September US Subs Cover Final2rev2 7/28/09 3:36 PM Page 1 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 77:52:53:52:53 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 22:35:11:35:11 PMPM one-page Durban Declaration and pendent State and we recognize the map.