(**you will find an over abundance of the words "OR ELSE", capitalizations and exclamation marks throughout these posts and they are satirizations of Jennifer McLune and "Divine Purpose" postings.)

(Dear readers. this is readable but still messy. We are working on it. write intro and clean up text asii errors)

Here's is the initial list exchange (from 2006) where Jennifer McLune began calling Sheila Jeffreys, and then me, "racist white supremacists". Thankfully I have never had any exchange with her after this time in writing or verbally. Jennifer claims that she was calling me on my racist behavior and I got defensive. Nope, that is not the way it happened. I was calling her out about making false accusations about white radical feminists and she went ballistic. This is her tactic rather than accountability or honesty she diverts with hysteria. When I saw her using the same tactics on oob recently, after three years of staying silent, I decided it was time to speak out. I knew the lies and distortions she was/is capable of. I have sat on it for three years and I have not been anxious to have to release it. But now here it is for any who might be interested in this exchange, and for any who might benefit from the contents herein. When I asked Jennifer for documentation to prove what she said I was called a racist for daring to ask a black woman for that. It's documented right here in this exchange for any who bother to read it. -- Nikki Craft, November 1, 2009

"So, A few DISCLAIMERS: I DO NOT HAVE THE SMOKING GUN! I repeat: I DO NOT HAVE THE SMOKING GUN. I do not have the e-mail SHEILA JEFFREYS wrote to the CATWA List advocating for the women of color trouble makers to be removed. I was sent the entire thread over three years ago via snail mail and I did not keep it. So I do not have the smoking gun "proving" that SHEILA JEFFREYS is a racist. Does that mean I'm lying?" -- Jennifer McLune, October 11, 2006

Post #1:

"She's a self-righteous evil and dangerous person and she's my enemy." Jennifer McLune, October 9, 2006

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: RE: How Orgasm Politics Has Hijacked the Women's Movement
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:07:58 +0000

I don't have time or energy to go into this very deeply but I must finally say publicly that I have a huge problem with Sheila Jeffreys. I know a lot of people love and respect her work as a radical feminist. I once did too. That's why I have until now kept how I really feel about her bottled up inside. Contrary to popular belief Jenn does not enjoy outing people as racists! It gets tiring and frustrating to continuously have to face the fact that so many otherwise right on white people would have us back on the plantation if they could vote anonymously! Read black pro-feminist lawyer Derrick Bell. And yes I believe that includes some radical white feminists as well! Anyways, Sheila Jeffreys is a racist. She's a white supremacist!

A lot of people don't know but there is a list serve out of Australia called CATWA, Coalition Against the Trafficking in Women, Australia. I know a woman of color that was on that list. She told me what happened because she was BANNED from the list at the urging of Sheila Jeffreys for bringing up the issue of racism. She didn't just tell me what happened. She printed out and mailed me the entire thread of e-mails from beginning to end! I read the entire thing unfold! It was years ago and I'm still unsure about all the details but I do remember one thing I concluded after reading it all: Sheila Jeffreys is a racist and white women like her are my enemy! I remember coming away hating Sheila Jeffreys. I remember coming away hating her and feeling really violated for ever trusting her analysis as a white woman to my struggle as a black woman. I felt violated, I felt betrayed. How did I ever let this racist white woman into my consciousness, my analysis?! She only cares about other white women or women of color she can control!

Basically what happened is there was an incident in Australia in which some aboriginal men allegedly raped or abused some women and they were either imprisoned or let off I don't remember all the details. A discussion arose about that on this predominantly white list and my friend, a woman of color, found it all very offensive. Some really ignorant and racist things were said by the white women and this friend who was clearly outnumbered as a woman of color pointed out how problematic a lot of the comments were. The white women on this list began their usual chorus of self rightness, good intentions, hurt feelings, sisterhood, sisterhood, sisterhood! Let's not let race divide us and other such bullshit they cried! Anyways, the bottom line is this: My friend was removed, BANNED from the list at the urging of these white women INCLUDING SHEILA JEFFREYS. Yes, I read her e-mail to the list calling for this woman of color to be removed and all discussions about race ended! It was a slap in the face!

She's a RACIST. I have no desire to read anything she writes. Her analysis is useless to me! Even if she is right, she is wrong because she is a racist! There is not a damn thing I can learn from her! She's the type of white woman who would have us back on the plantation if she could! I fundamentally believe that!

Nikki Craft was on this list. So was xxxxx. From what I remember they were both on the right side of the issue and supported the women of color∑..

BUT I've also had personal correspondence with Nikki Craft in which when I reminded her about CATWA she said that oh well, nobody's perfect (meaning Jeffreys) and she's doing really important work! At the time I said nothing but I was really thinking to myself, this is why I don't really trust white women! Fuck That! Racism is serious! It's not just about an imperfection! It's about a legacy of rape, genocide, slavery, colonialism, self hatred∑.that you benefit from as a white woman! don't give me that Sheila Jeffreys isn't perfect shit! So you see? Even when white women support us they may do so out of guilt not because they truly understand or know what is right! So I can't vouch that today Yoshi or Nikki even get what happened the way I get it.

Sheila Jeffreys is a white supremacist! She's the type of white woman that will only invoke the issue of race to bolster her own racist white radical feminist agenda! I don't trust a damn things she does or says in my name as a black woman. She's evil and dangerous as far as I'm concerned. I saw first hand how she was able to manipulate the idea of unity, sisterhood and the "urgency‰ of ending prostitution in order to shut down talk of racism and justify removing a woman of color from the CATWA list! This analysis is the very same analysis we all admire and she was able to manipulate it in the interest of racism! That's what makes her evil and dangerous. Now I know Jeffreys has done a lot of work in the interest of ending violence against women. Why should this incident on CATWA erase all that? Well, first off this is only one incidence we know about and it probably would be dead and forgotten if it wasn't for my big mouth. Secondly, it should erase it because if she is truly radical she should know better than to use her analysis and work in the interests of evil, and racism is evil!

Jacquelyn, when she comes on your radio show please ask her about CATWA! In fact forward her my e-mail. I want her to know that someone out there remembers. I think a persons TRUE SELF comes out when they think they are a space safe enough to be their true self! So Jeffreys knew because she was in the company of her radical white feminist sisters (the radical feminist community is even whiter in Australia!) she could behave like the Plantation Mistress she really wishes herself to be! I'll bet you anything she thinks no one remembers what happened on CATWA because she was successful in removing the only woman of color present and she thinks her white sisters will stick behind her as they already have! She's a self-righteous evil and dangerous person and she's my enemy.

Jennifer McLune

Post #2: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:03am

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: How Orgasm Politics Has Hijacked the Women's Movement
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:00:00 +0000

As far as I know no one has ever confronted Sheila Jeffreys about what happened on CATWA. The woman of color (and yes, I'm deliberately not using her name for her own privacy and safety) who she had banned from the list actually knows her personally. But she felt very isolated and alienated as a radical woman and a lesbian of color in the predominantly white rad fem community/movement of Australia that worships at the feet of women like Jeffreys in spite of their racism. So even though she knows Jeffery's personally and I think actually talked to her after the banning, she felt helpless to really confront her or do anything about it. It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please".

I don't know if Nikki or Yoshi did anything else in solidarity after what happened accept to say publicly on the list that this woman of color deserved to stay when all the white women on this list voted her off. So much for sisterhood huh?

And yes, please forward my e-mail far and wide! Get the word out!

jenn

Post #3: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:03am

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:55:21 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: My final post to catwa


A few months prior to leaving this list I had been thrown off Donna Hughes antiprostitution list for my _relentless_ confrontations for approx six months about the list being turned over to Morality In Media and other right wingers and also for racism on the list after 9/11 "the battle of civilizations"/"islamofascists" etc. I was sad to leave CATWA because of the information on anti prostitution. I left it anyway three days after the removal of the woman, who I do not know, who was removed for raising the issue of racism, because it apparently that she would not be reinstated on the list. Here's the last emails I wrote to the [CATW] list [about the women who were thrown off for trying to bring up racism]:


"My concern here is that we cannot silence these posts that are trying to communicate and clarify ideas and positions, no matter if the agenda did come from years ago. It doesn't sound like this was the case in this instance, but in my mind that would be all the more reason that it needs to come out and be dealt with in a "civil" and informed exchange where women feel free to express their opinions. With all the self censorship that women do on themselves it's hard to make a space where that can be overcome to some degree. Btw, I do believe that Del has achieved this on her list yrw to an admirable level."

Post #4: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:03am

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:56:09 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: where are these racist emails Jeffries allegedly wrote?

several weeks ago i had to go into an emergency hospital stay for four days. I had to leave the hospital with some damage to my gall bladder and pancreas and the drs telling me i was refusing an operation and putting myself in a life threatening situation. I have no dr. or health insurance and will have to try to do it using holistic means. I hope I can. Fortunately the dr set up the temporary date for the operation for Oct 16th in case I can't avoid it. I've had a little pain since then but not much, but I'm still not well by any means.

I have been ill since May of this year and Andrea's audio archive, trying to finish it before her birthday, pushed my health to such a degree that I not only could not finish it but put myself in the hospital the last few days I had to finish it.

This semester I have just reenrolled in school after being out for almost a year. I have been on the honor roll but because of my illness this semester I am probably going to have to drop out of my classes to avoid failing. Andrea's audio archive, when I can manage to concentrate enough to work again, and my school work will be my priorities. So please excuse my delays in responding to the frequent accusations and false allegations made about me on this copy list.

I missed the emails or anything ever in quotation marks that substantiate that Sheila Jeffries is a white supremacist. I've never read anything Jeffries wrote that would suggest that. I was certainly unaware of them when I made the any remarks in the past about Jeffries to Jennifer McLune. I would like to see those emails and I would also like to see the correspondence that Jennifer McLune wrote about my "correspondence" which she did not put in quotes either. I find no such exchange about Jeffries or CATWA in any of our email exchange.

I do not remember that quote as it would have to be more than one year old if not longer, and would have to see it in context and my exact wording. Since Jennifer McLune never mentioned it to me, and just announced to send it all over the internet I don't see how she could have even known what I was commenting on because she didn't ask for any clarification and I know we have had no conversation in depth about it.

When I wrote, if I did, something like nobody's perfect which btw I still stand by, whether I said it or not yes it's true nobody is perfect. IF I said it I would have been making a reference that I did not agree with their list decision (which Jeffries did not post someone else did, in fact I don't know of any post Jeffries made on the topic at all, but I could have missed it. I just did a search and couldn't find anything in my database) but I knew she was probably behind the decision and I vehemently disagreed with. On principle I don't discourage anyone from confronting someone they need to. I don't diminish racism and I'm not part of any white girl network and I don't have star worship for _any_ feminist in this movement, shiela jeffries and andrea dworkin included.

Nikki Craft
http://www.nikkicraft.com

Post #6: WHAT ONE WOMAN WROTE ON Jennifer McLune'S LIST IN RESPONSE TO HER POST

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 01:53:56 -0400

hey Jenn,
I didn't know that about Sheila Jeffreys. I believe you. Kicking a woman of color off list for trying to talk about racism is just wrong, under any circumstance. Doing that makes Jeffreys a racist. Imainly wanted to share the article because I get so frustrated withpeople telling me subordination in sex is liberating for women, and it addressed that. But looking at it honestly, she does bring up that Ms. image of an African American woman, without really saying anything aboutracism. I feel bad thatme posting the article made you have to spendtime rehashing what happened with CATWA, but amglad you remember what happened,and are telling people, even though I don't think it means you're having "fun," at all.

I don't know if it's ever possible for me to "getit" regarding racism, the way you have to.But I do know how bad it feels to have somebody tell youhey, nobody's perfect, they've doneso much good for the movement, we need to overlook this, etc., when you try to call out powerful people on sexist behavior (that is almost verbatum what Gailsaid to men when I talked to her aboutrobert jensen). Yes, people make mistakes, but it's not your responsibility to forgive them, especially when the "mistake" in question is something as serious as racism, and especially when Sheila Jeffreys is, aparently, not making any effortto apologize or accept responsibility. So sorry things like thiskeep happening.

Post #7: WHAT ONE RADICAL FEMINIST WROTE ON Jennifer McLune'S LIST

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:47:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: RE: How Orgasm Politics Has Hijacked the Women's Movement

I don't know why this was in my bulk email folder, maybe because of the word 'orgasm'.

Thank you Jenn for trying so hard to reach out in spite of getting slapped down over and over again. I know of the defensiveness of white women because that
was how I reacted too. But your courageous insistence has chipped away at that to make me want to listen to what is really going on.

I agree that we can't just ignore racism because it would be so easy and let's just try to get along in the name of progress. We need to jam the gears in this train because it's not on the track and it's not going anywhere by grinding over the bodies of our sisters and brothers. It's so easy to align ourselves with the oppressor that we forget we're doing it, we choose to forget.

And if we're choosing to forget about the bodies under our wheels, how are we different from the liberal feminists?

Post #8: WHAT ANOTHER RADICAL FEMINIST WROTE IN REPLY TO JENNIFER ON HER LIST

Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:20:25 -0400

thanks for the accounts, yoshi & nikki

the reason i'd asked previously if anyone had tried to "call out" jefferys or the other white women that were racist is because, though i def don't think a good brain & good work in other areas excuses a person's racism, i think it does make it worth the effort of talking to that person and trying to get her to confront & change her racism (or whatever other hateful mindset she's got going on). in other words, i don't wanna turn a blind eye to a sheila jeffreys' racism just because she's done 'good feminist work' OR excuse a man's sexism because he's otherwised supported anti-porn work, for example, BUT i don't wanna give up on them w/o seeing if they can change.

i think as white allies, this is where our role really lies -- keeping each other in check & confronting other white folks' racism ... not just for the sake of confrontation but with the aim of them evolving to a mindset of equality.

also, jenn, other w.o.c., i want to clarify that i don't believe the onus for 'trying to change people's racist, etc attitudes' (for lack of a better way to describe it) rests with you -- even though i know you do it and i really admire & appreciate the immense effort and psychological & emotional toll that takes, it's def not fair for me and other white women to expect you to do it. BUT i still think the effort needs to be made, hence the role of allies.

what do others think about this?

CATWA 2003 POSTS THAT PROVE THAT JENNIFER MCLUNE WAS LYING WHEN SHE SAID THAT WHITE FEMINISTS SUPPORTED RACISIM ON THE LIST. Post #9: HERE'S ANOTHER EMAIL I WROTE TO THE CATW LIST MANGEMENT AT THAT TIME Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 14:45:12 -0600 To: catw-australia From: Nikki Craft Subject: Re: [catw-australia] List Protocol Hi Carole and everyone, I've been so busy I haven't had time to read all the posts on catw-australia list on a consistent basis. I have however now gotten the overall drift, and if this is indeed the policy of the list, then please unsubscribe me as well. I will regret not being on the list but am not interested in being on any list with such restraints that serves to silence such an important exchange. I hope you will reconsider this policy. I understand you have important responsibilities with regards to the list, however I strongly believe this response to be an ethical and tactical mistake. I no longer wish to be part of this list. Its foreclosure of an important discussion is an insult to womyn of colour and to feminism as a movement. Sincerely, Nikki Craft

Post #10:

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:30:00 +0000

NIKKI CRAFT is all about documentation. Proof! Women need it to substantiate sexism. Black folks need it to prove racism. If you don't have the taped conversation, e-mail thread or at least one (preferably white or male) eye witness you are lying! Or you should have the sense enough to stay quiet about what you know because no one will believe you anyway! That's why NIKKI CRAFT sent everyone a post entitled "WHERE ARE THESE RACIST E-MAILS SHEILA JEFFREYS ALLEGEDLY WROTE?‰ In spite of our so-called friendship she's already positioning me as a liar or a crazy person who has some desire to bring down her and Jeffreys on bogus claims of racism.

So, A few DISCLAIMERS: I DO NOT HAVE THE SMOKING GUN! I repeat: I DO NOT HAVE THE SMOKING GUN. I do not have the e-mail SHEILA JEFFREYS wrote to the CATWA List advocating for the women of color trouble makers to be removed. I was sent the entire thread over three years ago via snail mail and I did not keep it. So I do not have the smoking gun "proving‰ that SHEILA JEFFREYS is a racist. Does that mean I'm lying? Or hit my head somewhere blanked out and imagined all this? Does this mean that even if it is true without that e-mail Sheila gets a pass? Maybe. Think of how much racism and sexism, experiential and systematic that goes unpunished because of the oppressed are unable to provide proof? Think about how much of what we know as women and women of color is experiential and never be documented by standards set the dominant culture? I'm not trying to justify saying someone is racist without having the much needed evidence! That's why I kept what I knew about JEFFREYS to myself for so long! But what exactly do I gain from making this all up? And how stupid am I to mistake what Yoshi remembers about Sheila's post for racism or white supremacy? It was a lot worse than that (but thanks for speaking up Yoshi, I'm glad you mined your memory for what happened and I wouldn't want you to remember something if you don't) Oh, but then again I just enjoy "playing the card!" All black people do! We enjoy bringing down "innocent" whites. As if we can! lol

Nikki Craft wrote:
".....please excuse my delays in responding to the frequent accusations and false allegations made about me on this copy list."

I don't even know what "frequent accusations and false allegations" you are referring to by me about you! I'm truly baffled because accept for the what you said about Jeffreys I don't remember saying anything about you on this list.

But NIKKI, you are right. I should not have posted it to this list. Maybe I should have called and spoke to you personally about how I felt. Maybe that was a breach of confidentiality on my part. And I regret it only because it has revealed something very ugly about you: your racism. When I decided to get to know you I did not think I was signing on to be a confidant who‚d keep your secrets or assuage your ego! Fuck that! The truth is after you hung up on me last night screaming and crying "WE ARE NO LONGER FRIENDS" you might as well screamed "BAD NEGRO! I can no longer trust you!‰ Because that's what it felt like coming from a white woman who has continually used tears and supposed good intentions to make me feel guilty. And you are right, you can't trust me. I am that bad negro! I'll always speak truth to power, especially white power posing as friendship. I believe you befriended me in order to control me and to justify your calling yourself "anti-honky." Your words. But you are a honky. You used the tactics of white supremacy to control and manipulate me as a young black woman who did admire your work and was looking for a mentor. I told you a lot of personal things about me, about what I was going through and my family. And I regret that now because I see how truly wrong I was about you. But I swear: If you post any personal information about me or my family anywhere I will give you something to really cry about! That's a promise! And yes, please file this e-mail away for future reference!

The first time I posted on YRW that I did not have any white friends NIKKI CRAFT called me up crying! What about her? Wasn't she my friend? How could I respond to that? I remember saying "Of course, of course, I only meant'etc etc∑‰ So I there I was forced to comfort a crying white woman who was hurt I didn't include her as a friend∑Amazing. I feel so ashamed that I was sucked into that. That for all my talk about not trusting white people I still managed to find myself comforting a white woman, a racist one at that and not seeing the racist manipulation in that!

When I referred to a "personal correspondence‰ I had with Nikki Craft I meant over the phone NOT OVER e-mail! Unfortunately I'm not in the habit of taping phone conversations I have with my so called friends so once again just assume I'm lying on Nikki Craft. In this phone conversation Nikki Craft said that in spite of what Sheila did on CATWA, "nobody's perfect" and "she's doing really important work." I was really hurt at the time, really disappointed.

NIKKI CRAFT wrote about her comment on JEFFREYS:
"Since Jennifer McLune never mentioned it to me, and just announced to send it all over the internet I don't see how she could have even known what I was commenting on because she didn't ask for any clarification and I know we have had no conversation in depth about it."

Damn right I never mentioned it to you! I was shocked and hurt! And what I did with your comment was file it away (inside myself not online!) and just realize your limitations at not getting it as a white woman!

Nikki Craft wrote:
"When I wrote, if I did, something like nobody's perfect which btw I still stand by, whether I said it or not yes it's true nobody is perfect."

Once again, she did not write it, but said it to me over the phone!

Nikki CRAFT continues:
"IF I said it I would have been making a reference that I did not agree with their list decision.....but I knew she (JEFFREYS) was probably behind the decision and I vehemently disagreed with. "

So let's get this straight: either CRAFT meant "nobody's perfect" about CATWA list policy which were racist or she meant "nobody's perfect" about Sheila Jeffreys supporting racism? Wow, that's so much better!

So even though Nikki CRAFT denies the existence of a direct e-mail from JEFFREYS advocating the removal of women of color from CATWA she believes that Sheila Jeffreys was probably behind it. And this makes JEFFREYS "less than perfect.‰ No Nikki, that makes her A RACIST!

NIKKI CRAFT wrote:
"I missed the emails or anything ever in quotation marks that substantiate that Sheila Jeffries is a white supremacist. I've never read anything Jeffries wrote that would suggest that."

So without the e-mails or precious quotation marks I should just shut up and continue to pretend as if I don't know what I know? Maybe you are right. But as a radical feminist I'm fighting for a world where the oppressed not the oppressor is believed because it's our lives on the line not theirs! And no matter what I call you or Sheila you are still white! You still win at the end of the day!

NIKKI last night you accused me of "talking out both sides of my mouth‰ because I said that you supported the women of color on the list but at the same time I said you made a comment about Sheila Jeffreys. NIKKI, a lot of white people who want to be known as "anti-honky" will take stands publicly then say and do racist shit behind closed doors! So although you have stood in solidarity with people of color in predominately white spaces this does not erase what you do or say when no one is around or when you feel you‚re speaking candidly.

I just want to say that that I feel really foolish and hurt right now. I feel stupid that I trusted a racist white woman, NIKKI CRAFT and I feel hurt that race trumps friendship so much that she 1) wont trust what I know about Sheila Jeffreys 2) wont come clean about what she said to me on the phone 3) clearly does not get that racism is a serious issue not about imperfections but systematic domination 4)befriended me in order to silence and control me as a vulnerable young black woman who admired her.

Jennifer McLune

Post #11: WHAT ONE RADICAL FEMINIST WROTE IN RESPONSE TO JENNIFER ON HER LIST.

Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:11:17 -0400

Christ Almighty, Jenn, you are right-- I COMPLETELY blanked out about the worst part of the whole CATWA incident! That's right -- all the women of color who were arguing for inclusion of the discussion of racism were forcibly removed from the list! Now I *do* remember. That was SO fucked-up! When it was a discussion about whether racism was "off-topic," it was bad enough, but then a bunch of white women who ran the list decided to "solve" the issue altogether by just removing the women of color! OMG, I can't believe I forgot that. That was sick.

Post WHAT ONE RADICAL FEMINIST WROTE IN REPLY TO Jennifer McLune ON HER LIST

Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:48:52 -0400

hey,
I have not said anything on list about this, not because I don't care, but becauseI am apartment searching right now, and also, I was never on the CATWA list. Also, awoman inthe building next to mine was throat raped this morning (I know that's what happened, even though I have no proof, because I could HEAR her screaming,gagging TERRIBLY, and every now and then, pleading withthe man who was raping her, that she couldn't breath, and him telling her to take it). I leaned outmy window and yelled "what are you doing to her?! I'm going to call 911!" The man said "Fuck you, call 911" (the woman did not respond), so I called the police, and told themthe address of the building, though I don't know what apartmentall this was happening in.Now I feel helpless and anxious, because I have no ideawhat happened to this woman, whether she's alright or not, and of course, even if the police did come, I am almost sure the man was gone by then.

But Ido want to say about thisdiscussion too,I believe what Jennsays about Sheila Jeffreys, even if shedidn't keep the emails, or doesn't have a paper trail. Why would I not believe Jenn when she talks about experiencing racism at the hands of a white woman? I have no reason whatsoever to accuse Jenn of lying. I honestly can't think of any reason on earth why she would want to bring all this up to lie about it anyway, or take on Sheila Jeffreys, when clearly talking about all this isnot easy.

No oneincluding Nikki has tried to sayJeffreys ever stood withwomen of color on the CATWA list, have they? Nikki said in her response, she felt Jeffries was behind the decision to remove some women from the list. Nikki sent out Yoshi's email saying she was leaving the list, in solidarity with WOC. But, where is Jeffreys email like that, saying she would leave in solidarity with women of color? Did she stay on the list? I don't understand why it isJenn's responsibility to prove Jeffries is racist, and not the otherway around--why is it not Jeffreys responsibility to prove shecares about women of color? If Jeffreys was not actively saying that, proving that with her actions, then she was being racist. She needed to say, this is wrong,women of color shouldnot bebanned from talking about racismon the CATWA list. Thatsilence, in and of itself, would bea form of racism. None of that is to say I disbeleive Jenn about racist emails as well, directly from Jeffries, asking for women of color to be removed, I just don't even think that's needed! There's a limited amount I can say, beyond that,not having been on the list, butI believe Jenn, and also, I believe at one pointin a privateemail to me, Julian Real had mentioned something about Sheila Jeffreys work being tainted with racism at times.

I have definately had the experience ofbeing oppressed in sexist ways, and not saying anything about it at the time, because I felt powerless. I thought nobody would believe me. It doesn't mean it didn't happen, just because I didn't speak up. I have even had times when people said, maybe I was treated unfairly, but the person who was sexist towards me had done other good things, so they had to be forgiven (even without apologizing, even without working to correct their sexist behavior). It's one thing to say women are fallable and human, but that should not be used to excuse racism or reduce it to the level of a "mistake." That is justhurtful. Why can't white women admit that we are not always aware of our racism, that we are ALL racist on some level, because we have white privelege, and thattrying to confront and unlearnracismis a life longeffort.

I don't remember Jenn makingaligations about Nikki before on this list either, or any list.I know Nikki you have been going through some very difficult stuff personally with illness lately, so I am sorry for that,this response feels really off to me, and out of character for you, and Iwonder ifJenn has kind of stepped in the middle of something else.As for thepeople Jenn responded to on the list I sent the article too, a lot of them are trulyjust random people from my personal life (a poetry teacher,friends from college and work), theyaren't going to try to bring anybody down in the feminist community, and are probably completely confused about getting all theseemails to begin with.

Post #13:

[THIS WHOLE LONG EMAIL IS WHAT I WROTE IN MY REPLY TO JENNIFER MCLUNE]

Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:17:41 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys

When I called Jennifer I was talking directly to her about my feelings. When I'm happy I laugh. When I'm sad I cry. I don't use tears to manipulative (sexist stereotype of women) or even because I expect comforting from anyone. I laugh easily and cry easily as well. It's the way I express myself. She frames our phone relationship as her having to comfort me, but if you add up all the hours we have ever talked on the phone most of it consisted of me speaking with her about several problems she was having which we spent hours on the phone talking about because I wanted to be supportive of her and was sincerely worried about her. I even attempted to seek outside help for her. I'm not going to go into any of the specifics because they were private conversations but I spent a great deal of my time, and energy, and concern being supportive to her. It was not just a passing conversation. It was many, many hours of total focus on her. I did this not to manipulate her or control her, but because at that time I genuinely loved and respected her.

When Jennifer called me on the phone last night I did _NOT_ say "WE ARE NO LONGER FRIENDS" as she claimed in her last email. She is again misrepresenting me. When she said to me: "You remember that was when we started being friends..." I said "NO! YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF YOUR MOUTH. IF YOU FEEL THIS WAY THEN WE *NEVER WERE* FRIENDS." If Jennifer cites me as the reason she distrusts white women (from something she's held in for years) and tells people to broadcast that all over the internet without ever even confronting me about it, says that she has *no* white women friends then we NEVER WERE friends. My commitment to being anti-racist has nothing to do with friendship. I DECIDEDLY don't expect Jennifer or any black person to like me. I only have that expectation of a friend and she's no friend of mine and hasn't been for years. No more tears now and I am glad to have the information. It just took me a few years to get it. Now I've *got* it.

Jennfier claims there is an email where Jeffreys "advocat[ed] the removal of women of color from CATWA" I'm certainly not aware of any email where Jeffreys called for the removal of women of color off catwa list. This type of repeated exaggeration that I'm seeing from Jennifer makes me deeply distrust and disrespect her interpretation of events. At the time I was on the list I was not even sure who the list manager was for a long time. I didn't know who was making decisions. When I said I thought Jeffreys was probably behind it, I believe that was something I thought after I was already off the list. As I said, I've never even seen any email that Jeffreys wrote specifically about it, and I don't have it in my database, therefor when Jennifer mentioned Jeffreys on the phone (in the first email she said "correspondence") we were discussing it with two different sets of information.

I give rapists and pedophiles more respect when I expose them than Sheila Jeffreys is getting here. I'll give them the respect of a phone call, or citing evidence and putting everything I can in quotation marks at every opportunity I can. ( http://www.nudisthallofshame.info [for only one small example.]) I've spent decades using that standard as responsibly as I am able to do. An accusation of "white supremacist" is a very serious accusation to make against someone, especially against a feminists who has done the work, taken the risks, laid down the political understanding and perspective, and been vilified as Sheila Jeffreys has been. In the realm of white supremacist threat internationally is Jeffreys in the top one million? I've put my life at risk many times directly confronting white supremacy and also male supremacist. Publicly vilifying radical feminists of any ethnicity, and going after Sheila Jeffreys in particular, without substantiation is sloppy and unethical. I have never seen an email that would justify a charge of "white supremacy" against Jeffreys; certainly nothing that would justify such a negation of all her work and her even as a human being as Jennifer is calling for. I don't even know Jeffreys. I might have exchanged three or four emails, at the most many years ago, and been on a few lists with her. I haven't agreed with everything she's written. I'm not a Jeffreys "follower". I'm not saying she's not a "racist" or even a "white supremacist". I'm saying that making this charge without substantiation in her own words is not ethical.

I left the CATWA list at the time approx three years ago. I objected to their policy of first removing a white woman named Nat after they wrongly (and unfortunately very typical of feminist list owners any time anything "controversial" is brought up) categorized what she (Nat) wrote as "personal attacks". Then they removed two people of color who insisted that the conversation continue. One woman after another left the list and/or challenged them. Jennifer has repeatedly and maliciously misrepresented what happened on that list. They were challenged repeatedly by radical feminists (including numerous white women) on the grounds of racism. I believe they might have lost as much as 25 percent of their list at that time in protest of their racist enforcement of their list policy. I'll include some of the requests to be removed from the list reprinted below.

Nikki Craft
http://www.nikkicraft.com

Jennifer misrepresented this situation when she wrote:

"So Jeffreys knew because she was in the company of her radical white feminist sisters (the radical feminist community is even whiter in Australia!) she could behave like the Plantation Mistress she really wishes herself to be! I'll bet you anything she thinks no one remembers what happened on CATWA because she was successful in removing the only woman of color present and she thinks her white sisters will stick behind her as they already have! She's a self-righteous evil and dangerous person and she's my enemy."

She claims that all the white women voted this black woman off the list. That is NOT true. she also misrepresented the situation when she wrote this:

"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you'd get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please.

"I don't know if Nikki or Yoshi did anything else in solidarity after what happened accept to say publicly on the list that this woman of color deserved to stay when all the white women on this list voted her off. So much for sisterhood huh?

And yes, please forward my e-mail far and wide! Get the word out!"

Post #22: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 11:29am

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:57:23 +0000


Nikki Craft wrote:
"When I called Jennifer I was talking directly to her about my feelings."

Absolute bullshit. You did not call me. I CALLED YOU. And you were cold and defensive from the moment you heard my voice insisting that you would not speak to me because you feared I‚d misquote you yet again.

Nikki Craft wrote: "When I'm happy I laugh. When I'm sad I cry. I don't use tears to manipulative (sexist stereotype of women) or even because I expect comforting from anyone."

Well then Nikki Craft you are exhibiting "a sexist stereotype of women" because every time you wanted reassurance that I trusted you as a white person you brought out the water works!

Nikki Craft wrote:
I even attempted to seek outside help for her.

If you mean by this Julian Real then most of us present know how that ended. [INTERJECTED OCTOBER 26, 2009: YES WE DO KNOW HOW THAT WENT NOW YEARS LATER, DON'T WE?] I even suspect that all this anger you‚re directing at me has more to do with him than anything else but I'll just keep that to myself. Yes, I do know how to keep stuff to myself!

Nikki Craft wrote:
If Jennifer cites me as the reason she distrusts white women (from something she's held in for years) and tells people to broadcast that all over the internet without ever even confronting me about it, says that she has *no* white women friends then we NEVER WERE friends.

Ok, Nikki, I'll give you that! I was wrong BUT I was afraid if I confronted you about how I felt personally over the phone you‚d start crying again and that shit just pisses me off. I HATE when white women use that "sexist stereotype of women‰ to feign innocence and good intention. I also think that "sexist stereotype of women‰ is racist when used by white women toward black women. Racist and manipulative. At the same time I truly doubt given how defensive you are now about your own rep and the rep of Jeffreys that our friendship would have survived had I confronted you. You would have denied it. Asked for a copy of the tape I‚d made of the phone convo. And since I don't have one feigned innocence and called me sloppy and unethical. And that would have just pissed me off!

Nikki Craft wrote: She is again misrepresenting me. When she said to me: "You remember that was when we started being friends..." I said "NO! YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF YOUR MOUTH. IF YOU FEEL THIS WAY THEN WE *NEVER WERE* FRIENDS."

Feel what way exactly? That you are a racist? Do you mean if I never trusted you or thought you were a racist all this time then we were never really friends? Is that what you mean? First of all, trust is earned. I told you personal things because I needed advice and support. I was foolish and naive but I wanted to and did trust you. But I never thought you were a racist Nikki. Because you left CATWA. Because you were so kind and open with your time with me and encouraged my writing. I NEVER thought you were a racist. Even when you said what you said about Sheila Jeffreys I still didn't think you were a racist. I thought to myself ok, she's still limited in her thinking, she's still doesn't get it. Not getting it doesn't make you a racist. There a lot of things Stephanie does not get. She's not a racist.

But Nikki, what you are doing now? THAT's RACIST! Now I'm officially calling you a racist!

Nikki Craft wrote:
Jennifer has repeatedly and maliciously misrepresented what happened on that list.

And I've done so because I'm out to get you and Sheila huh? Ok. What exactly motives this maliciousness? What do I gain from it? What do I gain from defaming a person I once read like the bible (Sheila Jeffreys) and another I admired and supported with my own writing (Nikki Craft)?

Nikki Craft wrote: She claims that all the white women voted this black woman off the list. That is NOT true.

When did I say ALL the white women? I said most. I said the majority. I said the women of color were outnumbered. CATWA only did what they thought they could get away with and bounce back from. And how then does this let Sheila Jeffreys off the hook? Where's the e-mail from the woman you exclaim, ‰has done the work, taken the risks, laid down the political understanding and perspective, and been vilified‰ AKA Sheila Jeffreys? Where was the e-mail she sent supporting anti-racism and asking for herself to leave the list in solidarity with the women of color? Where was she on the issue of the removal of these women of color from the list? IŒll tell you where, she was right behind it all!

Nikki Craft wrote: Publicly vilifying radical feminists of any ethnicity, and going after Sheila Jeffreys in particular, _without substantiation_ is sloppy and unethical.

Look, you or anyone else can support her and read her just count me out! I know what I read and I know what I remember and I'm sticking to it! I'm not trying to shame anyone into joining me in my distaste for Jeffreys. But the sickest part of your defense is how much it ultimately upholds racism and the innocence of all white women on either side! What if she never sent out an e-mail saying Jiselle should be removed? What if? Ok she never sent it but she also never stood with the women of color against racism like you, XXXX and so many others! Doesn't that still make her a racist Nikki? If not what you‚re essentially saying is that white women are not racist if they stayed on CATWA or even if they left CATWA either way they are ok. And that's dangerous, that's racist. And you know what it sounds like, it sounds like you are saying "Nobody's perfect!‰ Now, where have I heard that before? Hmmmmm∑

Nikki Craft wrote: she (Jennifer) also misrepresented the situation when she wrote this:
"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please∑.

So I'm misrepresenting? Nikki how the hell would you know what it's like to be a brown woman in a predominantly white space? How would you know what kind of courage it takes as a brown woman to stand up to a white woman? When you take a stand against racism it's a notch on your liberal white belt when brown people do it we are just making trouble!

You can call me malicious, disrespectful, unethical, sloppy or whatever. I take that as a compliment coming from someone like you, some who talks a great game about doing anti-racist work but attacks the first black person to call her out on her shit. But I'm glad to have the information!

Jennifer McLune

Post #23: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 11:30am
WHAT ONE WOMAN WROTE TO THE LIST IN 2006

To: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys

i just want to say that its ridiculous that jenn has to battle this out on email, and jenn i think its amazing that you have the strength to even debate with nikki on this. i would've given up a long ago.

jenn, i support you.

Post #24: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 11:41am
WHAT ONE WOMAN WROTE ABOUT THE CATW LIST ON JENNIFER'S LIST ON OCTOBER 10, 2006

On 10/10/06

Hello, all--

It's been a long time since I left CATWA, but my best recollection of what
happened is this :

(1) There was a thread (discussion) going on about racism.

(2) Someone-- either a moderator of the list or someone who was a frequent poster to the list-- stated that the list was a feminist list about trafficking of women and that an "extensive" discussion of racism (probably five or six emails, really, but since the discussion was getting heated, it was claimed to be "extensive") was "off-topic."

(3) Jiselle Hannah and a number of other radical womyn of color on the list made the points that :

(a) Discussion of trafficking of women is absolutely about racism.
(b) Feminism is about fighting racism.
(c) Telling women of color that a discussion of racism was off-topic was racist and a strategy to silence discussion that would be uncomfortable to white womyn on the list.

(4) Sheila Jeffreys very soon thereafter or very shortly before, I forget which, sent an email announcing a new book she had written, something about gay male sexuality or something (I forget exactly what it was about, but it was *not* a book about trafficking of women).

(5) I pointed out that it was inconsistent to say that a discussion of racism was off-topic when Sheila Jeffreys could write an email about her new book, which had nothing to do with trafficking of women, and no one on the list reprimanded her for being off-topic.

(6) Sheila Jeffreys wrote some bullshit response about how her book included a chapter on pornography and so therefore her email was "on-topic." (I can't substantiate that, though I think she's probably telling the truth-- I remember her email about the book was looooooong and boring and if there was anything about trafficking of women in the email, it was buried in tons of text. Either way, her questionable defense did not sufficiently address the problematic silencing of womyn of color by white women leaders/dominators on the list; it just served at best to try to excuse her own behaviour and at worst to collude with the excluders) Jeffreys' email was long, too, and I don't remember much about it except that it was pretty defensive and, IMHO, disappointing.

I can't speak to anything else Sheila Jeffreys wrote before or after that; I left the list shortly thereafter, and I was never really a big part of the list discussions anyway, so most of the time I didn't read the emails. But that may be what you're looking for anyway, Nikki.

Post #25: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:01pm
[I APOLOGIZE THAT THIS IS SOMEWHAT CONVOLUTED AND CONFUSING. THERE ARE SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS WHERE I AM NOT SURE HOW THEY GO TOGETHER OR IF THEY MIGHT BE REPEATED ACCIDENTLY AND I DON'T HAVE THE TIME OR INCLINATION TO GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT. SO PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY THRU THIS BEST YOU CAN. THANKS.--NIKKI CRAFT, OCT, 2009]

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:03:11 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys

Nikki Craft wrote:
"When I called Jennifer I was talking directly to her about my feelings."

Jennifer McLune wrote:
Absolute bullshit. You did not call me. I CALLED YOU. And you were cold and defensive from the moment you heard my voice insisting that you would not speak to me because you feared I‚d misquote you yet again.

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
The first paragraph of my email was obviously about our earlier few phone conversations and I said and DID MEAN _WHEN *I* CALLED *YOU*_. The second paragraph was obviously about when _you called me_ last night in the conversation where I was disgusted to hear your voice and furious about your duplicity and confronted you about it. I knew it would be the last phone conversation we would ever have. When I picked up the phone I said immediately that I would prefer any further interchange to take place in email because of the likelihood that you would misinterpret it (which you did) and I wanted a written record of it. But I did tell you if you had anything to say, to say it. Immediately after that I closed out the phone conversation and our "relationship" abruptly and within a few minutes. Nope "last night" I wasn't talking to you about my feelings about anything. I'm never planning to make that mistake again.

Nikki Craft wrote: "When I'm happy I laugh. When I'm sad I cry. I don't use tears to manipulative (sexist stereotype of women) or even because I expect comforting from anyone."

Jennifer McLune wrote:
Well then Nikki Craft you are exhibiting "a sexist stereotype of women" because every time you wanted reassurance that I trusted you as a white person you brought out the water works!

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
You misrepresent our interaction. You know very well part of the reason I was crying during that one conversation, part of it, was that I told you I was concerned for you that you might be backing yourself into a corner, that I was worried for you, and urged you to try not to limit your life any more than you had to. At the same time I supported you for not trusting white people and agreed there were plenty of good reasons not to. Most all of our interactions were me giving you support for your writing, me listening to you about abuse from people in your life and situations and my genuine concern and interest for you. Nothing else. I didn't do this for any reason other than I considered you a friend and cared about you. I would not have otherwise mentioned this, but you are distorting the nature of our interactions to such a degree I have to. I'm secure in the work I've done and my politics. I didn't/don't need your comfort, or care in any way about your approval, and I don't give an oat groat sh*t if you like me or not. I'm not on this earth to placate or prove anything to you. Never was. You just thought I was in your interpretation of our interactions, and your silence and dishonesty towards me allowed you to maintain your misconceptions.

Nikki Craft wrote:
I even attempted to seek outside help for her.

Jennifer McLune wrote:
If you mean by this Julian Real then most of us present know how that ended. I even suspect that all this anger you‚re directing at me has more to do with him than anything else but I'll just keep that to myself. Yes, I do know how to keep stuff to myself!

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
[OCT, 2009: yeah we do know how that turned out.]
You can suspect all you want, you can project and speculate wrongly about anything you like. However, fact is Julian has never uttered an unkind word about you. I'm most capable of thinking for myself--in fact I'm known for it.

But the point is when you were having trouble in school I was trying to think of ways to assist you. No matter how things turned out I was concerned about your well being and sincerely worried about you and thinking of how I could support you. When I went to the hospital and was attempting to recover and was having trouble with my own health and schooling you chose to publicly implicate me with white supremacy to be posted "far and wide" across the internet. Nope, I'm not expecting comforting from you. I'm not expecting *anything* from you. I'm mentioning this only to correct your distorted portrait of our connection as in any way primarily about some black woman comforting some honkie.

Nikki Craft wrote:
If Jennifer cites me as the reason she distrusts white women (from something she's held in for years) and tells people to broadcast that all over the internet without ever even confronting me about it, says that she has *no* white women friends then we NEVER WERE friends.

Jennifer McLune wrote:
Ok, Nikki, I'll give you that! I was wrong BUT I was afraid if I confronted you about how I felt personally over the phone you‚d start crying again and that shit just pisses me off.

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
You take tears as weakness and manipulation. I don't.

[edited for space]

Nikki Craft wrote: She is again misrepresenting me. When she said to me: "You remember that was when we started being friends..." I said "NO! YOU ARE TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF YOUR MOUTH. IF YOU FEEL THIS WAY THEN WE *NEVER WERE* FRIENDS."

Feel what way exactly?

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
I meant if this is what was going on (your duplicity) then we _never were_ friends. As soon as I realized you had this lack of integrity I ended our contact immediately.

Nikki Craft wrote:
She claims that all the white women voted this black woman off the list. That is NOT true.

Jennifer wrote:
When did I say ALL the white women? I said most. I said the majority.

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
You did not. You wrote "WHEN _ALL_ THE WHITE WOMEN ON THIS LIST VOTED HER OFF. SO MUCH FOR SISTERHOOD HUH?"

Within context you wrote:
"I don't know if Nikki or Yoshi did anything else in solidarity after what happened accept to say publicly on the list that this woman of color deserved to stay when ALL [emphasis is mine *ALL*] the white women on this list voted her off. So much for sisterhood huh?"

I quoted your whole email. You misrepresented me by removing the first part of my sentence and the second paragraph which is what my statement about misrepresentation was in reference to; and you also implicated me in this false white plantation scenario and your fictitious claims about radical feminists who were on the list.

You wrote that I wrote:
Nikki Craft wrote: she (Jennifer) also misrepresented the situation when she wrote this:
"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please∑.

=======
When what I actually wrote before your opportunistic editing was:
She claims that all the white women voted this black woman off the list. That is NOT true. she also misrepresented the situation when she wrote this:
"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please∑.

I don't know if Nikki or Yoshi did anything else in solidarity after what happened accept to say publicly on the list that this woman of color deserved to stay when all the white women on this list voted her off. So much for sisterhood huh?

NIKKI CRAFT REPLIED:
What you claimed about what happened on the CATWA list is fabrication and you are continuing to manipulatively distort what happened and what is currently being said. You completely misinterpreted and misconstrued the intent of my words in a phone conversation after only 24 hrs, even less than 24 hours, and you want me to "come clean" and accept _your_ interpretation of a conversation that took place as much as two years ago, which you are just mentioning for the first time, when I don't remember the context or exactly what was said? You want me to trust your interpretation of that phone converstaion even in light of how much you have misrepresented so much of the other information about the related events and I have the emails that clearly and directly disprove your claims? Nah, I don thiiiink sooooo.

Nikki Craft

==========================================
Again, Jennifer misrepresented this situation when she wrote:
"So Jeffreys knew because she was in the company of her radical white feminist sisters (the radical feminist community is even whiter in Australia!) she could behave like the Plantation Mistress she really wishes herself to be! I'll bet you anything she thinks no one remembers what happened on CATWA because she was successful in removing the only woman of color present and she thinks her white sisters will stick behind her as they already have! She's a self-righteous evil and dangerous person and she's my enemy."

She claims that all the white women voted this black woman off the list. That is NOT true. she also misrepresented the situation when she wrote this:
"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please∑.

I don't know if Nikki or Yoshi did anything else in solidarity after what happened accept to say publicly on the list that this woman of color deserved to stay when all the white women on this list voted her off. So much for sisterhood huh?

And yes, please forward my e-mail far and wide! Get the word out!

jenn

Post #26: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:23pm

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 04:02:37 +0000


Nikki Craft wrote:
Nope "last night" I wasn't talking to you about my feelings about anything. I'm never planning to make that mistake again.

Exactly, because you know my "duplicity‰ as you call it means that when you share those racist feelings with me I'll tell all! Damn right nothing is safe with me. If having no integrity means not keeping secrets for racists like you then I'm honored to wear that label.

Nikki Craft wrote:
∑..you want me to "come clean" and accept _your_ interpretation of a conversation that took place as much as two years ago, which you are just mentioning for the first time, when I don't remember the context or exactly what was said?

The conversation in which you said nobody's perfect in relation to Sheila Jeffreys and tried to rationalize her racism DID NOT TAKE PLACE TWO YEARS AGO! It was sometime THIS YEAR, quiet recently in fact although I don't know the exact date. But I know it was not two years ago. I only began speaking to you over the phone last fall, 2005, I remember because that's when I was in school.

Nikii Craft wrote:
You want me to trust your interpretation of that phone converstaion even in light of how much you have misrepresented so much of the other information about the related events and I have the emails that clearly and directly disprove your claims?

What e-mails that "clearly and directly disprove my claims?" Claims that Sheila Jeffreys is a racist? You have yet to provide an e-mail from Jeffreys in support of the women of color on CATWA. All this proves is that a few other white women did leave in solidarity with them. And so what? If I said all or most or the majority the fact is MOST of the women stayed on CATWA and Jeffreys was on the side of forcing these women off! So what exactly have you proved? The only thing you‚re proving with your crusade against me is that you ARE a part of a "white sisterhood" that will take out any brown or black woman that dares to speak up or question it. The only thing you prove is that you'll give a white woman, Jeffreys, a pass on not standing with women of color (even after admitting you suspect she may have been behind their removal) but condemn me for having the gall to bring that fact up publicly!

Jennifer McLune

Post #27: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:28pm
WHAT A WOMAN WROTE ON THE LIST IN 2006 IN SUPPORT FOR JENNIFER.

Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:44:37 -0400

I think it is crucially important to acknowledge that saying "nobody's perfect" in response to Jenn's critique of racism (whether that remark was meant to excuseSheila Jeffries, or directed at CATWA list policy or whatever) waswrong. To try to excuse that statement is a racist action. It should not matter that Jenn did not feel able to talk about this before two years, or one year ago.

It is not okay to shame Jenn for waiting, and in fact, it was MY posting of Jeffries article that promptedJenn to bring upthis issue now, in the first place. It didn't have anything to do with Nikki being ill, or Jenn trying to attack Nikkiwhen she was down. I am sorry you are going through illnessNikki, but that does not make itokay to deny Jenn's claims of racism.

Though I was not on the CATWA list, no one has offered up anythinghere during this exchange that has convinced me Jeffries stood with women of color during what happened with CATWA. I support Jenn here also.

Iappreciate that, when I asked her to, Jenn went back to her original email list (that was after you had each had a chance to respond to each other as well). I would ask you toPLEASE only respond to the above emails from now on (that is how the wrong email address got included again for XXXXX, because Nikki went back to the old list of recipients). Again, PLEASE leave people who are merely personal friends of mine, (sometimes just aquaintances!)not involved in the feminist movement, whatsoever, have no idea who either of you are, out of this discussion. They did not ask to be included in this exchange, and I feel it is deeply embarrassing and bad for trying to get people interested in radical feminism, to see a white woman deny a black woman's claims of racism, and to be expressing so much personal anger. (I have left XXXXX and XXXXX in the address box, because they do feminist work, and are therefore part of your community, but again, please leave my other friends out of this and please do not include them in repressed email lists)

Post #28: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:29pm

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:39:41 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: Re: Sheila Jeffreys

XXXXXX,
I was confused about who to cc to. I had seen something at the bottom of your last email about it, but had only scanned it and not understood that you meant to leave names off the address list. Of course I will not copy your friends now that I understand this. Thanks for letting me know and sorry about the misunderstanding. Nikki

Post #29: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:30pm
WHAT ONE WOMAN ON THE LIST WROTE IN SUPPORT OF JENNIFER:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:51:18 -0400
Subject: Re: Re: Sheila Jeffreys

jenn, i admire you for standing up the way you have and the way you
do. i want you to know that you have nothing to prove - i believe you.

Post #30: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:33pm
JENNIFER POSTED THIS TO THE LIST:

Subject: Nikki Craft
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:33:39 +0000

Please REMOVE [Nikki Craft email address edited] from all future forwards on this list please.

Thanks!
Jenn

Post #31: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:38pm
THE NEXT DAY PERHAPS BY ACCIDENT JENNIFER SENT ME AN EMAIL ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY IN WHITE WOMEN WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF PATRIARCHY.

Subject: Re: Madonna's adoption: celebrity colonialism
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:55:13 +0000

I'm not comfortable with looking at the "compulsion" of rich white women to adopt Third World children as being about yet another imposition of The Patriarchy. I don't think this is about them trying to prove they are good people and therefore good mothers etc. Most rich white women don't even have to take care of their own kids! They steal brown women's children and then hier brown women to care for them! No one questions that. Madonna is not the victim here and the choices she makes don't represent the choices available to most women of color or even most men of color. So I refuse to position her as the victim of anything. This is about racism and neo-colonialism and the sense of entitlement to brown bodies white people both male and female feel they have. Yes, the choices all women make are often forced on them by The Patriarchy but white women have more options and more power because they are white and therefore when they do racist shit like this, I refuse to see them as victims or worse yet representing "women in general‰ on anything. And the ideology of white supremacy can very much be embodied in a white woman with or without the assistance of The Patriarchy.

Jenn

Post #32: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:43pm
I WROTE TO JENNIFER AFTER SHE INCLUDED ME IN A MAILING THE NEXT DAY AFTER SHE TOLD OTHERS TO REMOVE ME:

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:53:43 -0500
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: Re: Madonna's adoption: celebrity colonialism

yeah i agree. but i thought you had requested from your list that my email address not be included in any further mailings?
XXXXX, I'm going to reply further to your last email, but just have not had time. Sorry for the delay on that. I'll do so the first chance I get and also I have some final summing up about the email exchange with Jennifer which I will conclude at the same time. Nikki Craft

P.S. Someone expressed concern that Jennifer is having to deal with this in email? She, and no one else, is the one responsible for putting it in a public email exchange.

Post #33: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 12:48pm
JENNIFER RECENTLY RELAYED TO A MUTUAL ACQUAINTANCE THAT AT THE TIME WHEN SHE SENT OUT THE EMAIL BY MISTAKE THAT SHE HAD BEEN READY TO CONTACT ME ABOUT WORKING THINGS OUT OR SIMILAR SENTIMENT. BUT SHE TOLD THIS MUTUAL FRIEND THAT I HAD SEEMED TOO HOSTILE OR SOME SIMILAR SENTIMENT. LET THE READER JUDGE IF SHE MISREPRESENTED HER GOOD WILL

From: Jennifer McLune
Subject: Re: Madonna's adoption: celebrity colonialism
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:47:58 +0000

Yes, Nikki I did request that you not be included in any further posting. But that was AFTER I sent out this last e-mail.

As for your need to reply to me further don't bother, I think I speak for everyone on this list when I say I honestly don't want to hear any more of your racist bullshit! I consider this exchange CLOSED! If I receive anymore e-mail from you it will be blocked and deleted automatically! I don't normally go there but I refuse, absolutely refuse, to subject myself to your racist self righteous crap any longer! Maybe I don't speak for everyone with this comment Nikki but seriously: FUCK OFF!

Jenn

Post #34: Nikki Craft wrote on October 26, 2009 at 2:31pm
THE FOLLOWING IS THE INTRO NOTE THAT I WROTE TO MYSELF WHEN I ORIGINALLY COMPILED THESE EMAILS SOMETIME BETWEEN THE BEGINNING TO MID 2007. I'M LEAVING IN THE INCOHERENCE AS IT WAS WRITTEN AT THE TIME TO DOCUMENT HOW EXHAUSTED I WAS TO BE DEALING WITH THIS AT THAT TIME WHEN I WAS SO ILL. HOWEVER I HAD TO PULL ALL THEM TOGETHER WHILE IT WAS FRESH ON MY MIND IN CASE THE ACCUSATIONS PERSISTED OR IT WOULD BECOME NECESSARY EVEN YEARS LATER TO SHOW WHAT ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE IF JENNIFER BEGAN MAKING SIMILAR FALSE ACCUSATIONS IN THE FUTURE AGAINST ME, OTHER WHITE RADICAL FEMINISTS, OR ANYONE ELSE. THE LETTER NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN FOR MY OWN CLOSURE EVEN THO IT WAS AWKWARD FOR ME TO FOLLOW IT UP AT SUCH A LATE DATE. WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT THIS CLOSING EMAIL WAS WHEN JENNIFER ONCE AGAIN COPIED AN EMAIL TO ME ABOUT GAIL DINES IN ERROR. I WROTE:

NOTE TO MYSELF AND ANY READERS OF THIS COMPILATION:
When i wrote this email to Jennifer's list Ii was nearly dead tired and could barely think. Back in Oct i knew i had some other things to say but i just couldnt write the letter. I could barely think but it had already drug on for that two months because i just didn't have the strength to deal with it and felt it had gotten to be too long. but i felt i had a few last things that i had to say to get closure. I was as damaged and hurt as i could have been after all that. I still to this day have ptds from this I am so mad about it. I never again talked with her after that, nor will I.
=================

A WOMAN ON JENNIFER'S LIST WROTE IN DEFENSE OF HER:
I think it is crucially important to acknowledge that saying "nobody's perfect" in response to Jenn's critique of racism (whether that remark was meant to excuse Sheila Jeffries, or directed at CATWA list policy or whatever) was wrong. To try to excuse that statement is a racist action. It should not matter that Jenn did not feel able to talk about this before two years, or one year ago.

AND ALSO:
"It's like Nikki telling Jenn "nobody's perfect, Sheila Jeffreys has done other good work," and asking Jenn to overlook her racism for the supposed "good of the movement." But I don't think it's good for the movement at all, when women of color are always the ones who are asked to make compromises and concessions."

MY FINAL REPLY
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:19:35 -0500
To: Jennifer McLune
From: Nikki Craft
Subject: Re: Gail Dines on the Duke Rape Case

Jennifer, recently you removed me from your list in a most hateful and hostile manner. You requested that people on your list remove my name and now I am receiving a second email from you since that time. Please remove my name from your copy list, and don't send me any future emails. I will respect the same by not writing to you again. To other women on this list who have removed me in past emails per Jennifer's request, I have also removed you from my email lists, and if you should ever receive any further mail from me in error please let me know and I will correct it immediately. Thank you.

As long as I'm writing, XXXXX I regret that I never have been able to reply to your emails about my conversation with Jennifer McLune about Sheila Jeffreys. You posted that I had done a racist action and was excusing racism and expecting black women, for the "good of the movement", to make "compromises" and "concessions" by, according to your interpretation, by my response about Jeffreys (who I don't know, btw, except for possibly a couple of emails many years ago) and/or the CATWA list (which I left years prior over issues of racist policies on the list). It is impossible to infer, from what I said, what you have inferred and it is a complete misrepresentation of me by you (and her).

If I were interested in doing any of what you or Jennifer claim, as anyone who knows me would attest, I would have presented a far more persuasive verbal argument that a mere melancholy lament of well-nobody's-perfect-she's-done-good-work. Furthermore, again as I have attempted to impart on this list previously, dredging up private conversations and calling for them to be posted all over the internet in connection with racist confrontations, and misrepresenting a relationship when I had spent so much of my own time being totally supportive of Jennifer, is unethical and after several years is unreliable.

There are other interpretations to that conversation and, yes, I am claiming my right to hold my own interpretation of what I said; as bad as Jennifer's documentation remains of what really happened on the list with _not one_ quote or email presented that was written by Sheila Jeffreys; and as fuzzy of my memory of it is among the last ten or fifteen years of internet activism amidst a similarly sad array of discouraging and all too similar feminist list wars.

I'm not exactly known for subtlety ... and there may be other factors beyond your own _assumptions_. For one thing, I can't say that I never do it, but generally especially lately I've learned to try my best to avoid jumping into trashfests of every other feminist with people I hardly know. I expressed my opinion, if those were the exact words I used, nobody's-perfect-Sheila-Jeffreys-has-done-some-good-work. As I said, if I said it I'll certainly stand by that. I didn't ask Jennifer to make any "compromise" or "concession" nor did/do I speak for the "good" of any movement that may or may not exist. I did not apologize for racism, nor was my statement racist as you claim.

More to the point, I assure you if I had made my case, and were going to confront a dangerous "racist", that there would be no one--and I do repeat NO ONE--who would stop me with a mere "well nobody's perfect," either, and if I didn't act on it I wouldn't evade responsibility by attempting to insinuate all over the internet that another person was responsible for me not taking action. Nobody else was stopping Jennifer from going after Sheila Jeffreys then, and no one is stopping her now. Nikki Craft

END OF 2006 EXCHANGE ON Jennifer McLune'S LIST
WHAT FOLLOWS ARE MISC RELEVANT COMMENTS AND MY REPLIES TO HELP CLARIFY MY POSITION ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT. IT IS EDITED FOR LENGTH AND I MAKE NO REPRESENTATION THAT I HAVE INCLUDED ALL POSTINGS ON THIS TOPIC. SOME HAVE BEEN REMOVED SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE STUPID, ABSURD AND IRRELEVANT OR BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO PUBLISH THEM. THIS IS MY ACCOUNTING HERE AND NO ONE ELSES. I HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY TO PUBLISH ANYONE ELSES STATEMENTS.

Megan Mackin (Knox) wrote on October 27, 2009 at 8:15am

Nikki wrote: "I'm saying that making this charge without substantiation in her own words is not ethical." I think this is one key to entangling the racism issue. On both sides, and everywhere in between. The key to clarifying any situation is to state the charge and then back it up so that it's visible to those who will work toward disentanglement. We need to *care* about one another, we need to be aware of our privilege and its effects, and our disprivilege, both, and then we need to be able to listen, openly, in order to disentangle.

There have been demands, it seems, across the years, of 'Just trust me.' And yet they are too big to bridge even our relatively small differences of race and class and such -- small compared to the plantation master and the enslaved, or compared to the white female boss and the new young Black woman employee. I would prefer that you care about me, and ask me to show why I feel as I do, especially when I am making a case against another woman, or even a pro-feminist man. Fragmentation with legitimate allies, even imperfect ones -- which most of us are -- only works against us.

This *does* to me even hold for rape. I do expect initial care, and initial belief, but I also expect that over time, there will be corroboration -- even if that's just in my behavior (some impact); most likely there will be other evidence -- I will need to talk, to process, or I will do so quietly and internally; I will range through emotions from anger, on, as I do so. Maybe there is physical evidence, and maybe not. But I would expect credibility to be held in abeyance, and for others to begin to work to understand, to clarify, if it were not clear that my charges were consistent, fully believable.

A similar, somewhat parallel example here would be if I charged sexual harassment from a politically-similar profeminist man. There might be an intial taking of sides based on identity, but I would expect to find a number of people who transcended sides, adn who looked to understand the specifics, and work to change the circumstances that produced or allowed them. Honeslty, I might be very inclined, if I were frustrated enough, or felt abused enough, to call this man a 'male supremacist, misogynist prick.' I might even do it in all caps. And I would, I think rightly, expect other profeminist men to understand that I really meant it, and they needed to get over the shock of hearing it, and deal with it. Fix it. (I would also hope that I'd be capable of listening when they tried.)

I also think we need a common vocabulary to speak and to hear one another, and I'm frustrated (and saddened) that we don't have that. We have 'racism' going all over the place, but we forget that we are really talking about oppression. Maybe we need a word for 'racism' that insists on oppression being left in the naming (like misogyny does so well). Or maybe we just need to use racism as the parallel term to misogyny, and stop the clouding and obfuscation that comes with 'reversing' discrimination terms. Oppression isn't reversible.

And sisterhood is probably not possible until we care, accept responsibility for accountability for our words, and then work to bridge the existing divides.

Nikki, I respect your willingness to be accountable, and to put so much energy into getting the truth and the real words out there. Thank you, diana (who now has to head to work)

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 11:46am

okay, Nikki thanks for posting this. I hope you will keep this here, and not take it off the internet. it's cool [a bit random and inconsistent] documentation [but hey, that's life].

what i see in this:

Jennifer talked about racism some years ago. And she also talked about how she felt in relation to you. You denied her reality and her experience of your relation. You - from a dominant white culture - denied her - a woman of color - the right to define your relation as unequal. And you were asking her to give "proof" of Sheila Jeffreys displaying racist behaviors/thinking on the Australian mailing list. Somehow: You werer doubting that a sister had read a string of emails sent to her from another sister experiencing the same oppression, sharing it with her. And that she then chose to share the feeling she had gotten from reading these mails, some years later on when the release of a book by Sheila Jeffreys was mentioned in an email shared with a string of friends/comrades/lovers.

In your personal relation she clearly stated:

"Your tears made me feel this way." And you said:

"You didn't/shouldn't (?) feel that way, cause this is not what i meant. You are wrong." She said:

"I felt disappointed and used in relation to you." And you said:

"You didn't/shouldn't (?) feel that way, cause this not what i meant. You are wrong."

And I see that you are having the same problem today. Obsessing about 'proving her wrong'. After posting these emails, you started another discussion thread where you for some reason posted the "ultimate proof" of that Jennifer must be lying about her experiences [because of a deeply rooted hatred against whites, right..?] hmm, i add this in order to avoid misunderstandings> ;)

She must be lying because she has no written proof. Only her lived experience, that she has chosen to share with others [and she's emotional and passionate about it]. You: Choose to doubt her. Thinking that she's out to destroy the reputation of Jeffreys, not just a woman expressing how she felt when she saw the racist exclusion going on on the Australian mailing list. Betrayal within a movement promoting 'sisterhood'. Women of color and discussion of racism out the window cause we must fight oppression of [WHITE] women. (this was the weird logic going on concerning that exclusion.. as i understand it.)

What surprises me is that there's fair amount of ppl pointing out uncool behaviors on your side already some years ago. Ppl trying to explain things. But still you didn't take it in. And I'm wondering now as well - what is preventing you to take in the fact that we live in an oppressive world and that we all take part in it. You have oppressive behaviors that you need to look over. You've been told. What would make you believe? What kind of "proof" do you need?

Megan Mackin (Knox) wrote on October 27, 2009 at 11:54am

Milla, I'm not understanding why you're glossing over this: people have said there is a pattern of getting close and then misrepresenting actions, on Jenn's part. There is a pattern of being privately close, and yes, getting hurt, sometimes from racism, I'd even agree to that, but then blasting it out in public.

I face differences, too, where I have disprivilege within feminist groups. And it takes a huge whole lot for me to lash that deeply. And in the meantime, I act like I think a feminist needs to -- I work to communicate, I work to tell my view to the other person, to be sure that it really is oppressiveness, and not misunderstanding, that is going on. But if someone were to see a pattern where I *didn't* address it with them first and simply lashed out very publicly, even when I understood that this person had taken great risks to put her life on the line for people with the same disprivilege as I have ... I'd accept the censure -- and I'd expect it from the Millas of the world, too.

Again, Milla, why aren't you seeing the pattern here? Yes, there is racism, just as there are many oppressions living quite comfortably within feminism. I hate them, too. But I am far more interested in getting to the truth than ... well, I see, I think, that you're missing that part. And I do not understand why. --diana (who, once again, has to leave for work)

Megan Mackin (Knox) wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:03pm

And, Milla, no, I don't think you understand it. There's a lot here to digest. I know that, too. But commenting without really getting into it means you're likely to miss a lot, and take leaps of faith that aren't really justified. And if there is, as I see it, vilification of women who have put their lives on the line in opposing racism, and are at risk of having their actrions over decades misinterpreted by a spare reading and athleticism in conclusions ... do you not see how that might be a bit unfair?

I think your heart is in the right place, but the line you've accepted as legit just maybe isn't so. The fact of racism doesn't obliterate the need to call out other bad behavior, especially deeply damaging stuff. Please read thoroughly ... please. And then I will be glad to discuss, even point by point over vast amounts of time. I agree deeply that racism within feminism *must* be challenged. But there is, truly, more going on here, I believe. Take care, diana (who is now late for work)

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:17pm

hmm. hello diana,

i am also interested in getting to the truth :)

i'm still hoping to get a voice chat with you, cause the text chat we tried some days ago, went straight to hell.. :P (i felt there was a weird projecting of feelings and ideas on me in the short exchange we had. i think i would have an opportunity to explain myself better in a voice chat. and hopefully - as well - understand you better.)

and: i don't think i'm 'glossing' over this..(?!) i think i called what's going on "VIOLENT RACIST MADNESS" in one post i wrote recently..

you say:
"people have said there is a pattern of getting close and then misrepresenting actions, on Jenn's part."

i guess this is the thing that i'm reacting on. how come these "people" >> Denying Sexism << have the right to define what is "real" and what is a "misinterpretation"

[are you against the idea of that Jennifer and Kenia and others might be better at spotting racism than you?]

what i've read so far, most of what Jennifer (and Kenia/Celria/Richard/Julian etc) have been pointing out seem valid to me. (the same as a lot of the comments made by other feminists on the email string that Nikki has re-posted here)

i also thought it was weird that you told me that you had thought about joining the "Radical feminists dealing with racism" group, but decided not to, because you felt Nikki had been expressing some valid criticism 'against' the group on the wall.. have you read the whole exchange? [if not i advice you to have another look]
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=164536838023&ref=ts

i agree with what Jennifer expressed in one mail three years ago:

"It's really fucked up. There is hierarchy and idol worship even among us progressives! And imagine the type of shunning you‚d get as a brown woman standing up to a white woman??!! Lol, please

Nikki Craft wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:32pm

no milla, jennifer denied that I did something that I and approx ten other white radical feminists DID do. And she advocated that her friends go out and trash us in public forums and on the friggin' radio. That's not my opinion. That is what is called a FACT. I called her out about the FACT that she out and out lied about me and the other radical feminists who LEFT the list, and when she couldn't get away with it and I produced the posts that showed that she was in fact lying she flat out denied _reality_ and diverted it all into a tactic that she has developed and instead of having some integrity she tried to divert everything and had a fit about it. Nah she doesn't owe me shit, she owed it to herself to have had more integrity than that. And you know something, my guess is that she will probably just dig herself further in here, but she knows that, whether she ever admits it, she knows it.

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:40pm

Nikki, do you stand behind all the statements and actions you've done so far?

Do you recognize racist behavior in yourself? And racist speech and actions in what you've done lately?

[i need a reality check.. to understand what it is we're talking about.]

Nikki Craft wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:48pm

milla i've given you a reality check and you are ignoring it. you need to read what i have posted here which has been plenty and then you just arrive at whatever conclusion you wish to. That's all any of us can do who are writing and reading here. Yep I stand by everything i have written here.

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 12:53pm

this isn't an answer to the current situation (we change day by day from moment to moment. interaction with others has the power to change us. i hope..)

Do you recognize racist behavior, speech and actions on your part?

It's a simple question. And I would like for you to answer it.
Yes. No. I don't know. Short answer will do. No need to repost a whole string of emails to prove your reality. It's enough that you answer. Just one sentence or two.

[and yes. i'm reading through the whole string of emails again.]

Nikki Craft wrote on October 27, 2009 at 1:14pm

Milla I have said I stand by everything i have written. Read it and take whatever you want from that. You want to make a case of me being a racist from any of this stuff then go ahead. Guess what? I don't care. Do it. But kindly stop acting as if I owe you more than that. I don't.

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 1:18pm

I'm reading the whole email exchange through again. And i will take it pieces ///

Nikki WROTE:
"she [Jennifer] advocated that her friends go out and trash us in public forums and on the friggin' radio. That's not my opinion. That is what is called a FACT."

>>>

About the FACT about “trashing” on the radio -- Jennifer WROTE: “Jacquelyn, when she [Sheila Jeffreys] comes on your radio show please ask her about CATWA! In fact forward her my e-mail. I want her to know that someone out there remembers.”

Which to me seems fairly transparent. And fairly neutral: Ask Sheila Jeffreys about the racist exclusion that went on on the Australian list. And pass on the email in order for Jeffreys to see what the background of the question was. I would call this an encouragement to bring up and ask about the racism that went on on the CATWA list. not an encouragement to trash.

[*****LINK TO CORRESPONDENCE/JENNIFER]

Nikki Craft wrote on October 27, 2009 at 1:35pm

To call people racist white supremacists without any evidence IS trashing. To lie about what people have done destroys the case. If you have a true case you don't have to lie. yeah and asking about catw means that all the, according to her, white supremacist racist radical feminists--her political enemies-- who were in support of sheila Jeffreys according to her. that was her lie. that is what she meant about remembering what happened on catw. She claims 11 dedicated radical feminists who WERE challenging racism did NOTHING (that's trashing and urging people to say it on the radio IS trashing.) When in fact we had ALL signed off and specifically CHALLENGE racism on the list. In fact, if I'm remembering correctly, to make matters even worse for her own case, one of the two women originally thrown off the list turned out to be a white radical feminist--not even a woman of color. I'm not 100 percent sure of that, but am fairly certain it was the case. That's the lie that is at the base of what Jennifer calls the CATA list and racism. So excuse me if I don't roll over on my back just because you are in my face and be all accountable to you and shit when you don't even respect me enough to understand how all this started. Milla unlike you i don't have white guilt. I can't help if it you haven't been doing anything about racism your whole life. I have. You have no right to judge me for anything. Well you can, but I don't respect it and never will. And you wanna think that digs me further into some hole that I'm some white supremacist then go head on. I stopped caring what other people think about me a long time ago.

Milla Ahola wrote on October 27, 2009 at 2:21pm

hello Nikki, hello everybody..

hmm. this is going a bit too fast for me. and will take time going through all this text. i haven't even finished with your first comment. there's more on that. but a quick one on the second comment you wrote..

Nikki WROTE:
"To lie about what people have done destroys the case. If you have a true case you don't have to lie. yeah and asking about catw means that all the, according to her, white supremacist racist radical feminists--her political enemies-- who were in support of sheila Jeffreys according to her. that was her lie. that is what she meant about remembering what happened on catw. She claims 11 dedicated radical feminists who WERE challenging racism did NOTHING (that's trashing and urging people to say it on the radio IS trashing.)"


Jennifer WROTE in the email about talking with Sheila Jeffreys about her role in the racist exclusion on the CATWA list on the radio:

"Nikki Craft was on this list. So was xxxxx. From what I remember they were both on the right side of the issue and supported the women of color∑..

BUT I've also had personal correspondence with Nikki Craft in which when I reminded her about CATWA she said that oh well, nobody's perfect (meaning Jeffreys) and she's doing really important work! At the time I said nothing but I was really thinking to myself, this is why I don't really trust white women! Fuck That! Racism is serious! It's not just about an imperfection! It's about a legacy of rape, genocide, slavery, colonialism, self hatred∑.that you benefit from as a white woman! don't give me that Sheila Jeffreys isn't perfect shit! So you see? Even when white women support us they may do so out of guilt not because they truly understand or know what is right! So I can't vouch that today Yoshi or Nikki even get what happened the way I get it."

in the mail where radio is mentioned there is no talk of you doing "NOTHING", Nikki. (there's a comment later on in another mail where she states that she's not clear on what you did to support. but this is fairly clearly stated.)

just as don't expect Jennifer to remember things perfectly well [and she STATES IT IN HER FIRST MAIL! i quote: "It was years ago and I'm still unsure about all the details but I do remember one thing I concluded after reading it all: Sheila Jeffreys is a racist and white women like her are my enemy! I remember coming away hating Sheila Jeffreys. I remember coming away hating her and feeling really violated for ever trusting her analysis as a white woman to my struggle as a black woman. I felt violated, I felt betrayed. How did I ever let this racist white woman into my consciousness, my analysis?! She only cares about other white women or women of color she can control!"] .. i don't expect you, Nikki, to do remember each detail either.. you can only tell your perception of what was going on. and sure. when there's written proof like this. it's possible to analyze (some of) what was going on - in hindsight.

anyhow. Jennifer DID NOT say you did NOTHING, Nikki. and she didn't urge the woman with the radio show to do anything else than pass the email she had written, on to Jeffreys, and then ask her about what had happened in CATWA on the show. [i can not call this request trashing.]

AND I WILL CONTINUE LOOKING THROUGH THE TEXTS: BUT SURE IF SOMETHING FEELS URGENT JUST KEEP IT COMING. [i guess the caps lock is an expression of "shit there's getting too much text soon, it's enough with what i got already. i don't need more, i just get stressed."]

Nikki WROTE:
"You have no right to judge me for anything."
--- i'm not judging you. just wondering why this is so difficult to talk about for you. and why you don't feel that you should have accountability to other feminists asking you about what you do and why. [and using fairly authoritarian methods and elitist language when you want to kill the discussion..]

Nikki Craft wrote on October 27, 2009 at 5:04pm

The point, Richard and Milla, is that I did nothing that warrants the label of white supremacist racist that Jennifer so publicly and repeatedly pinned on me. Jennifer made it up, like she always makes it up in order to defame people who disagree with her or who just plain don't like her, people like Kate Gunderson, Gail Dines, Sheila Jeffreys, Karla Mantilla [two names are removed because I have political objections to them being included after finding out who they were] and myself etc, etc, etc. Look at Celies Revenge (notice she even has Revenge in the title of her blog!) and see how many times people she has defamed respond with "I didn't say that," "that never happened," "she twisted my words."

There is a pattern here: If you choose to turn a blind eye from the obvious truth, go ahead. If you don't want to hold Jennifer accountable for all her lies and all the people she has hurt with her lies, that's up to you. But you're acting like a religious fanatic, trying to get me to confess and atone for sins that I never committed. I refuse to be held accountable for things I never said or did.

[LINK TO JENNIFER's RANT AND MY TWO RESPONSES]

Juliette Hession Page wrote on October 27, 2009 at 6:52pm

This is a bunch of the most ridiculous postings I've ever read in my life, and I've read a lot. I don't know why I haven't learned not to respond yet though.

Nikki knows that white people are racist was well as anyone, and you have to be willfully ignorant to think otherwise. She's always been the first to admit to it herself. More than that, she always been careful, thoughtful, and compassionate in her dealings with everyone in the years I've known her, and I mean everyone. Even humans (ha). She has an established reputation that she has damn well earned. I don't even know who the rest of you are. A bunch of anonymous posters on the internet with no reputation to lose, mostly.

The grandiosity exhibited not just on this thread but throughout this discussion board is profoundly absurd. It has to serve as entertainment because there's little enlightenment or thoughtfulness to be found here.

I hope ya'll will enjoy piling on with the WHITE SUPREMACIST RACIST ZOMG PONIEZ chorus. Y'all's lack of integrity speaks for itself.

I will be updating these pages as long as is necessary to ensure everything is included that I want for the final document. ~~Nikki Craft, 11.10.09