 GREENSBORO NEWS |
 |
 |
|
|
Joseph
Credit: Submitted Photo
|
|
Joseph: True reconciliation
by Joya Wesley
Carolina Peacemaker
Originally posted 11/11/2009
Sustainable reconciliation is impossible to achieve without rectifying economic injustice, former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa James A. Joseph, said during the Truth, Justice & Healing Conference held in Greensboro in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Nov. 3 killings of five labor and community organizers.
“When all is said and done,” Joseph said Saturday in the Pfeiffer Chapel at Bennett College for Women, “The ultimate question is not whether truth leads to reconciliation, but whether or not there can be reconciliation without economic justice.”
The recognition that the answer is a resounding “no” is one of the things that distinguishes South Africa from the United States, said Joseph, who has had an illustrious career in government, business, education and philanthropy.
From 1982-1995, he was president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, an international organization of more than 1,900 foundations and corporate giving programs. He was under Secretary of the Interior from 1977-1981 and a vice president of Cummins Engine Company and president of the Cummins Engine Foundation from 1971-1976.
An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Joseph was appointed Ambassador to South Africa in 1995. He now is professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies and executive director of the United States – Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke University.
Joseph first visited South Africa as an anti-apartheid activist in the early 1970s, and has lived there part-time since 1996.
In his deep, resonant voice, he offered the generations of justice workers participating in the conference lessons he’s learned from the nation and its model attempts to recover from a past that features such horrific injustices, as well as continuing imbalances.
“I was present at the commissioning of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa,” he said. “I was present when the Commission handed its report to Nelson Mandela.”
“In South Africa, race is on the table. In America, it is under the table if it is in the room,” he added. “In the United States, we need to recognize conflicting views of the past as well as differing views of the present. In the United States we must also emphasize justice as a requirement for reconciliation.”
Joseph quoted Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has said that unless the huge gap between rich and poor is narrowed, we can “just as well kiss reconciliation goodbye.”
“These are not the words we often hear quoted by those who would promote reconciliation in the United States,” Joseph said.
Along with practical tips including the need for forgiveness to promote individual healing, stress-reduction, health and balance, Joseph provided illumination of how the U.S. dialog on ending poverty is distorted by the language used.
“South Africa has come to recognize the need for a large public role in rectifying economic injustice,” he said. “This is different from the mood in the United Sates.
Here, he said, people are being led to believe that such intervention is not only impossible, but that even if it was possible there aren’t enough resources available for making it happen.
These arguments ignore the true history of a nation where government gave many White families their head start through such programs as the Homestead Act, Federal Housing Administration loans, the GI Bill and tax codes aimed at subsidizing home-ownership and wealth.
“It was the government that brought wealth to many who now insist that poverty today should be addressed by private charity,” he said. “Many of these beneficiaries of government welfare did not include people who looked like me. But the people who benefited from these programs called them subsidies.”
Today, they disparage the idea by calling similar programs “welfare” for the poor, who often are demonized in the media and are pressured by thousands of dollars in hidden fees charged through such features of the ghetto as costly check-cashing, rent-to-own merchandise and payday lending.
“We cannot expect to address poverty in a meaningful way without addressing race-based biases,” Joseph said.
The conference, which began Wednesday and ended Saturday, was sponsored by the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, the Greensboro Justice Fund, the Greensboro Human Relations Commission, the Andrus Family Fund, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the North Carolina Council of Churches, and the Network of Spiritual Progressives/Tikkun.
Participants included the Student Government presidents at N.C. A&T State University and Bennett College, where Sandi Smith, one of the five killed on Nov. 3, was president in 1973. Also participating was Mayor Yvonne Johnson, who received a standing ovation Saturday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
