naomi Klein

When I arrived at the grand of- “Durban II,” this was the only United ing, why should they? And it could get fices of the United Nations High Nations gathering specifi cally focused worse, Pillay told me. “The E.U. states Commissioner for Human Rights, at on pushing governments to combat are meeting at 6:00 p.m. tonight, and the Palais Wilson, looking out at a racism inside their borders, a task that the Netherlands and Italy are likely to drizzly Lake Geneva, pull out.” She and U.N. Navanethem Pillay was Secretary-General Ban hunched over the Ki-moon had been on shoulder of her deputy, the phone with foreign Kyung-wha Kang, dic- ministers all day, trying tating a press release. “I to prevent the entire am shocked and deeply European Union from disappointed,” I heard walking out. Canada her say, pointing at the and Israel had pulled screen while Kang out months before. typed. It was 3:00 p.m., As Pillay was tally- and Pillay was having a ing up the damage, an very bad day. aide popped her head “Done,” she finally in the door: “The danc- declared, plopping down ers are here.” The high at her conference table. commissioner, a South The press release was a African judge with a response to some disap- slightly imperious air, pointing news. The previous night, the had become increasingly urgent as fi - was suddenly pleased: “We should go United States, under the leadership of nancial crises continued to stoke eth- and look!” The dancers, who were its fi rst African-American president, nic tensions around the world. chatting and stretching in the Palais’s had announced that it would boycott Despite Pillay’s offi cial claims of be- marble atrium, were members of the United Nations Durban Review ing “shocked and deeply disappointed,” Surialanga, a much-celebrated South Conference on Racism, Racial Dis- the U.S. boycott had long been ex- African troupe that combines three crimination, Xenophobia and Related pected. The nasty surprise was that, on unlikely forms of dance: Zulu tribal, Intolerance, citing its alleged anti- the eve of the conference, it had trig- Indian traditional, and “gumboot,” Israel bias. The conference was to start gered an exodus of other countries. As a protest dance born in South Africa’s the following day, April 20, 2009, with we met, the press was reporting that mines. Pillay had invited them to Pillay presiding. Known by critics as Australia, Germany, and New Zealand perform at the conference in the Naomi Klein’s last article for Harper’s Mag- had joined the boycott. After all, if hope that their cross-cultural fusions azine, “Disaster Capitalism,” appeared in the Barack Obama—a global symbol of the would inspire delegates to great- October 2007 issue. victory against racism—wasn’t com- er cooperation.

Illustrations by Danijel Zezelj REPORT 53

KKleinlein Final2rev2.inddFinal2rev2.indd 5353 77/28/09/28/09 7:52:537:52:53 AMAM She would need all the help she er on women or refugees or biological incidents. Meanwhile, the drafting of could get. The attempt to stage a weapons—aims to produce a “fi nal an NGO manifesto had been a bitter follow-up to the World Conference declaration” that represents the gath- process, ending in language equating on Racism, held in Durban, South ering’s agreed-upon consensus. Most Zionism with racism and a decision Africa, in 2001, had led to one of of the work is done at the preparato- by Pillay’s predecessor, former Irish the most fractious negotiations in ry conferences (“prepcoms,” in U.N. president Mary Robinson, to publicly the history of the United Nations, lingo), and the fi nal wording is ham- condemn the document. with organizers attempting to satisfy mered out at the event itself. The These were genuine failings, but a shifting array of demands from the Durban Review Conference was dif- many conference observers felt that United States—most in direct con- ferent. There was such a fervent de- the U.N., by eliminating the NGO flict with pressure from Muslim sire to bring Obama’s government to Forum and by taking some of the most countries—while a phalanx of pro- the table that virtually every member pressing race-related crises off the ta- Israel pressure groups did their best state in the United Nations agreed ble, had gone much too far to appease to sink the gathering. Through it all on the text of the fi nal declaration the United States. Worse, the strategy Pillay remained relentlessly positive, before the conference even opened. hadn’t worked: after succeeding in always insisting that important prog- The hope was that, with the negotia- dramatically weakening the docu- ress was being made. But on this tions completed, Obama could be ment, the U.S. chose to boycott any- Sunday afternoon, dressed in a way, taking many of its allies with casual tangerine-colored sari rath- it. For the U.S. civil rights move- er than in her usual more formal ment, which had regarded the fi rst garb, the high commissioner al- FOR THE U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS Durban conference as an historic lowed herself a brief undiplomatic MOVEMENT, THE BOYCOTT WAS turning point, the boycott was moment. “It’s like being stabbed OBAMA’S MOST EXPLICIT BETRAYAL Obama’s most explicit betrayal each time when I hear somebody’s since taking offi ce (even if most withdrawing.” SINCE TAKING OFFICE black leaders offered only timid It was a little surprising to witness criticism of the President publicly). Pillay so frustrated. This is a woman The offi cial explanation supplied who as a young lawyer won better pris- assured of no nasty surprises and by the State Department was that the on conditions for anti-apartheid activ- would send a delegation to the con- new declaration, though “signifi cantly ists locked away on Robben Island, ference. The declaration to which all improved,” still “reaffi rmsin toto the then went on to become the fi rst non- these countries—including Iran and Durban Declaration and Programme white woman on the South African Syria—agreed did not cross any of of Action (DDPA) from 2001.” This High Court, then was named president what the State Department had de- was apparently another of the International Criminal Tribunal scribed as its “red lines.” It contained “red line.” for Rwanda. Compared with tackling no references at all to Israel or to the apartheid justice system and geno- Palestinians. It was scrubbed of all A few hours after I left Pillay’s cide trials, organizing a racism confer- mention of “defamation of religion” offi ce, the BBC World Service ran a ence should have been a breeze. (a concession from Muslim states revealing segment on that original And the diplomacy in some impor- that had been trying to bar “blasphe- Durban Declaration. The host was tant respects had gone rather well, mous” portrayals of Islam). And all Julian Marshall, and one of his with Pillay and her team often discov- references to the transatlantic slave guests was Yigal Palmor, spokesman ering compromises where none seemed trade being “a crime” deserving of for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Mar- possible. But what Pillay was wholly reparations had been removed, also shall began by asking what all the unprepared for was the Swift Boat– under U.S. pressure. fuss was about: “Why exactly is Isra- style attack campaign that had set its Sweetening the deal further, the el staying away from the U.N. racism sights on the conference and on her conference would not include an conference?” Palmor replied that it personally, an information war waged NGO Forum. Such parallel “civil so- was “because it isn’t a U.N. racism with deep pockets and an utter indif- ciety” meetings are standard at major conference, it is a conference about ference to truth. She had encountered U.N. gatherings, from the Rio Earth Israel-bashing, just like its predeces- misinformation before, Pillay said, Summit to the Beijing Women’s sor.” He told Marshall that “in the “but not a deliberate campaign.” What Conference. In Durban in 2001, previous conference, Israel was sin- she eventually discovered was that the however, the NGO Forum had gen- gled out as the most racist state on things she thought mattered—the erated no end of controversy. With earth, probably almost the only rac- actual text of documents, the agree- more than 8,000 participants, the ist state” and that these claims were ments negotiated between states— U.N. had not even tried to exert con- not made in a few inflammatory mattered little. It was the battle over trol. It turned into a free-for-all, with speeches but in the conference’s offi - perceptions that would the Arab Lawyers Union passing out cial fi nal declaration. shape history. a booklet that contained Der At this point Marshall stopped Stürmer–style cartoons of hook-nosed Palmor, saying that he had been Every U.N. conference—wheth- Jews with bloody fangs, among other reading that much-maligned sixty-

54 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 5454 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:112:35:11 PMPM one-page Durban Declaration and pendent State and we recognize the map. That conference did not take had been unable to fi nd anything in right to security for all States in the place, which is why the quotes Pal- it that fit Palmor’s description. He region, including Israel, and call upon mor claimed to precisely recall do then proceeded to do what almost no all States to support the peace process not actually exist. journalist had done before. He quot- and bring it to an early conclusion. On the surface, it seemed that ed, at length, the specifi c clauses in As Marshall read these state- Obama, by boycotting, had simply the 2001 Durban Declaration that ments, each less offensive and more given in to the power of the misin- have to do with anti-Semitism and banal than the one before, Palmor formation campaign: it didn’t matter the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the became increasingly agitated. “I’m if Durban was unfair to Israel or if it ones that supposedly accused Israel not sure we’re talking about the really was a “hate-fest”; what mat- of being “the most racist state on same conference,” he said, “because tered was that its critics had con- earth” and were so unfair that the even though I don’t have the text in vinced the world that it was, making U.S. government could not attend front of me, I remember quite pre- Obama’s own views irrelevant. But any conference that “reaffi rms” them. cisely some quotes that were com- there is also another possibility. Here are those dastardly passages: pletely contrary to those that you’ve Obama may have known exactly Paragraph 58: We recall that the Ho- just quoted. So we must be speaking what happened in Durban, as well as locaust must never be forgotten; about two different documents.” what it meant to civil rights leaders

Paragraph 61: We recognize with And that, at least, was absolutely and to anti-racism activists around deep concern the increase in anti- true: Palmor and Marshall were talk- the world. And it may have been Semitism and Islamophobia in vari- ing about two different documents precisely this discussion that Obama ous parts of the world, as well as the and two different conferences. There was determined to avoid. Because emergence of racial and violent was the Durban conference to which what happened in Durban in 2001 is movements based on racism and dis- Marshall was referring, the one that that thousands of intellectuals, poli- criminatory ideas against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities; actually took place, in space and ticians, and activists got together and time, and produced the fi nal declara- told a new story about the causes and tion from which Marshall read. And cures of racism. The original Durban Paragraph 63: We are concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people then there was the conference to conference was not all about Israel, under foreign occupation. We recog- which Palmor was referring—a as Palmor and so many others have nize the inalienable right of the Pales- nightmarish anti-Semitic “hate-fest” claimed; it was overwhelmingly about tinian people to self-determination cooked up by Iran and Syria with the Africa, the ongoing legacy of slavery, and to the establishment of an inde- sole purpose of wiping Israel off the and the huge unpaid debts that the

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KKleinlein Final2rev2.inddFinal2rev2.indd 5555 77/28/09/28/09 7:53:057:53:05 AMAM rich owe the poor. It is a story with tion—things like police violence, by nationalizing the crown jewels of which Western governments have unequal access to certain jobs, lack the apartheid economy: the banks never been comfortable, but there is of adequate health care for minori- and the mines. perhaps no administration to which ties, and intolerance toward immi- But, like so many other govern- it represents a greater threat than grants. Appropriate disapproval ments in the early 1990s, when the the one headed by Barack Obama. would be expressed for such failures ANC came to power, it underwent a Because the story that was told in of equality, and a well-meaning doc- dramatic ideological conversion. Durban is a frontal challenge to the ument pledging change would be Rather than fund the development fairy tale Americans have been tell- signed to much fanfare. That, at it had promised through national- ing one another of late—the one least, is what Western governments izations, or by demanding repara- about having entered a “post-racial” expected to happen. tions from apartheid’s wealthy win- era, with their dashing president cast They were mistaken. Seven years ners, the ANC decided to attract in the leading role. after the historic elections that new money through foreign invest- brought the African National Con- ment. By 2001, the results of South gress to power, South Africans were Africa’s free-market experiments durban and the legacy beginning to confront a harsh new were already evident: more people of slavery reality. Through the decades of were living in abject poverty than Holding the 2001 World Confer- struggle against apartheid, the during the apartheid years. To make ence on Racism in what was still ANC had pledged that liberation the utility companies attractive to being called “the New South Afri- would not only mean the right of private buyers, the government was ca” seemed like a terrifi c idea. What blacks and “coloreds” to vote and dramatically increasing rates on wa- better place to celebrate all the move freely. It would also mean ter and electricity, as well as rents. things the U.N. likes to celebrate: that the wealth of the country that Jobs were moving offshore thanks to multiculturalism, non-violence, mul- had been hoarded by its white elite new free-trade rules, and land was tilateralism, and civil society. In the would finally be shared, bringing still concentrated in the hands of previous decade, these forces had water, electricity, good schools, and the white minority. joined with the people of South Af- decent homes to the townships, and When the World Conference on rica to defeat apartheid. Now they arable land to black farmers in the Racism arrived in Durban, many del- would join together once again, in a countryside. This massive develop- egates were shocked by the mood in feel-good triumph-over-tragedy set- ment project was to be funded, ac- the streets: tens of thousands of resi- ting, to defeat the world’s few re- cording to the ANC’s founding dents joined protests outside the con- maining vestiges of discrimina- document—the Freedom Charter— ference center, holding signs that said landlessness = racism and new apartheid: rich and poor. South Africa’s disillusionment, though particularly striking given its recent democratic victory, was part of a much broader global trend, one that would defi ne the confer- ence, both in the streets and in the assembly halls. Around the world, developing countries were increasingly identi- fying the so-called Washington Consensus economic policies as little more than a clever rebranding effort, a way for former northern co- lonial powers to con- tinue to drain the south- ern countries of their wealth without being inconvenienced by the heavy lifting of colonial- ism. Roughly two years

56 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 5656 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:122:35:12 PMPM before Durban, a coalition of develop- debate. Dudley Thompson, former though widely acknowledged as a ing countries had refused to further Jamaican foreign minister and a long- terrible wrong, had yet to liberalize their economies, leading to time leader in the Pan-African move- be treated as a crime. the collapse of World Trade Organiza- ment, was opposed to any attempt to tion talks in Seattle. A few months assign a number to the debt: “It is African and Caribbean coun- later, a newly militant movement call- impossible to put a fi gure to killing tries had been holding high-level ing for a debt jubilee disrupted the millions of people, our ancestors,” he summits on reparations for a decade, annual meetings of the World Bank said. The leading reparations voices with little effect. What prompted the and the International Monetary Fund instead spoke of a “moral debt” that Durban breakthrough was that a in Washington. Durban was a con- could be used as leverage to reorder similar debate had taken off inside tinuation of this mounting southern international relations in multiple the United States. The facts are fa- rebellion, but it added something else ways, from canceling Africa’s foreign miliar, if commonly ignored. Even as to the mix: a new accounting. debts to launching a huge develop- overt expressions of racism recede, Although it was true that southern ment program for Africa on a par with and as individual blacks break the countries owed debts to foreign banks Europe’s Marshall Plan. What was color barrier in virtually every fi eld, and lending institutions, it was also emerging was a demand for a radical the correlation between race and true that in the colonial period—the New Deal for the global South. poverty remains deeply entrenched. fi rst wave of globalization—the wealth These ideas were not new, but they Blacks in the United States consis- of the North was built, in large part, were advanced in Durban with a dis- tently have dramatically higher rates on stolen indigenous land and the free tinctly new attitude: African coun- of infant mortality, incarceration, labor provided by the slave trade. tries would not beg for charity any unemployment, and HIV infection, Many in Durban argued that when as well as lower salaries, life expec- these two debts were included in tancy, and rates of home the calculus, it was actually the ownership. The biggest gap, how- poorest regions of the world—espe- ALL BIG U.N. CONFERENCES TEND ever, is in net worth. By the end of cially Africa and the Caribbean— TO COALESCE AROUND A THEME, the 1990s, the average black fami- that turned out to be the creditors AND IN DURBAN THE CLEAR THEME ly had a net worth one eighth the and the rich world that owed a national average.1 Low net worth debt. All big U.N. conferences tend WAS THE CALL FOR REPARATIONS means less access to traditional to coalesce around a theme, and in credit (and, as we would later Durban the clear theme was the learn, more subprime mortgages). call for reparations. The gathering’s longer, nor would they ask for their It also means families have little be- overriding message was that even debts to be “forgiven”; they would sides debt to pass on from one gener- though the most visible signs of racism negotiate with the rich world as ation to the next, preventing the had largely disappeared—colonial equals. Before 2001, Thompson, now wealth gap from closing on its own. rule, apartheid, Jim Crow–style segre- ninety-two, told me, reparations were For a brief time, affi rmative action gation—profound racial divides will a mere “footnote.” But “Durban put was supposed to bridge the divide. persist and even widen until the states it on the table once and for all.” But by the mid-Nineties, courts were and corporations that profi ted from Of course there were plenty of Af- increasingly ruling it discriminatory, centuries of state-sanctioned racism rican governments represented in and, in any case, it had only pay back some of what they owe. Durban that had little moral preroga- scratched the surface. Making mat- African and Caribbean govern- tive to be making this demand. Rob- ters worse, in 1996 the Clinton Ad- ments came to Durban with two key ert Mugabe’s corrupt regime in Zim- ministration launched “welfare re- demands, hashed out at a series of babwe, for instance, exploited a just form,” a major assault on the few preparatory meetings. The fi rst was for call for reparations by forcibly hand- services available to poor black fami- an acknowledgment that slavery and ing over land to his cronies, and lies. It was in this context that a even colonialism itself constituted some other African countries, like growing number of African- “crimes against humanity” under in- Sudan and Gabon, condemned the American scholars began to argue ternational law. The second demand transatlantic slave trade even as they that the only way to force the U.S. was for the countries that perpetrated allowed a flourishing traffic in hu- government to make badly needed and profi ted from these crimes to be- mans. Yet despite the inevitable hy- investments in impoverished schools gin to repair the damage. Most every- pocrisies, there was a genuine injus- and neighborhoods was to frame one agreed that reparations should tice being put on trial in Durban, these investments as reparations. include a clear and unequivocal apol- one simply articulated by the African In 2000, Randall Robinson pub- ogy for slavery, as well as a commit- negotiating bloc: “Other groups ment to returning stolen artifacts and which were subjected to other 1 And the situation has only deteriorated to educating the public about the scourges and injustices have received since. According to the Federal Reserve, in 2007 for every dollar held by the typical scale and impact of the slave trade. repeated apologies from different white family the typical African-American Above and beyond these more sym- countries, as well as ample repara- family had only ten cents. In 2004, it had bolic acts, there was a great deal of tions.” The transatlantic slave trade, fourteen cents.

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KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 5757 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:122:35:12 PMPM lished The Debt: What America Owes dent U.S. movement converged with backward,” National Security Ad- to Blacks, which argued that “white the reparations call coming from Af- viser Condoleezza Rice said. It was a society . . . must own up to slavery rica and the Caribbean, and a single, losing battle. Durban, according to and acknowledge its debt to slavery’s muscular demand rose up from the Amina Mohamed, chief negotiator contemporary victims.” The book mass of delegates: If you want to end for the Africa bloc, was Africa’s “ren- became a movement bible, and with- racism, pay us back for what you have dezvous with history.” in months the call for reparations stolen. The demand for payback There was one hitch. Six months was starting to look like a new anti- proved contagious, and it took many before the meeting in Durban, at an apartheid struggle. Students demand- forms. Indigenous peoples wanted Asian preparatory conference in ed that universities disclose their his- broken treaties honored. Brazilian Tehran, a few Islamic countries re- torical ties to the slave trade, city peasants, many descended from quested language in their draft of councils began holding public hear- ings on reparations, and chapters of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) had sprung up across the country. Meanwhile, all of the major civil rights groups came out in favor of Democratic congressman John Con- yers’s bill calling for the creation of a commission to study reparations, and Charles Ogletree, the celebrated Harvard Law professor (and one of Barack Obama’s closest mentors), put together a team of all-star lawyers to try to win reparations lawsuits in U.S. courts. By the spring of 2001, reparations had become a hot-button topic on talk shows and op-ed pages. And al- though opponents consistently por- trayed the demand as blacks want- ing individual handouts from the government, most reparations advo- cates were clear that they were seek- ing group solutions: mass scholar- ship funds, for instance, or major investments in preventative health care. By the time Durban rolled around in late August, the confer- ence had taken on the air of a black slaves, said racism would not be ad- the Durban Declaration that de- Woodstock. Small radical groups dressed without redistributing land scribed Israeli policies in the occu- like the December 12th Movement to them. And the South African pied territories as “a new kind of and the National Black United protesters outside, tired of waiting for apartheid” and a “form of genocide.” Front spent months raising money the ANC to make good on its prom- Then, a month before the confer- to buy 400 plane tickets to South ises, wanted reparations for the ence, there was a new push for Africa. They called their delegation crimes of apartheid. changes that were sure to grab in- The Durban 400. Activists traveled In all these different but connected ternational headlines. Some refer- to Durban from 168 countries, but ways, anti-racism was transformed in ences to the Holocaust were placed the largest delegation by far came Durban from something safe and in lower case, pluralized (“holo- from the United States: approxi- comfortable for elites to embrace into causts”), and paired with the “ethnic mately 3,000 people, roughly 2,000 something explosive, threatening, cleansing of the Arab population in of them African Americans. Charles and potentially very, very costly. historic Palestine.” References to Ogletree pumped up the crowds North American and European gov- “the increase in anti-Semitism and with an energetic address: “This is a ernments, the debtors in this new hostile acts against Jews” were movement that cannot be stopped. accounting, were vastly outnumbered paired with phrases about “the in- There are no plaintiffs that will not and in the months before the confer- crease of racist practices of Zion- be considered. I promise that we ence tried to steer the negotiations ism,” and Zionism was described as will see reparations in our lifetime.” onto safe terrain. “We are better to a movement “based on racism and In Durban, this increasingly confi - look forward and not point fi ngers discriminatory ideas.”

58 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 5858 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:122:35:12 PMPM Racial Scapegoat

There is a strong argument to be wick away before he could take any made that Israel’s legal system— questions; they told him they were which has different laws and even worried about a riot breaking out. roads for Israelis and Palestinians At the time, most U.S. Jewish What the furor living in the West Bank, and which groups praised the walkout as a prin- grants and denies citizen rights cipled stand against anti-Semitism. surrounding Don based largely on religious affilia- The vast majority of delegates in tion—meets the international defi - Durban, however, saw things very Imus shows us nition of apartheid (a few years later, differently: in their view, the U.S. former president Jimmy Carter had never wanted to be part of these about unresolved would use the same term to describe discussions, and it had seized on the race relations the segregation in the occupied ter- clauses about Israel—which everyone ritories). But taken as a whole, this knew would not survive the negotia- in the United proposed language—by attempting tions—as “a fl imsy excuse,” in Dud- to downplay the signifi cance of the ley Thompson’s words. States. Holocaust and diluting the clauses Southwick, now retired and talking on anti-Semitism—carried an un- about Durban candidly for the fi rst mistakable whiff of denialism. time, told me that the skeptics were Most importantly, by reviving the largely right. Secretary of State Powell incendiary equation of Zionism with was inclined to fully participate in racism that had torn the U.N. apart for Durban, he said, but others, particu- decades, the Islamic states instantly larly Special Assistant to the President upstaged Africans’ demands. As Ni- Elliott Abrams, were fi rmly opposed. cole Lee, the current director of the President Bush had declared that the TransAfrica Forum, told me, there was U.S. would not participate in a confer- an acute awareness in Durban that “if ence “so long as they pick on Israel.” you put Zionism on trial, that’s all you Southwick says he repeatedly told the FPO can do.” What was particularly frus- White House that he was being set up UNIV OF MINN trating to the countries fi ghting for a to fail (he now calls it a “suicide mis- PRESS new consensus on the legacy of slavery sion”). He was sure that he could get 4/C was that the Zionism sentences were the offending language out of the fi nal AD TK attracting all the media attention de- document, but in order to do that, he 007 spite the fact that they had no chance explained, he needed to fully partici- of making it into the fi nal draft. The pate in the conference. He persuaded

Islamic states did not have the votes, no one. $24.95 s HARDCOVER s 224 PAGES and Mary Robinson, the conference’s Southwick’s account makes it clear secretary general, had made it very that the Bush Administration’s deci- clear “that we cannot go back to the sion to get out of Durban was made, language of Zionism as racism.” In for its own political reasons, before “Burying Don Imus: short, the proposed clauses had little the conference had even opened—not Anatomy of a hope of helping Palestinians, but they in principled response to the anti- did serve another, entirely predictable, Semitic incidents. Moreover, South- Scapegoat is not function: they gave the U.S. gov- wick was quite right: after he left, all only the book Amer- ernment the perfect ex- of the offending language was excised ica needed. It is the cuse to fl ee the scene. in the final round of negotiations. Which is why, in a detail convenient- book America didn’t he official U.S. delegation in ly excluded by Durban’s critics, Is- know it needed. . . . DurbanT was led by E. Michael South- raeli foreign minister Shimon Peres I cannot recommend wick, a former ambassador to Uganda praised the Durban Declaration at the this book highly and a deputy assistant secretary of time as “an accomplishment of the state under Colin Powell. A few days fi rst order for Israel” and “a painful enough. It is both into the gathering, Southwick called comedown for the Arab League.”2 entertaining a meeting of all the Americans at- In the end, despite the walkout, and illuminating.” tending the U.N. conference. He Africa was not denied its rendezvous told them that the U.S. government with history. The fi nal Durban Dec- —Debra Dickerson was formally withdrawing from Dur- ban because of the Israel clauses. The 2 The removal of the language prompted the representative from Iran to go out of his way room of mostly African Americans to “disassociate” his country “from all para- exploded in shouts and boos. The graphs pertaining to the Palestinian and South African police whisked South- Middle East issue.” UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS Available at better bookstores or to order call 800-621-2736 www.upress.umn.edu REPORT 59

HA059__07TU0.indd 1 7/22/09 2:45:23 PM Klein Final2.indd 59 7/22/09 2:35:12 PM laration became the fi rst document in the words of a full-page ad that ran Durban and 9/11 was no mere rhetori- with international legal standing to in many U.S. newspapers. cal exercise. If Durban was an intel- state “that slavery and the slave trade This hysterical response to Durban lectual prelude to the attacks, that are a crime against humanity and can perhaps best be explained by a meant whoever had provided funding should always have been so, espe- phenomenon psychologists call “illu- for it was, at least in theory, an accom- cially the transatlantic slave trade.” sory correlation”: it happens when plice to terrorist incitement. Sure This language was more than sym- people experience two intense events enough, a year and a half after Lantos’s bolic. When lawyers had sought to in close proximity and their minds essay appeared, the Jewish Telegraphic win slavery reparations in U.S. courts, make a causal connection where no Agency ran an exposé entitled “Fund- the biggest barrier was always the factual link exists. The fi rst intense ing Hate.” The four-part witch hunt statute of limitations, which had long event was Durban itself. For many Jew- was entirely focused on outing the since expired. If slavery was “a crime ish delegates the experience was un- foundations that had financed the against humanity,” however, it was questionably traumatic. It was not only Durban NGO Forum, and the main not restricted by the statute—some- the incidents of anti-Semitism, which target was the Ford Foundation. It thing, Southwick told me, that State were real and frightening. It was the seemed that Ford had not only helped Department lawyers were very con- dominance of a political discourse that a great many activists buy their plane cerned about at the time. described Israel’s citizenship and secu- tickets to Durban; it had also provided On the final day of the confer- rity laws as being a version of apartheid, large grants to some of the Palestinian ence, after Canada tried to minimize deserving of the same kind of eco- groups that dared compare Israeli prac- the signifi cance of the declaration, nomic sanctions that ultimately put an tices with apartheid and called for Amina Mohamed, now a top offi cial end to the practice in South Africa. For sanctions. The series, for all its bluster, in the Kenyan government, took the Zionists in Durban, seeing an interna- revealed not a single direct link be- floor to make a dramatic speech. tional consensus build around this tween Ford and the NGOs that had “Madame President,” Mohamed said, idea—one that challenges core Zionist distributed anti-Semitic materials in “it is not a crime against humanity policies—was jarring enough. But the Durban, let alone funding of an actual just for today, nor just for real trauma happened when they went terrorist group. tomorrow, but for always and for all home and immediately faced the far No matter. A group of twenty mem- time. Nuremberg made it clear that greater shock of the September 11 at- bers of Congress, headed by Jerrold crimes against humanity are tacks. The pro-Palestinian activists in Nadler (D., N.Y.), sprang into action, not time-bound.” Any acts that take Durban seemed to merge with the Mus- demanding that Ford “immediately stop responsibility for these crimes, there- lim hijackers, becoming a single, hostile the funding.” Calling for sanctions fore, “are expected and are in order.” Arab mass, while the political threat against Israel’s ethnically based legal The assembly hall erupted in cheers Israel faced at the conference dissolved architecture was, they argued, “tanta- and a long standing ovation. into the very real attacks on New York mount to calling for the destruction of Members of The Durban 400 spent and Washington, until somehow these the State of Israel.” Fearing the loss of their last day at the conference plan- wholly unrelated events fused into a their tax-exempt status, several of the ning a “Millions for Reparations” single, seamless narrative. large foundations wasted no time cav- march on Washington. Attorney Rog- The most infl uential exponent of ing. Ford cut funding to the more con- er Wareham, co-counsel on a high- the Durban–9/11 illusory correlation troversial Arab groups, audited others, profi le reparations lawsuit and one of was the late Congressman Tom Lan- and pledged to give out many more the organizers, recalled that as they tos. The only Holocaust survivor in grants to fi ght anti-Semitism.3 Most left South Africa, “people were on a Congress and a staunch Zionist, Lan- controversially, the Ford Foundation real rolling high”—ready to take their tos had been part of the offi cial U.S. and the Rockefeller Foundation began movement to the next level. delegation in Durban. Here is how he requiring their grant recipients to sign That was September 9, 2001. Two described it in Fletcher Forum of World what became known as “loyalty oaths.” days later, talk of reparations, along Affairs: “Hate is the thread that con- with so much else, was blasted off the nects Durban and the terrorism of 3 According to an investigation in The Na- political map. Africa’s “rendezvous September 11 and it is the same ideol- tion, three of the main Jewish groups at the forefront of the anti-Durban campaign ben- with history” was all but forgotten. ogy that produced terrorists such as efi ted directly from this outcome. The Anti- Osama bin Laden. . . . The terrorist Defamation League, which had accused attacks on September 11 demonstrated Ford of “aiding and abetting extremists,” durban reincarnate the evil such hate can spawn.” Irwin hadn’t received a Ford grant since 1967; in But Durban wasn’t simply forgotten. Cotler, Canada’s former justice minis- the three years after the controversy broke, it landed grants worth close to $1.5 million. It was radically reinvented, growing ter and, like Lantos, a Zionist pro- The American Jewish Committee, another more sinister and grotesque in its col- foundly shaped by world indifference Durban critic, received $400,000, its fi rst lective hatred of Israel with each apoc- to the Holocaust, went even further: Ford grant in eight years, while the Simon ryphal retelling. An “anti-Jewish dip- “If 9/11 was the Kristallnacht of terror, Wiesenthal Center landed one worth $625,000 in 2004, its fi rst ever from Ford. lomatic pogrom,” as one writer put it Durban was the Mein Kampf.” So it seems that Durban did manage to win in the Jerusalem Post. An event “hi- In a terrorized and terrorizing Amer- reparations for some groups—if not the jacked by global harbingers of hate,” ica, drawing a straight line between groups originally intended.

60 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 6060 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:122:35:12 PMPM The one introduced by Ford was the 2001, such as Human Rights Watch conservative Hudson Institute) and most aggressive: “By countersigning and Amnesty International USA— directed by Anne Bayefsky; the this grant letter, you agree that your were unwilling to sign the letter. Some Geneva-based UN Watch (affi liated organization will not promote or en- told her it was too early to publicly with the American Jewish Commit- gage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or criticize Obama, but the bigger prob- tee), directed by Hillel Neuer; and the destruction of any state.” The link lem, Dike discovered, was fear. People the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, to Durban was unmistakable. confi ded that they didn’t want to lose directed by Gerald Steinberg and This campaign had several long- their funding, and others talked about formerly backed by Dore Gold, an lasting effects. Not only did large not wanting to get “targeted” again. adviser to Israeli prime minister foundations, including Ford, cut fund- Fear goes a long way toward ex- Benjamin Netanyahu. Eye on the ing for any projects remotely linked to plaining why so much unabashedly UN and NGO Monitor were found- ed after Durban specifically to launch an instant offensive against any similar events.4 When the U.N. fi nally announced that it would be holding a confer- ence to review compliance with the commitments governments made in Durban, the anti-Durban trio sprang into action. Their websites became anti-Durban clearinghouses, with best-of video compilations and slide shows of the anti-Semitic cartoons and signs from Durban I, as well as hundreds of anti-Durban articles, press releases, and “Durban II alerts.” The goal of the anti-Durban cam- paign was not to fi x the problems that occurred in 2001 but to smear, damage, and “delegitimize” (a recurring phrase) the entire process. And the anti-Durban warriors are an impressively prolific bunch. Bayefsky, a human rights lawyer with an obsessive hatred of the United Nations, wrote thirty anti-Durban ar- ticles in the year of the Geneva confer- ence, published in the New York Daily News, Forbes, the National Review, and elsewhere. Steinberg, a hard-right Is- raeli academic, managed only fi fteen, two in the Wall Street Journal. Thanks Durban; human rights groups that wrong information about both Dur- to the Durban chill affecting so many rely on foundation funding started to ban conferences has been able to activists, the portrayals of the Durban fear that defending the Durban pro- circulate unchallenged. Many of the Review Conference that appeared in cess was too risky. Ejim Dike, a New people who believed in Durban were these dispatches were virtually the only York anti-poverty activist, discovered afraid to defend it, and those who this trend when her organization, the weren’t afraid lacked the resources to 4 NGO Monitor’s Steinberg has taken pride Human Rights Project at the Urban amplify their voices. The forces that in getting foundations to cut funding for pro-Durban groups and has called the can- Justice Center, drafted an open letter opposed the Durban process, on the celing of the NGO Forum “one of the great to Barack Obama expressing “pro- other hand, faced no victories.” Given their posture as watchdogs, found disappointment” with the ad- such obstacles. it’s striking that none of these groups would ministration’s apparent plan to boycott disclose how much they themselves spent on the Durban Review Conference in The most tangible legacy of the anti- Durban activities. Hillel Neuer of UN Watch would not even provide his organiza- Geneva, calling the gathering “a prior- first Durban conference is a well- tion’s annual budget, or a full list of its board ity for many of us who supported your funded network of NGOs dedicated members, or a detailed list of funders. When campaign for change.” Although many to bashing other NGOs as well as contacted by a fact-checker, he said he re- grass-roots groups signed, she found monitoring the U.N. for any signs of fused “to aid or abet Naomi Klein’s apolo- getics for the fascist, misogynist, and geno- that most of the large human rights anti-Israel bias. The key groups are: cidal regimes that organized Durban II in and civil rights groups—even those the New York City–based Eye on the order to hide their crimes, scapegoat West- that had been key participants in UN (associated with the neo- ern democracies, and demonize Jews.”

REPORT 61

KKleinlein Final2rev2.inddFinal2rev2.indd 6161 77/28/09/28/09 7:53:197:53:19 AMAM accounts available to U.S. readers—and military precision. Every day anti- pened?” The weekend before the open- they were wildly skewed. Durban groups hosted a dizzying num- ing, a ragtag group of European NGOs Critical reports almost always con- ber of panel discussions, protests, ral- had organized panel discussions and tained some variation on the claim lies, and press conferences—some rallies around Geneva. The young anti- that the conference was “being chaired inside the U.N., some outside—all of Durban warriors had dutifully fanned by Libya, with Iran and Cuba as vice them either denouncing the confer- out across the city to infi ltrate and re- chairs.” This, of course, made it sound ence as illegitimate or attempting to port back. It was deeply anti-climactic. as if these countries were the only draw attention away from Israel and Sure, a handful of Iranians showed up ones organizing the conference. In onto abuses perpetrated by other (usu- at one event with anti-Israel propa- fact, there were nineteen vice chairs ally Islamic) states. An all-star cast of ganda, but it was hardly grounds for of the planning committee, including speakers and pundits, including the derailing a major U.N. conference (es- Belgium, Greece, Norway, India, Ar- French philosopher Bernard-Henri pecially since, with no offi cial NGO gentina, Brazil, and Chile (and most Levy and the actor Jon Voight, was Forum, these events had absolutely no of the work was done in Geneva by fl own in to attract the press. link to the U.N.). This was a serious Pillay and her team). But the worst The Israel Project, a $5.5 million problem: for months the press had been distortions were in Bayefsky’s bellow- operation claiming to provide jour- promised a “hate-fest.” If there was no ing full-page ads, which appeared in nalists and politicians with “accurate hate in Geneva to denounce, then the Washington Times, the New York information about Israel” (in fact, an sabotaging a conference designed to Sun, and other papers, and were signed unoffi cial adjunct of Israel’s press of- combat racism—especially at a time by a long list of notables including fice), estimates that it spent half a when the fascist far right was on the Harvard law professor Alan Dershow- million dollars on “Durban II.” Ac- march across Europe—looked a whole itz, orientalist Bernard Lewis, former cording to its president, Jennifer lot less righteous. New York mayor Ed Koch, and Nobel Laszlo Mizrahi, the organization sent laureate Elie Wiesel. In big bold letters a delegation to Geneva to act as the the ads claimed that the fi nal Durban “media war room for people who ahmadinejad to the Declaration stated “That ISRAEL, wanted sanity to be heard at the rescue and ONLY ISRAEL, is guilty of rac- U.N.” They even fl ew in Frank Luntz, It almost seemed that Navane- ism.” Never mind that nowhere in the the infamous Republican pollster, to them Pillay and her team could win document was Israel accused, let alone provide messaging advice. (or at least not lose) the “Durban II” convicted, of racism. The Steinbergs and Bayefskys were public-relations war. In the end, how- The Offi ce of the High Commis- the generals of the Six-Day Durban ever, they were defeated by the one sioner for Human Rights realized a few War, and they had plenty of ground force no U.N. bureaucrat is willing to months into the campaign that many troops: Zionist students who were re- resist: protocol. Prior to a world con- governments were getting their infor- cruited to come to Geneva from across ference, the U.N. body in charge ex- mation from these accounts—not from Europe, North America, and Israel. tends invitations to all heads of the original documents. When the Roughly 150 were accredited as NGO member states—no picking and U.N. attempted to set the record delegates, allowing them to attend choosing, for obvious diplomatic rea- straight, suggesting that “the confer- offi cial sessions. (No other group had sons. At the original conference in ence process has been the subject of such a large presence. By way of com- 2001, fi fteen heads of state accepted ferocious, and often distorted, criticism parison, Human Rights Watch had the invitation and came to Durban. by certain lobby groups focused on three delegates, and the NAACP had This time the high commissioner’s single issues,” UN Watch wasted no no one at all in Geneva.) Many more offi ce extended the same routine set time fi ring back. Not only was this students came to attend the pro-Israel of invitations. But because the con- statement “intended to conjure up xe- protests, “Save Darfur” rallies, and ference had been so successfully tar- nophobic and stereotypical images of side conferences. One activist wrote nished in advance, only three heads the ‘Jewish lobby,’” it claimed, but the in the Jerusalem Post, “I had been of state expressed any interest in high commissioner’s offi ce was “play- warned, prior to the Durban Review coming. In the end, just one showed ing on imagery reminiscent of that Conference in Geneva, that Jews up: Iranian president Mahmoud which circulated in Durban in 2001.” should not walk around the surround- Ahmadinejad, in full campaign (Even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, ings of the UN alone, but rather in mode for Iran’s upcoming elections. one of the fi ercest critics of Durban, pairs for their own safety.” Just in case, The order of speakers at U.N. gath- rejected the charge. Accounts of Jew- the Jewish Welcome Center kept a erings is based on rank: heads of state ish infl uence were usually exaggerated, psychologist on call to help visitors fi rst, then ministers, then ambassa- it reported; “this time, however, the cope with any traumatic incidents. dors, then the riffraff, so Ahmadinejad Jews actually did conspire, albeit open- But as the conference approached, would not only speak, he would speak ly, to sabotage the conference.”) there was something of a snag, best fi rst. Calling the opening session of The Jewish Journal has referred to summed up in a dispatch from the New the conference to order in the As- the conference as the “Six-Day Durban Republic’s correspondent, Zvika Krieger: sembly Hall at Geneva’s Palais des War”—and the pro-Israel presence in “This conference was supposed to be Nations, Pillay delayed Ahmadinejad’s Geneva was indeed mapped out with filled with anti-Semites. What hap- moment for as long as possible. She

62 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2rev2.inddFinal2rev2.indd 6262 77/28/09/28/09 7:53:347:53:34 AMAM 92ND STREET Y UNTERBERG POETRY CENTER Literary Readings

spoke, as did U.N. Secretary-General protocol, he denounced the speech, Ban Ki-moon, as well as a survivor of stating, “I deplore the use of this RICH the Rwandan genocide and a Holo- platform by the Iranian president to caust survivor who was one of the accuse, divide, and even incite.” I authors of the Universal Declaration That morning the Jerusalem Post had Performances of Human Rights. There were video quoted the secretary-general of the

testimonies from victims of racism, World Jewish Congress, Michael PROULX and the stage was briefl y handed over Schneider, boasting about his plans to I to the Surialanga dance troupe— press the Czech Republic for the boy- Seminars decked out in Zulu furs and blind- cott. “We’re still trying to pick them ingly colorful saris—who bounded off.” He did pick them off, but how hard I Writing Workshops

around as the secretary-general looked was it, really? Watching the European 09/10 SEASON on awkwardly. Someone read a letter Union delegates stage their dramatic, ACHEBE from Nelson Mandela. pre-planned mass exit, I was struck by Then, at 3:00 p.m., six hours after the near-perfect synergy of interests the conference began, the inevita- between these supposed adversaries: ble: a rustle of men in slim-fitting Ahmadinejad didn’t care if the confer- I PAMUK suits escorting the president of Iran ence crumbled, because he was playing The Voice of Literature up to the podium. After ranting for the anti-Zionist hero for voters back a while about the imperialist make- home. Israel’s defenders were ready to up of the U.N. Security Council, torch the place if it meant protecting Ahmadinejad proceeded to do ex- Zionist laws from human rights scru- actly what everyone expected him to tiny. And most Western governments do: he called Israel “the most cruel were happy to play their parts in the and repressive racist regime.” The destruction if it meant getting out of Iranians clapped, many more people having to discuss what they were doing booed, and then there was more rus- to combat racism. FPO tling of suits as roughly fi fty mem- This last point, Navanethem Pillay 21 Mon 92NDAdrienne STREET Rich Y bers of the European Union delega- had told me, was the real reason gov- 24 Thu Steven Millhauser4/C and tion walked out of the hall en masse. ernments were being so obstructionist, AnnieAD Proulx TK Meanwhile, a group of French Jewish whether they were threatening boy- 019 students put on rainbow wigs and cotts, crying anti-Semitism, or blam- 1 Thu Simon Armitage and clown noses, one of them managing ing the world’s problems on Israel. No Charles Simic to hurl his red nose at the podium, one wanted to talk about what was narrowly missing Ahmadinejad. actually on the agenda: a concrete 5 Mon Rabih Alameddine and As expected, the boycott crowd— review of the race-relations commit- A.S. Byatt hunting for hate—seized on the ments 166 governments had made in 19 Mon Chinua Achebe with speech, claiming the presence of 2001. “The anti-Semitism misrepre- K. Anthony Appiah Iran’s Holocaust-denying president sentation,” as Pillay called it, was “very was why the conference deserved to useful for states who want to duck be boycotted (even though his atten- dealing with issues.” 9 Mon Orhan Pamuk dance was confi rmed only six days Perhaps the best way to describe the 11 Wed Words & Music: Don Quixote earlier and the boycott campaign convergence of interests in Geneva is 16 Mon A Celebration of had been waged for over a year). to say that pro-Israel groups succeeded Anne Bayefsky, writing in the New in convincing ten governments to Vladimir Nabokov with York Daily News, was scandalized boycott a conference that they never Martin Amis, Brian Boyd, that Ban Ki-moon remained “fi xed to wanted to come to anyway, while Chip Kidd and others his chair immediately behind” granting permission to many more to 19 Thu Rita Dove and Philip Levine Ahmadinejad as he spoke—clear act as if, in the words of the French 30 Mon Paul Auster and evidence, she implied, that the students wearing clown Javier Marías secretary-general approved. wigs, “Durban is a joke.” This was nonsense, of course. The U.N. has no power to vet speeches— s I approached the Palais des 7 Mon An Evening of Beckett that’s why we have been treated to NationsA on Wednesday, day three of such memorable spectacles as Hugo the conference, I spotted a lone pro- ORDER TODAY! Chavez calling George W. Bush “the tester holding a stop the genocide For a complete listing of events and classes, Devil” and Colin Powell making stuff in gaza placard. He was steps away click www.92Y.org/Poetry, up about Iraq’s weapons program. from the huge bronze Mahatma call 212.415.5500 or visit the 92Y Box Office And Ban did not sit silently by. In a Gandhi statue, and he was being $10 tickets for Literary Events for those departure—for once—from U.N. hauled away by four cops. It had fi nal- 35 & younger (except Nov 11) Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street New York, NY An agency of UJA-Federation REPORT 63

HA063__07TU0.indd 1 7/28/09 8:09:02 AM Klein Final2rev2.indd 63 7/28/09 7:53:48 AM ly stopped raining in Geneva, and ev- one level that’s the story of Durban: ensure there would be no repeat of erywhere else in this alpine city peo- Jews vs. blacks, a struggle between Durban’s anti-Semitism, while still ple were drinking beer in plazas and America’s two most powerful minor- salvaging what was important about lolling in parks. It wasn’t at all clear ity groups. The rivalry long predates Durban, particularly the historic why hundreds of us bothered to trudge the conference, of course. Repara- discussion on the legacy of the up the steep hill to the U.N. to submit tions activists frequently point out transatlantic slave trade. Most sig- our bags to X-rays and manual search- that there is a Holocaust Museum nificantly, the diplomatic push to es for “offensive materials.” The truth in Washington but not a single ma- change the fi nal declaration of the was that, with Ahmadinejad gone, jor monument to the slaves who Durban Review Conference so that absolutely nothing was happening. helped build the White House, or it did not cross any U.S. “red lines” The text of the fi nal declaration had that many schools have far more de- was not led by the State Depart- been agreed to before we arrived— tailed curricula about the Jewish ment—which often seemed happy part of the ill-fated and extravagant genocide than they do about the for the negotiations to fail—but by efforts to lure Obama to Geneva. transatlantic slave trade. Moreover, the Congressional Black Caucus, That meant that there wasn’t any ac- it was the example set by Jewish or- particularly its chairwoman, Barbara tual negotiating or lobbying to do. ganizations in winning Holocaust- Lee. The lobbying, which enlisted Most of the press had left along with reparations lawsuits against Swiss such allies as Egypt, was a resound- the president of Iran, and inside the banks and insurance companies in ing success. But it had no effect: the main Assembly Hall low-level bureau- the late Nineties that convinced large U.S. Jewish organizations con- crats were delivering meaningless prominent African-American law- tinued to oppose America’s partici- speeches to an empty room. yers that they had a shot at winning pation in “Durban II,” and the State Many of the activists who made slavery reparations in U.S. courts. Department appeared to make its the trip to Geneva spent their time For many civil rights leaders at the decision on that basis. “What trou- catching up with old friends in the conference, it seemed that Jews— bles me tremendously,” Lee told me, Serpentine Lounge, located in the more than any sector of society— “is we made all those changes in the basement of an adjoining building. should have been their natural allies document, the entire world did that, The scene felt a bit like a Pan-African in the reparations call. Instead, it and yet the reward was Congress reunion, with lots of men in was large Jewish organizations and not participating.” dashikis representing organizations the state of Israel—itself a form of that spell Africa with a “k” and Mal- reparations, as Roger Wareham The premise of all the behind- colm X’s daughter, Malaak Shabazz, pointed out—that successfully un- the-scenes wrangling by black lead- holding court in a corner. A few of dermined the one international fo- ers in Washington was that Obama the Jewish students continued to stage rum in which reparations for slavery was personally in favor of Durban— disruptions, running through the were on the agenda.6 That repara- it was just a matter of resolving the halls in rainbow wigs and shouting, tions were collateral damage, and Israel issue so he could participate “Durban is a joke” until they were not the intended target of the cam- without paying a steep political price. thrown out by security. The delegates paign, was of little comfort. And this may have been the most from Africa and Asia looked on with These resentments were deepened serious miscalculation of all. Al- increasing resentment: Who was the by the fact that many African- though Obama’s White House was target of this ridicule? Were these American leaders were convinced certainly concerned about the per- young white people calling them a that the review conference did not ception of the conference in the Jew- joke? Was racism a joke to them? need to be fought as a winner-take- ish community, it had its own rea- As the week wore on, and the all minority death match. In Dur- sons for wanting to avoid Durban’s devastating impact of Obama’s boy- ban in 2001, the Leadership Confer- particular take on the historical roots cott set in, these tensions rose. ence on Civil Rights—the largest of contemporary racism and on the “What this is really about is whose civil rights coalition in the United structural barriers to its eradication. issues trump,” an African-American States, representing roughly 200 or- Ahead of his July trip to Ghana, delegate told me in the corridor out- ganizations including the NAACP Obama let it be known that he was side the Assembly Hall.5 And on and the ACLU—formally withdrew tired of hearing that Africa’s troubles 5 Almost everyone who spoke about the from the NGO Forum in protest of were “somehow the consequence of tensions between blacks and Jews asked the anti-Semitic incidents. Similar- neo-colonialism, or the West has not to be identifi ed. “I have never felt so ly, in the lead-up to the Durban Re- been oppressive, or racism—I’m not nervous about speaking on an issue,” a view Conference, the Leadership a believer in excuses.” He has sent civil rights leader—hardly known for timidity—confessed to me. One person Conference, the NAACP, and the much the same message at home, who has been quite open on the topic is TransAfrica Forum attempted to lecturing black families on personal Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black broker the compromise that would responsibility (“No excuses! No ex- Agenda Report. “Blacks get nothing from cuses!” he told a gathering of the Obama’s White House except permission 6 Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanya- to worship him as the ultimate role model. hu personally sent thank-you notes to gov- NAACP in July). Meanwhile, Obama Less than nothing, as the unfolding Durban ernments that joined the boycott, “to ex- has studiously avoided anything that outrage demonstrates.” press my appreciation for your decision.” could be considered a black issue,

64 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 6464 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:122:35:12 PMPM from mass incarceration to the aban- The Boston University MFA in Creative Writing is Pleased to donment of New Orleans. For Vernellia Randall, an expert in in- Announce Travel Awards in Fiction, Poetry, and Playwriting. ternationalfrom mass incarceration human rights to law the ataban- the Universitydonment of of Dayton, New Orleans.the problem For is obvious:Vernellia Obama’s Randall, “desire an expert to be incolor- in- A generous donor has made it possible for us to send a good number blind,”ternational she says,human is wholly rights incompati-law at the of our students abroad after they complete the two semesters of our bleUniversity with the of Dayton,entire premise the problem of the is workshops. Those chosen may go to any country and do there what obvious: Obama’s “desire to be color- Durban process. “You can’t be color- they wish, for a typical stay of three months. We sent off one-fifth of blindblind,” and she go says, to a is racism wholly conference.” incompati- ble with the entire premise of the our students in the summer of 2FPO009 to three different continents; in Durban process. “You can’t be color- the summer of 2010 we hopBOSTONe to similarly support up to one-half of blindobama’s and go to race a racism problem conference.” our graduating class. UNIV FPOb/w On the last day of the conference, Our creative writing programBOSTON is challengin g and intensive. After a year in the Serpentine Lounge, I caught ad tk obama’s race problem of study with our faculty—in poUNIVe008try, with Robert Pinsky, Louise Glück, up with Roger Wareham, the repa- b/w rationsOn the attorney last day who of the is conference,something and Rosanna Warren; and in ficadtion ,tk with Ha Jin, Leslie Epstein, and ofin athe rock Serpentine star here. Lounge,All he wanted I caught to Allegra Goodman—we are pleas008ed to offer an experience that can be talkup with about Roger was theWareham, Wall Street the repa-bail- no less challenging but we hope full of pleasure as well. out.rations If the attorney government who is can something bail out AIG,of a rock he pointedstar here. out, All it he can wanted also say, to For information about the program, how to apply, or the Robert Pinsky “We’retalk about going was to the bail Wall out Street people bail- of Global Fellowships, please contact [email protected], call 617-353-2510, Africanout. If the descent government because can bail this out is or visit www.bu.edu/writing. what’sAIG, he happened pointed out, historically.” it can also The say, economic“We’re going crisis to does bail appearout people to have of Application deadline is March 1, 2010. handedAfrican the descent reparations because movement this isa powerfulwhat’s happened new argument. historically.” The hard- The esteconomic part of crisisselling does reparations appear to in have the Unitedhanded Statesthe reparations has always movement been the a powerful new argument. The hard- Boston University is an equal opportunity, perception that something would affirmative action institution. haveest part to ofbe sellingtaken reparationsaway from whitesin the inUnited order Statesfor it tohas be always given beento blacks the andperception other minorities. that something But because would of thehave broad to be consensus taken away for fromlarge whitesstimu- “An elegant and intriguing book.” lusin orderspending for it(at to least be givenfor now), to blacks there —The Globe and Mail (Toronto) June, 1994 isand a staggeringother minorities. amount But of becausenew mon- of “An elegant and intriguing book.” eythe fl broadoating consensus around, money for large that stimu- does In New York Revisited, New York City is a liv- notlus spendingyet belong (at to least any forone now), group. there So ing,—The breathing Globe and Mail character—the (Toronto) June, streets 1994 and sky- is a staggering amount of new mon- lines are rendered in gorgeous, lyrical detail, far Obama’s approach to stimulus In New York Revisited, New York City is a liv- ey fl oating around, money that does and the tenements and skyscrapers crackle with spending has been rightly criticized ing, breathing character—the streets and sky- not yet belong to any one group. So energy. Acclaimed writer Henry James was born for lacking a big idea—the $787 bil- lines are rendered in gorgeous, lyrical detail, lionfar Obama’s package approachis a messy to grab stimulus bag, in New York, but as a young man he left the spending has been rightly criticized and the tenements and skyscrapers crackle with with little ambition to actually fi x United States to live abroad. On his return for lacking a big idea—the $787 bil- energy. Acclaimed writer Henry James was born any one of the problems on which it visit to New York he wrote New York Revisited, lion package is a messy grab bag, in New York, but as a young man he left the nibbles. Listening to Wareham, it which was published in Harper’s in 1906. This occurredwith little to ambition me that closing,to actually at long fi x United States to live abroad. On his return concise book remains today as rich and beauti- last,any onethe ofgaps the left problems by slavery on whichand Jim it visit to New York he wrote New York Revisited, ful a description of New York as it was then, and it elucidates both the Crownibbles. is asListening good a bigto Wareham,stimulus idea it which was published in Harper’s in 1906. This occurred to me that closing, at long changes time has wrought and the myriad ways the City remains a constant. as any. concise book remains today as rich and beauti- last, the gaps left by slavery and Jim This volume is enhanced with period illustrations and photographs and What is tantalizing (and madden- ful a description of New York as it was then, and it elucidates both the Crow is as good a big stimulus idea features an introduction by Lewis H. Lapham, National Correspondent for ing) about Obama is that he has the changes time has wrought and the myriad ways the City remains a constant. as any. Harper’s. Handsomely bound with a spectacular illustration of the Flatiron skills to persuade a great many This volume is enhanced with period illustrations and photographs and AmericansWhat is tantalizingof the justice (and of madden- such an building on the cover, it is a literary treasure. features an introduction by Lewis H. Lapham, National Correspondent for endeavor.ing) about TheObama one is timethat hehe hasgave the a skills to persuade a great many Harper’s. Handsomely bound with a spectacular illustration of the Flatiron major campaign address on race, Order today through www.harpers.org/store Americans of the justice of such an building on the cover, it is a literary treasure. FRANKLIN prompted by controversy over the Published by Franklin Square Press Reverendendeavor. JeremiahThe one Wright,time he hegave told a SQUARE ISBN 1-879957-14-0 PRESS amajor story campaignabout the historicaladdress on legacies race, Order today through www.harpers.org/store Cloth $14.95 FRANKLIN ofprompted slavery andby controversy legalized discrimina- over the Published by Franklin Square Press Reverend Jeremiah Wright, he told SQUARE tion that have structurally prevent- ISBN 1-879957-14-0 PRESS a story about the historical legacies Distributed through Midpoint Trade Books of slavery and legalized discrimina- Cloth $14.95 tion that have structurally prevent- REPORT 65 Distributed through Midpoint Trade Books

REPORT 65

Klein Final2.indd 65 7/22/09 2:35:12 PM

HA065__07TU0.indd 1 7/22/09 2:50:51 PM Klein Final2.indd 65 7/22/09 2:35:12 PM ed African Americans from achiev- sit, to address the fact that African and job retraining mainly help peo- ing full equality, a story not so Americans live farther away from ple who have just lost their jobs. different from the one activists like where the jobs are than any other Reaching people who have never had Wareham tell in arguing for repara- group. Similarly, a plan targeting in- formal employment—many of whom tions. Obama’s speech was delivered equality would focus on energy- have criminal records—requires a far six months before Wall Street col- effi cient home improvements in low- more complex strategy that takes lapsed, but the same forces he de- income neighborhoods, and, most down multiple barriers simultaneous- scribed go a long way toward ex- importantly, require that contractors ly. “Treating people who are situated plaining why the crash happened in hire locally. Combine all of these differently as if they were the same the fi rst place: “Legalized discrimi- targeted programs with single-payer can result in much greater inequali- nation . . . meant that black families health care and a plan to desegregate ties,” Powell warns, pointing to the could not amass any meaningful the school system and you have New Deal programs like Social Secu- wealth to bequeath to future genera- something like what Randall Robin- rity that helped white men but tions,” he said, which is precisely son called for in The Debt: “a virtual locked out blacks who worked on why many turned to risky subprime Marshall Plan of federal resources” to farms and women who worked in mortgages. In Obama’s home city of close the racial divide. homes. It will be diffi cult to measure Chicago, black families were four There is, of course, no danger that whether this is happening again, be- times more likely than whites to get Obama will attempt anything so cause the White House’s budget of- a subprime mortgage. bold. In his Philadelphia “race fice is not keeping statistics on The crisis in African-American speech,” Obama was emphatic that how its programs affect wealth has only been deepened by race was something “this nation can- women and minorities. the larger economic crisis. In New not afford to ignore”; that “if we sim- York City, for instance, the unem- ply retreat into our respective cor- There were those who saw this ployment rate has increased four ners, we will never be able to come coming. The late Latino activist times faster among blacks than together and solve challenges like Juan Santos wrote a much-circulated among whites. According to the health care, or education, or the essay during the campaign in which New York Times, home “defaults oc- need to find good jobs for every he argued that Obama’s unwilling- cur three times as often in mostly American.” Yet as soon as the speech ness to talk about race (except when minority census tracts as in mostly had served its purpose (saving his campaign depended upon it) was white ones.” If Obama traced the Obama’s campaign from being en- a triumph not of post-racialism but Wall Street collapse back to the gulfed by the Wright scandal), he did of racism, period. Obama’s silence, policies of redlining and Jim Crow, simply retreat. And the Obama Ad- he argued, was the same silence that all the way to the betrayed promise ministration has been retreating every person of color in America of forty acres and a mule for freed from race ever since. lives with, understanding that they slaves, a broad sector of the Ameri- Public-policy activists report that can be accepted in white society can public might well be convinced the White House is only interested only if they agree not to be angry that finally eliminating the struc- in hearing about projects that are about racism. “We stay silent, as a tural barriers to full equality is in “race neutral”—nothing that specif- rule, on the job. We stay silent, as a the interests not just of minorities ically targets historically disadvan- rule, in the white world. Barack but of everyone who wants a more taged constituencies. Its housing Obama is the living symbol of our stable economy. and education programs do not silence. He is our silence writ large. Since the economic crisis hit, John tackle desegregation, and Obama’s He is our Silence running for presi- A. Powell and his team at the Kir- enthusiasm for charter schools— dent.” Santos predicted that “with wan Institute for the Study of Race some of the most segregated schools respect to Black interests, Obama and Ethnicity at Ohio State Univer- in the country—may well deepen would be a silenced Black ruler: A sity have been engaged in a project the problem. When asked specific muzzled Black emperor.” they call “Fair Recovery.” It lays out, questions about what his adminis- Many of Obama’s defenders re- in detailed policy papers, exactly tration is doing to address the fi nan- sponded angrily: Obama’s silence was what an economic stimulus program cial crisis’s wildly disproportionate a mere electoral strategy, they said. He would look like if eliminating the impact on African Americans and was doing what it took to make racist barriers to equality were its overarch- Latinos, Obama has consistently of- white people comfortable voting for a ing idea. Powell’s plan covers every- fered a variation on the line that by black man. All that would change, of thing from access to technology to fi xing the economy and extending course, when Obama took office. community redevelopment. A few benefi ts, everyone will be helped— What Obama’s decision to boycott examples: Rather than simply re- “black, brown, and white”—and the Durban demonstrated defi nitively was building the road system by empha- vulnerable will be helped most that the campaign strategy is also the sizing “shovel ready” projects (as of all. governing strategy. Obama’s current plan does), a “fair All this is being met with mount- Two weeks after I returned from recovery” approach would include ing despair among inequality experts. Geneva, Rush Limbaugh sprang a massive investments in public tran- Extending unemployment benefits new theory on his estimated 14 mil-

66 HARPER’S MAGAZINE / SEPTEMBER 2009

KKleinlein Final2.inddFinal2.indd 6666 77/22/09/22/09 2:35:132:35:13 PMPM lion listeners. Obama, Limbaugh died, and stayed buried for eight claimed, was deliberately trashing long years. When Barack Obama the economy so that he could give was elected president, Moses Wil- more handouts to black people. liams dusted off the old hope. He let “The objective is more food stamp himself imagine a world in which benefi ts. The objective is more un- Obama would attend the Durban Did you know that as a employment benefi ts. The objective Review Conference, standing before Harper’s is an expanding welfare state. And the world “as a healing force against subscriber, you the objective is to take the nation’s hate.” But, said Williams, “he chose have complete and exclusive wealth and return it to the nation’s not to do that.” access to harpers.org? ‘rightful owners.’ Think reparations. So what’s next? Williams, getting Think forced reparations here if you up for his stop, looked back at me. Read the current want to understand what actually is “The people here have to take the going on.” message to the highways and byways. issue—before it arrives in The outburst was instructive. No That’s the only way.” your mailbox. matter how race-neutral Obama Two months after the conference, tries to be, his actions will be the U.S. Senate passed a resolution Browse issues dating back viewed by a large part of the coun- apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow. to 1850. try through the lens of its racial ob- The resolution did not call slavery a sessions. Since even his most mod- crime against humanity, and it ended est, Band-Aid measures are going to like this: “DISCLAIMER—Nothing Read Web-only features: be greeted as if he is waging race in this resolution (A) authorizes or Washington Babylon by Ken war, Obama has little to lose by us- supports any claim against the United Silverstein, Sentences Wyatt ing this brief political window to States; or (B) serves as a settlement of Mason, cartoons by Mr. Fish, heal a few of the country’s any claim against the United States.” racial wounds. Unsurprisingly, the resolution was not and The Weekly Review. greeted with celebratory fi reworks or On April 24, as I took my fi nal tearful testimonies in Harlem and the Plus much more! tram ride to my hotel from the Palais Mississippi Delta. It did, however, des Nations, the roads were lined with have one unintended result: by clum- Tamils protesting the world’s indiffer- sily attempting to foreclose on the HOW TO REGISTER: ence to the massacre of their friends possibility of reparations, the resolu- and families in Sri Lanka. The elderly tion reawakened a national discussion To register for online access, visit black man in front of me, his beard that had been dormant since 9/11. harpers.org and click on the flecked with gray, was wearing an Suddenly, reparations were back in ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? link on the Obama watch and reading a position the news, a hot topic on op-ed pages paper on reparations. I asked him and cable news shows once again. As right-hand side of the home page what he thought of the conference. the debate raged, Obama, predictably, under SUBSCRIBE NOW! He turned around slowly and an- stayed silent. swered in a deep, deliberate baritone, The Durban process, meanwhile, is Enter the ten-digit account as if he had been sitting there waiting not dead yet. The United Nations, so number from your most recent for someone to ask the question. “I see help us all, has its protocols, so there Harper’s mailing label. Do not it not so much as a conference as a will likely be another review confer- include any letters or historical journey to alter the course ence at some point. And despite U.S. of humankind.” efforts to the contrary, the fi nal docu- symbols—only digits. His name was Moses Williams and, ment adopted in Geneva does “reaf- (ten-digit account number) as his manner suggested, he was a fi r m in toto the Durban Declaration preacher, from New Jersey. Williams and Programme of Action,” which had been at the fi rst conference in means that, at least in theory, slavery Durban. “I had believed, at the time, is still “a crime against humanity.” that it would mark a turning point, a That is enough, Roger Wareham Enter your ZIP/postal code and reconciliation with the past that would says, to start a real conversation about bring a new era of dignity and justice. America’s other debt crisis, about how click on REGISTER.You will then be Then”—he paused for effect—“then repairing the damage done to African- prompted to choose your user the twin towers of the World Trade American communities could be an I.D. and password. Center fell.” organic step toward repairing the At the time, he had imagined country as a whole. The President is that the terrorist attacks might welcome to join that conversation, he themselves provide the catalyst for says, but it will happen with or with- Only at “global healing.” That dream also out him. ■ harpers.orG REPORT 67

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