Thread by @cvmonakow

With the CRS discourse on the TL, I think it's time to post some anecdotes that I've been sitting on from former mediators. There are some crazy stories here:

In the 1970s, 150 Vietnamese refugees ended up in a small coastal town in Texas. They proceeded to ignore both the law and local custom and overfished many areas. They would find a good fishing spot and then invite their whole community to fish it until nothing was left

This led to conflict with the Anglo locals, who began harassing the Vietnamese. It escalated enough that two Vietnamese brothers were beaten by one Anglo guy. They then went home, got weapons, and killed the Anglo. So why did the CRS get involved? To protect the VIETNAMESE

And what happened to the Vietnamese? They were found not guilty

One mediator came from a background working in South Africa, where he dealt with issues relating to Rhodesia. He was attracted to the CRS because he "felt like there was a need to go beyond the legal measure"

He showed up when Indian tribes were being harassed and assaulted, with their fishing equipment vandalized. It turns out they were trespassing and setting up nets indiscriminately. Nets were supposed to be lit up, but they left them unlit, leading to a capsized boat and drowning

The tension began ratcheting up when a federal judge ruled that Indians had a right to 50/50 catch of salmon in Puget Sound. That meant you had to scale back your fishing to Indian levels.

They also had a right to access the water, and Indians interpreted that as the right to set up on private docks, sleep on white people's boats, and more. They littered, played loud music, and defecated in front of kids

Another mediator took on a university in the 90s with a supposedly racist frat. They stayed with them for 6 months, meeting constantly about how to increase minority representation, improve fraternity inclusiveness, and soliciting complaints from minorities about campus life

The demographics of the school? 98% white. By gathering the leaders of every ethnic group on campus and meeting together with the fraternity president, the frat president ends up in meetings where he is the minority, despite being in the 98%

What's consistent across all the mediator stories, and is highlighted here, is that they never interfere with protests, at least at the start. Why? Because this is what gives them leverage with the establishment. They can then swoop in to fix the racial tension

This is a perfect example of multiculturalism from the same mediator. A black kid claims that he was kidnapped and an attempted hanging occurred, so the police investigate but find nothing.

The police know if they tell the mother nothing happened they'll be accused of racist neglect of a hate crime, so they have to get the president of the local NAACP to go with them to deliver the news. It turned out the kid was lying because he skipped school

A reminder that these people are not crazy intelligent Machiavellians: one mediator thought he could reduce crime by teaching people to read.

More multiculturalism leading to ethnic conflict. After Rodney King the CRS attempted to disarm the Koreans. But the Koreans were having internal fights over who got control of the millions (!) of dollars of support coming from Korea. Leaders were benefiting from the conflict

They also noticed how Koreans using the exact same methods of establishing themselves in market niches that Indians do. Pool resources to buy businesses, then take the collateral out to buy another place

They aren't neutral mediators, they use discretion to decide when to initiate mediation, when to step out, and if they should get involved at all. One mediator decided not to mediate a conflict between a Latino organization and the INS because he WANTED them to sue the government

After a protest MLK was leading resulted in violence, it was the CRS that evacuated MLK and made sure he was not injured

When MLK was shot, CRS mediators were staying two doors down in the hotel, and a mediator was one of the first people to get to his body

While riots are electorally foolish, they were excellent leverage for the CRS. They could point at riots and tell public officials, "do you want that to happen here?" It was the CRS that persuaded the DOJ to bring civil rights charges in the Rodney King case. Very 'neutral'

The mediator got the US Attorney General to meet with a few activists, but then ambushed the AG by inviting a bunch of uninvited activists. Yes, a CRS mediator *lied* to the AG and ambushed him with a crowd of angry activists

Back to Memphis 1968, every inch of the protest was planned out, including avoiding buildings under construction so young people wouldn't be tempted to throw bricks. The CRS mediator would then go to the judge to lobby to get changes to the protest route the organizers requested

When the DOJ lawyers found out that the CRS mediator was talking to judges, they were furious, but he basically told them to fuck off. The CRS mediator was functionally giving the protest groups an extra advocate who spoke to judges without any opposing arguments being heard

The mediator admits that he basically overruled what the city wanted. His recounting of what he told the mayor and police chief was, "This is what it's going to be like. As negotiated by me." The protestors didn't need violence because the CRS delivered what they needed

The mediator claims that he was responsible for initiating the idea of demonstrations, and he spoke with a forked tongue in order to maintain credibility with everyone

This particular mediator saw immigration as an opportunity for racial minorities to recruit more POCs in their struggle against white people

And what needs to be done about black overrepresentation in the criminal justice system? Not committing fewer crimes apparently. Instead, black people need "to be in the decision making aspect of the criminal justice system" because blacks "haven't done any more than white youth"

More delights from multiculturalism. One school district didn't get a black superintendent, so the blacks lost it and staged boycotts. The CRS shows up and takes advantage of the fact that businesses hates instability and gets them to buy out the white superintendent's contract

Continuing this thread in light of recent attention. Reiterating what one mediator said, they are not a neutral organization because the “CRS did not have to abandon positions of advocacy.”

They explicitly advocated for the interested of minorities, and minorities alone

One mediator worked at UMass where some white students beat up a black RA after the RA told them to stop drinking. One of the whites was a guest, and when the RA saw him a week later, the RA tried to havehim removed. The RA felt like he wasn't backed up, which sparked protests

Upon meeting the black students, none of their demands had to do with campus security, which was the subject of the protests. Their demands were about increasing the # of minority students and faculty, getting rid of Columbus Day, among others.

The students demand was originally that 30% of the student population should, and the mediator helped them negotiate for a 20% quota.

After reading a lot of these testimonies, one thing you'll notice is that the CRS is basically an NGO/community group machine. They don't want to stay around permanently, so they set up permanent minority advocacy groups to make agreements with authorities

During desegregation they would leverage fears of violence to scare the opposition into going along with it:

"You may be against school desegregation; but if you resist, someone's going to get hurt. You don't want to have that."

In Boston they functionally served as an arm of the judge to fulfill the desegregation order. When schools refused to cooperate, the judge ordered them to carry out the CRS's wishes.

"We basically were working with the court to reconstruct a governing system for the schools."

"the most important aspect of civil rights in any country is compliance, compliance with the law. That's what we are, we're a compliance agency that's getting people to abide by the civil rights laws of this country."

So how was the CRS so effective? According to a former director, the resentful energy of minorities had no effective outlets. What the CRS provided were effective paths to express that energy.

There are many, many more anecdotes I could share, but I think that conclusion is the most important, especially in light of the energy around the Kirk assassination. The anger requires an *effective* outlet, or this will simply be yet another Current Thing