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Whaling Rights
The Human Rights Movement
In the West
By Dr.Vernon Damani Johnson
The Whatcom Human Rights Task Force focuses on community education toward the goal of creating more tolerance for cultural diversity.
The historical and geographical context in which the "Human Rights" movement emerges is amidst struggles, beginning in the 1980's against the Aryan Nation and other white supremacist groups in the rural and small town West. Those groups saw the Northwest as the last bastion for the white race in North America. The human rights movement began specifically to counter the scapegoating of racial minorities, Jews and homosexuals.who were said not to belong in this part of the country,since they were not Christians white heterosexuals. The Aryan Nation survives today as a skeleton of itself, but helped spawn today's more violent white supremacist movements, which can broadly be called Christian Identity groups. Since the Ruby Ridge incident involving white supremacist Randy Weaver, the radical racist movement has converged with state sovereignist, count secessionist and radical property rights groups in an extremely dangerous set of movements. Consequently, we have found ourselves doing anti-militia work, as well.
The Whatcom Human Rights Task Force is heir to the specificity of the human rights movement in the West.
We welcome input on all issues concerning the rights of human beings, as we maintain our focus on race, anti-Semitism and homophobia.
Task Force members have organized two great educational events for the Whatcom County community. The first was a series of conversations on diversity that Setsuko Buckley facilitated. The second was a visit and presentation from Ken Toole, program director for the Montana Human Rights Network. In two days, Toole gave a total of seven presentations on identifying and combating the extreme right. These educational programs are only the beginning of many exciting events to come.
written in autumn of 2000