Malik Speaks, Part 1

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Malik Rahim, founder of Common Ground, spoke today about its past,
present and future at the Community Breakfast in the Unitarian Church
in New Orleans.
New Orleans, January 12-”The name Common Ground came from Robert King
Wilkerson,” said Malik Rahim, one of the founders of the Common
Ground Collective. Rahim, like Wilkerson, is a former Black Panther.
“The concept of how to organize came from Scott Crow at a meeting in
my back yard.”

Malik Rahim was living in Algiers, a part of New Orleans across the
Mississippi River from the rest of the city. It was one of the few
parts of New Orleans that did not flood from Hurricane Katrina.

“The day before Katrina,” Malik continued, “as I rode around the
city, stopping people to ask them what they were going to do, I came
to the shocking realization that most who could leave had left.
They'd locked up their second cars before they'd let another family
use it. Before they'd let another family use their food, they locked
it up too.”

“I realized the city wasn't going to provide nuthin. I spoke to
Oliver Thomas and other officials, and they told me it would take two
to three days to put together aid.

“I saw we had to organize for those left behind, to give them the
capacity to survive two or three days. They were pubic housing
residents, the elderly, and, mostly, the working poor.

“In 2004 the city had a mock drill for what to do if a hurricane
category 4 or 5 hit the city. They estimated 150,000 wouldn't be able
to evacuate, and 60,000 of them would perish.

“Then come Katrina. After Katrina came I couldn't say the horrors
that existed.

“A segment of America would not help those fleeing because of the
color of their skin. They demonized all African Americans. I saw this
happening to babies that they refused to rescue. We're no longer
talking about racism, we're talking about fascism.

“We documented that 19 were killed by white vigilantes in Algiers
simply because they were black males not allowed in the neighborhood.
Every evening they gave a celebration for how many they'd killed that
day. They equated killing African American men with shooting
pheasants.

“For three nights, Scott Crow and Brandon Darby stood guard at my
home after I had a confrontation with the vigilantes.” Crow and
Darby, white activists from Austin, had come to New Orleans at
Malik's request and later rescued Robert King Wilkerson in Mid City,
“There were death calls,” Rahim continued, “and they [the vigilantes]
made themselves known every day by driving by my home.

“At my request, two black activist lawyers came to help after I saw
people who had fainted, and who had infected wounds because of the
toxic floodwaters, refused medical treatment. They got as far as
Jefferson Parish. Then they got turned around.

“When you tell me you're denying people not only sanctuary, but, in
one of the few places that were not damaged, you'll deny medical
assistance—this is fascism. Scott and Brandon came with weapons, and
were allowed in because of the color of their skin.

“Why am I telling you this? Because we need to come together to take
the next step.

“So under these horrific conditions we founded Common Ground. Scott,
Brandon, Sharon [Johnson, Malik's partner] and myself. With $50,
that's all we had. And then we prayed. After that we moved on faith.
We've been moving on faith ever since.

“From the day we founded Common Ground we were monitored by Homeland
Security. Anyone who criticized FEMA was. We assumed from the first
the police would come.

“We started the health clinic in a mosque I was once a member of. We
set up in the mosque after those doctors were denied access, with
street medics who were white.

“It was already overwhelming—we were feeding 2-250 people a day in my
backyard.

Those who first helped start the clinic were Jamie “Bork” Laughner
from DC, Roger Benham from CT, Noah Morris from RI, and Scott
Mechanic from Philly. Bork was also active in the recent actions to
save NO public housing. She was tasered during the police attacks at
City Hall on December 20. The day before she had occupied a building
slated for demolition. Police charged her with two felonies,
Terrorizing and Carrying a False Bomb. The latter charge was because
she locked herself to the building with an empty pipe and a chain.

“We used the mosque until October until we moved across the street
[where the clinic still is].

“Why had it exploded into a race war? A certain part of the
population wanted no African Americans allowed back in the city.
There was a process of demonization and dehumanization, so that the
majority of the American population didn't see us as human beings.

“So one of the first things we knew we had to do was bring back that humanity.

“We had to break the stereotypes. The stereotype held by African
Americans that all whites are oppressors and exploiters. Because in
Louisiana that's all we've seen, except during Reconstruction. And we
had to create a chance for whites to come in and see that we're not
all rapists, looters, criminals and murderers.

“Second, we had to take advantage of white privilege. In America
there are some things a black man can't do. When the governor
[Blanco] declared a dusk to dawn curfew and a shoot to kill policy,
that only applied to blacks.

“When I couldn't get to to Gretna [just west of Algiers], where I
used to live, and where my family owns property, I realized we had to
learn how to use white privilege to serve those in need.” Rahim
reported that white Common Ground members could get into Gretna, and
go to other places where African Americans were banned, especially
during the curfew.

“I'm proud to say, “Malik Rahim continued, “we've served over 180,000
people. Even one of the white vigilantes came to the health clinic,
to get help for his mother. He looked down the whole time.”

To Be Continued.

For more info go to: cghc.org
commongroundrelief.org

The Community Breakfast is held the second Saturday of each month
from 9:30 a.m. until noon at the Unitarian Universalist Church,
Jefferson & S. Claiborne, New Orleans.

Original article is at
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2008/01/11936.php

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