god of the oppressed and accompaniment work

just finished rereading God of the Oppressed by James Cone. I wish that his chapter on violence and non-violence had been required reading in the trainings for the organization that I used to work for. I did international human rights accompaniment. that is when foreigners mostly white and western drop into low intensity war zones with the idea that their presence will deter violence. the problems with the theory are… well huge. I still dream that there is some possible good in an international presence if that “international” isn’t just another code word for white, but then folks like the ones I worked with would need to rethink their tactics (which mostly are being visible and flashing your white face and/or western passport about while telling oppressed people to be non-violent and morally pure in the face of their oppression) would have to be thrown out and reworked.

when asked about violence Cone’s answer was “who’s violence?” pointing out that the whole racial system (which is necessary for the tactics of the type of accompaniers I worked with) is the violence of white people. he contends that god stands with the oppressed against the oppressor and that the distinction between violence and nonviolence is irrelevant because everyone is violent.