The Tribe is Large

 

The Tribe is Large

Newly arrived at Western and Whatcom County in the mid-1980s, we brought the Rainbow Coalition to the Fourth Corner of Washington. And we were proud Jackson delegates to the 1988 Washington State Democratic Convention.

In the 1990s we were at the forefront of a six-state movement to fight anti-government militias (White nationalists). I joined that new movement because when they started burning crosses nearby, I sought to protect my family.

Along the way Rebecca joined the Womencare Collective, became a NAIROL activist, did HIV education and outreach for the Ryan White Program and ran for city council.

From the beginning I taught students the history of the struggles for racial justice in America and national liberation and development in the Global South. We gave students opportunities to volunteer for community organizations doing racial justice and other kinds of human rights work. 

We’ve been around the nooks and crannies of Whatcom County a few times.

As a student of African politics, I’ve examined the contours of ethnicity, tribe and nation on that great continent. Ethnicity originates genetically, but is witnessed day to day in culture, in the ways of life of those living around each other, because of their genetic affinity.

Culture speaks of our values! Culture grows from ethnicity, but then is “socially constructed” through a community’s day-to-day interactions. Through time culture is inscribed as a set of principles, or values.

After nearly four decades of active participation in the community life of Whatcom County, we have so many loved ones and friends. But alas! The strictures of life’s demands mean that we can only spend “quality time” with a handful of people that we care about on a regular basis.

I decided that the problem is that our ethnic group, our tribe, has become too large! That group of people who form part of the progressive American nation of which the Johnsons are a part, has grown so large over these decades that it’s impossible to lunch, or dinner, or party with you, or just go for walk in the woods as often as we would like ... and that makes me sad!

But what makes me happy is that you are “in our lives,” indelibly etched! We have “socially constructed” the “progressive tribe” of Whatcomlandia,” or maybe Fourth Cornerland,” part of the Progressive Nation in 21^st century America.

We are honored to be part you this grand family. We love you all! 🥰