Editor's Blog

By Tendai Chinhakwe, who is an 11th grader at Long Reach High School in Columbia, Maryland, and was a volunteer in the Africa Tent at the US Social Forum.
The United States Social Forum (USSF) was an interesting experience. It was a large group of progressive thinking minds, exhibiting their passion for change and is the United States' version of the World Social Forum. Held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Atlanta Civic Center, nearly 10,000 people came to the forum, staffing and visiting tables and tents that addressed various social issues. Workshops given at the Civic Center and around downtown Atlanta educated participants and gave them a chance to share their opinions on the issues at hand. Below the fold...

I was at the Forum, volunteering in the Africa Tent for the 4th Annual Bill Sutherland Institute for Africa Advocates. While it was a wonderful environment, it was anything but a utopia, filled with constant reminders of the imperfect world around us.
The U.S. Social Forum became a place for people of different skin colors, genders, sexual orientations and backgrounds to come together and discuss issues they care deeply about. In most cases people tend to care about issues that directly affect them. For example, African Americans and other people of color care about racism and LGBT people care about same sex marriage and homophobia. But to my surprise, a man speaking on a stage who described himself as a 'transgender, gay man,' spoke passionately about freeing the Cuban Five. It was amazing to see how many different issues were covered under the same roof. One could go to the Africa, Palestine, Democracy, Solidarity, or Code Pink tents. or visit the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Table or the American Friends Service Committee' s 'Iraq Dreams and Nightmares' exhibit -- all without leaving the spaces outside the Civic Center, where the forum was held.
Despite the progressive thinkers and their supposed awareness of issues and the significance of the USSF, reminders of our troubled world were still there. A homeless shelter was only a few blocks away and throughout the day many homeless people wandered in and out of tents in search of shade, air conditioning, and food. While this is sad, it is not unfamiliar. But what struck me about the situation was, while the sight of homeless people is not rare, events like the USSF are. One would think that with so many issues being covered, maybe the issue of homeless people in Atlanta would be discussed. It would have been nice to see a soup kitchen feeding homeless people, a job fair organization helping people find jobs, an organization working to help people find housing, and/or an organization homeless people who also face untreated or insufficiently treated mental illnesses.
Also, in the Africa Tent, a woman displayed amazing selfishness asking, 'Why are Africans always begging for things?' after being asked for a $5 donation for food for those registered for the Bill Sutherland Institute. This woman, wearing a 'Peace' t-shirt and attending the USSF, could not leave her bigoted thoughts at home.
An event like the United States Social Forum is a good idea. It' s motto, 'Another World Is Possible,' is powerful, but I think that it needs to focus on the people involved in the USSF as well as those people around it, because the USSF can not accomplish a better world if those who are involved in it are as bad as those they are fighting against.