Jamal.Mazrui@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Jamal Mazrui) (12/04/90)
Index Number: 12172
[This is from the Advocacy Conference]
It is late Monday evening two days after the national board of
directors of the NFB considered whether to expel me as a member for
"efforts to undermine the administration." I have not officially been
notified, but have just heard a rumor that I was in fact expelled.
While I await final confirmation of this, let me provide some more the
details. Eventually, I want the whole story to come out. I feel that
blind people, the disability community as a whole, and the general
public have a right to know about what happens when someone exercises
free speech within an organization which represents itself as "the
democratically representative voice of the blind of America."
I was tipped off by another state officer in the Massachusetts
affiliate last Thursday that two days later--on Saturday, November
17--the national president was coming to Boston to try to get the state
board to pass a motion to expel me as a member. I was never notified
officially of this motion. The state president did notify me the day
before, Friday, on my answering machine that on the agenda of this
board meeting would be the calling for my resignation as legislative
officer. She then said she would be unavailable the rest of the
evening due to family obligations.
The morning of the state board meeting I decided to resign from my
position as legislative officer because I no longer felt I could serve
effectively in that capacity given the ill will toward me by some of
the officers because of the views I had expressed and the resulting
pressure exerted on them from the national office to distance
themselves from me.
The next few messages document the treacherous views I have h{eld. My
resignation was apparently not enough for at the prompting of the
national president a state officer then introduced a motion to expel me
as a member. A two hour debate ensued with board members speaking for
and against the motion. When it became clear that the motion would not
pass because enough board members remained unconvinced of the
constitutional grounds for expelling me, the motion was changed to one
of "censure." A vote was quickly called without defining "censure" or
allowing for discussion. It passed I think it fair to say because
members wanted to provide at least a face saving measure to the
national and state president who had tried their best to convince
others of my wrongdoing.
Not satisfied, however, with this relatively weak disciplinary motion
of the state board, the national president then called me on Monday,
November 19 (two days later) to notify me that the same motion that the
state board had considered would be considered by the national board
this past Saturday, November 24. He followed up with written
notification to that effect.
Again, I am still awaiting final notification at this time, but the
rumor is that I have been expelled. For now, let me share the
following with you in my next messages.
--Jamal--
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