For People Who Have Considered Occupation But Found It Is Not Enuf

April 24, 2012

Liberation through occupation is impossible.

From Tulsa to Oakland to Olympia to Los Angeles to Philadelphia to Harlem to London to Portland to Cleveland to the District of Columbia and many more places, some people of color, including us, were drawn to participate in Occupy Wall Street actions and encampments. Some were drawn into the movement despite concerns about the term occupation.  Some were cautious, but hopeful that they could challenge any potential issues by being vocal and contributing to decisions.  So far, many of our experiences with Occupy Wall Street have shown that neither justice nor dignity can happen under occupation.

As people fighting for worldwide liberation of all peoples, we do not seek to simply “add” a critique of occupation and colonization to the fight against corporations and capitalism. Currently, some of us have sought to make decolonization our starting point.

Decolonization is not just about abolishing racism, supporting reparations, or wanting settlers to return stolen lands or its equivalent to native peoples.

Decolonization remembers and rebuilds the many systems of civilization—economics, government, politics, spirituality, environmental sustainability, nutrition, medicine and understandings of self, identity, gender and sexuality—that existed before colonization.

Decolonization reminds us that we must love ourselves and resist internalized oppression. Self-hatred allows agents of white supremacy to successfully demonize and dismiss the most marginalized from our communities and instigate divisions amongst us.

Decolonization calls for organizing a movement that is led by individuals and communities whose voices are least likely to be heard.

Decolonization requires collective effort, time, care and trust.  It cannot be driven by a meeting agenda, general assembly, or national election. It rejects concepts of revolutionary change that result in short-lived victories or the same oppressive regimes, repackaged under new names and ideologies.

Decolonization insists that implementing these solutions and more traditional ways of living are vital to the survival of the human species.

Occupation is a failed political strategy. 

How can a movement founded on occupation serve as a platform for global economic justice, much less liberation?

As people of color, our experiences are many. Some of us are native to these lands now called the United States. Some of us are residents here due to our ancestors’ kidnapping and enslavement or because our families left our home countries to escape violent economic policies enacted by the US and other nations. We have not all experienced the same levels of abuse, poverty, or imprisonment. However, we are all survivors of colonization, a system that continues under global capitalism, war and occupation, and abuses at home such as racial profiling, the prison system, and severe budget cuts. Rather than reclaim and reframe the term occupy for the people, OWS has continued the history of occupation with which we are all too familiar.

Some of us participated in the formation of Occupy People of Color and Queer People of Color groups in order to hold space, or find refuge when encountered with incidents of racism, sexism, or homophobia. The simple fact that our groups served this purpose shows that OWS spaces prioritized the wants, needs, values, and culture of heterosexual white men first. Frankly, many of us have encountered this straight-white-man approach to movement-building too many times to count. In fact, many of the same characters that have attempted to dominate movements in our communities in the past are the same people who lead OWS from the light and shadows.

The physical presence of multitudes of white Occupiers on Wall Street, which was once the site of Native genocide and African chattel slavery, is troubling. Though Occupy activists now widely share the history of Wall Street to show that its foundations are corrupt, they use this truth to justify a new occupation that is 80% white and 68% male.

The 99% is not enough.

How can people who cannot afford housing or enough food to eat each day be expected to unify with people who make over $500,000 a year, or even $250,000?

Many of us live the reality of violence as a routine feature of our daily existence.  State violence puts us in jail at higher rates than whites, keeps us poor, and limits our access to jobs, education, housing, and healthcare.  This daily grind instigates and intensifies more intimate forms of violence like rape, incest, and battering.

A culture of violence was allowed to take root at many OWS sites but was masked by calls to unite under the banner of the 99%. Many of us experienced or witnessed slurs, attacks, and intimidation based on our race, culture, age, socioeconomic status, educational level, ability and/or perceived gender and sexual identities at Occupy encampments.  When we attempted to challenge these abuses, we were silenced or ostracized. We were told that talking about the incidents limited other’s freedom and gave the police an opportunity to invade the camps. At the same time, Occupy Security and Safer Spaces committees racially profiled men of color for behaviors that were widespread amongst all men at the camps.  OWS Facilitation forces ignored calls from our communities to address these issues at General Assemblies. Facilitators policed dissent under the guise of being “action-centered” and “agenda-driven.”

After losing its public encampments, Occupy is facing an identity crisis. They continue the chants of We Are the 99% even as more and more people recognize that it is an empty slogan. How can a movement that includes soccer moms who insist that they don’t want to overthrow the government but just want the government to properly take care of their needs stand side-by-side with an anti-authoritarian leadership that wants “insurrection?” Such contradictions make the entire 99% concept meaningless except as an imagined citizenship in a new nationalist identity. But beware: if the American Dream does not include us, then neither does the 99%. When we complain, make too much noise, or look too different we are rejected. If you talk about the connections among race, poverty, democracy, and decolonization, then you are excluded. In fact, you may just be an agitator, “liberal” or an infiltrator.

Movements led by those without the lived experience of day-to-day violence and generational poverty cannot produce justice, transformation, and dignity for those of us who live on the margins and on the streets.

Leaderlessness is the new tyranny.

Over the last few months, we have identified a shadow leadership structure within OWS camps and groups throughout the nation. The participation of people of color does not change the fact that this occupation of public space upholds white supremacy. Some of our own sisters and brothers have silenced our critiques in order to hold on to their positions of power as token people of color in the movement. The history of silencing those who dare to speak their truth has its roots in operations like COINTELPRO. Snitches and informants were roles used to destabilize grassroots movements and target those with the most potential to challenge the state. Fears of this practice of state sabotage have been used to control criticism within Occupy Wall Street. The result is heightened anxiety and/or suspicion of women of color and/or queer voices who challenge organizing practices. Voices that call out internal dynamics are deemed inappropriate, divisive, ineffectual and potentially counterrevolutionary.

It is the Occupy movements’ abject failure to deal with these issues that compelled 35 people of color involved in encampments across the nation to gather for a national conference call in November. We sought to lend one another mutual support as people of color with a myriad of experiences: some were trying to find ways to engage with Occupy Wall Street while others were trying to figure out how to continue organizing outside of OWS. Some of us wanted nothing to do with OWS but wanted to support those of us who had violent experiences in the camps.

Below are just a few of the manifestations of power and privilege at the Occupations:

• In Los Angeles, people were targeted for organizing against police brutality. Their pictures were copied from Facebook and put on posters that labeled them “agitators.”
• In New York, a group of indigenous-identified people played music at Zuccotti Park as an offering on Indigenous People’s Day. They were physically and verbally assaulted by a white male organizer in the middle of one of their songs and told that they did not belong there. Despite the fact this was caught on video, OWS failed to hold this man accountable for the attack, ensuring that each of those musicians never returned to OWS.
• In Tulsa, questioning power structures resulted in being banned from actions as well as being blocked from websites and other social media.
• In Olympia, members felt isolated as the few people of color in the occupation and faced difficulty in talking about race, racism, and racial privilege at all.
• In Oakland, a white male camper pulled a knife on a Black transwoman and subjected her to racial and homophobic slurs. Her calls for support were ignored while the male attempted to criminalize her by referring to her as an “angry” person of color.
• In New York City, when women confronted a man with a history of sexually assaulting people and calling the police on radical organizers in the area, OWS Security told the women that they were being “hostile” to the man and the women were asked to leave.

Despite the diverse experiences held by the 35 people on the call in cities all over the nation, the overwhelming majority agreed that the encampments were not safe spaces for people of color. Some of us cannot attend a meeting ever again for fear of retaliation and physical assault now that we have spoken out.  While supporters of Occupy might characterize these events as isolated incidents or unrepresentative of their movement, they cannot hide the fact that people of color do not and never have participated in large numbers.

Our communities have long had demands.

We demand that any movement be clear about its goals, intent, and strategies to ensure that our communities, which are already suffering police violence in the forms of criminalization, incarceration, and surveillance, can make informed decisions about our participation.

We demand that our white allies speak with their comrades about the racial privilege that enables their actions. We do not want white people to “protect” us, but we do want to coordinate strategically before events, during events, and after events.

We demand that Occupy activists cease using their experiences of police repression and brutality to erase the historical and current practices of genocidal violence against our peoples. What does it mean to suggest that people being pepper sprayed or badly injured by a gas canister is somehow on par with the generational traumas and current realities that Native communities, for example, experience?

We demand the acknowledgement and abolition of Rape Culture, which has gone uncontested by the majority of Occupiers. Slavery and genocide were perpetrated through mass sexual assault of women of color. Colonial logic still questions the humanity of women of color to this day, as evidenced by the sexual assault and the sexual exploitation of women of color before, during and after Occupy encampments.

We demand recognition of and space to heal from the psychic trauma that exists in our communities. Mobs of white occupiers must step back from taking physical space and question the tactic of mass actions as the most effective vehicle for social change.

We demand that OWS admit their role in gentrification and take action to combat it. Most occupations have occurred in spaces where homeless people and runaways, mostly people of color and transgendered, have congregated for years. People in these spaces have been pushed out to make downtown centers safe for coffee shops, loft dwellers, and even many members of the OWS movement.

We demand that future encampments be organized and led by those who most need them. The encampment movement has a strong history in places such as Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra in Brazil and the homeless tent cities at Tompkins Square. Occupy movements have failed to honor or learn from these movements. As encampments end, privileged Occupiers have gone home to their houses and apartments. Those that did not have a home to begin with have found themselves with nothing, not even a tent, and no place to call home.

Above all, we demand that the work that began before OWS be recognized honored and supported. Years of anti-police brutality work, indigenous land movement organizing, and fighting for transgender peoples’ lives are but examples of movements that must not be abandoned in favor of focusing our collective energy on anti-capitalism.

Capitalism is but one strand of a helplessly tangled system of dominance. Trying to tease out one thread merely gnarls it further.

We intend to fight for liberation on all fronts simultaneously. We intend to set the whole twisted mess afire, with or without your help. We invite you to join us and see what we may grow from the ashes.

En lak ech

To our white brothers and sisters:

We recognize you. En Lak Ech—You are the Other Me. To say this is to validate both connection and difference. We must all come to understand colonization and the impact it has had on all of our lives, to see all the things that have been killed and stolen from all of us as a result of our histories of violence.

When calling for decolonization, when demanding that we be heard, when calling for justice after incidents of abuse, you have asked us, What do you want us to do? Do you want us to leave, this space, these lands, this continent?

We do not have the answers for you because we haven’t yet found the answers for ourselves. We want you to strive to find your way. We want you to recognize that the ways that you seek liberation often comes at the expense of ours. We expect you to act from that knowledge with integrity.

To our fellow people of color, queer, transgender, disabled, low-income:

We hope that if you are one of the people who visited OWS and never came back or were forced to leave, given the wrong meeting time, threatened or abused, you will read this and realize you are not alone. We hope that you know that you are needed: your mind, your heart, your fist and your spirit.

We hope that if you continue to build with OWS, you will gain another understanding of the movement after reading this, take time to talk with loved ones about it and consider the path you have chosen.

We hope that we can emerge, renewed and strong, and continue to walk together.

Till soon.

Signed,

Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross, Cleveland, OH

Nicki McCall, Eugene, OR

POCOE (People of Color Occupy Eugene) formerly of Occupy Eugene OR

Anonymous, Los Angeles, CA

DeColonize LA, Los Angeles, CA

Rose Brewer, Minneapolis, MN

Anonymous, New Haven, CT

Anonymous, New York, NY

Anonymous, Oakland, CA

Irina Contreras, Oakland, CA

Nico Dacumos, Oakland, CA

Rebecca Ruiz-Lichter, Oakland, CA

Roberto Mendoza, Tulsa, OK

If you would like to add your signature either anonymously or with your name, please contact us at pocnationalstatement [at] gmail.com.

Open Letter to The ‘Occupy’ Movement: The Decolonization Proposal

From the accompanying text of the YouTube video:

Open Letter to the Occupy Movement:

This movement has the potential to evolve into something beautiful, something that takes into account the issues affecting all of us—not just the white, college educated members of the 99%.

If you try to hinder this growth because you claim it will destroy the movement, you will only be left behind while a more radical autonomous platform is built. The new platform will center the experiences of people of color, of women, of other groups that have been marginalized by a white majority.

We are not asking for permission to rename the movement anymore. The movement—the wave of empowerment that people are waking up to internationally—does not belong to you. It was around before the occupy movement and it will be around long after it leaves us. Resistance is only truly sustainable if it holds sacred the struggles of the most oppressed and we will call our movements, our resistance, our struggle, whatever we want.

Thank you for taking the time to watch this film and reflecting on what role you wish to play in making movements truly liberating.

In Solidarity,
Rebecca

***********

A note on the footage: this is not an extensive video of the GA, as I was late and did not film everything. there were many white people who spoke in favor of the proposal (I included the one I filmed) and there were a few people of color who spoke against it. The majority of people present at what appeared to be a majority people of color GA voted in favor (68.5 percent) of changing the name to Decolonize Oakland.

As the video shows, the proposal did not pass, however.

Occupy/Decolonize Oakland: An Exchange

Rapper Boots Riley was a vocal opponent of the proposal put forth the change the name of ‘Occupy Oakland.’ His position lead to an exchange between an activist in favor of ‘Decolonize/Liberate Oakland’ that has since been made public.

Dear Boots,

When I first heard your music, almost two decades ago, I swooned at the political insight, at the beats, at beauty of seeing Black people using the mic to check white power, corporate capitalism, and misogynist shenanigans. You and Pam the Funkstress created a space for me in hip hop at time when I felt sidelined in that movement.

When I first started coming to the encampment at Ogawa/Grant Plaza, I felt a similar sense of excitement. Here was a brother who was making sure that the table was long and wide, welcoming of everyone and especially those of us at the margins of the 99% in Oakland. You made me hopeful that together we were capable of turning that table into barricade against police violence and a platform for liberation, pure and sweet and real. Hearing your comments at the General Assembly last night as we were debating the name change – Occupy Oakland to Decolonize/Liberate Oakland – made me sad and angry; I felt like you stole the table, rearranged the seating charts, and left me at the door.

This is my mic check of a different kind, an open email letter.

When you spoke last night, you mentioned that the name of The Coup doesn’t alienate people from your message. Even though coups are associated with right-wing paramilitary movements, you noted, The Coup is not. There is no confusion over your name, no ambiguity about your message. You then chided supporters of the proposal for the name change for confusing words with deeds and emphasized your support for the name Occupy Oakland.

Boots, your comparison stinks. It overlooks people like me who want a name that better reflects the movement of the 99% as it exists in Oakland. It ignores the voices of the Chochenyo Ohlone and native sisters like Krea Gomez and Morning Star Gali who assert that the name Occupy Oakland replicates the violence of colonialism. It turns the phrase the 99% into an empty sales pitch, and I’m not buying it. Your comparison cuts the movement down to size, recentering white entitlement to the “seats of power.” As if that’s the goal. I didn’t come to this movement to sit down. I came to rise up and decolonize Oakland.

“Life is a challenge, and you gotta team up.
If you play house pretend the man clean up.
You too busy with the other things you gotta do.
When you start something, now remember, follow through.”
– The Coup, 2001

Clean your draws, Boots.

Love, Darshan

My response:

To start, I’m gonna try to ignore the offensive sign off remark.

When AIM took over Alcatraz in the 70s, they said- “We are Occupying Alcatraz”. The same word was used at Wounded Knee, I believe. Throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America- when movements take over a space- they “occupy” it. The word is used in very revolutionary ways. It’s obviously not just about the word.

I honestly believe that even POC movements of the last 30 years in the bay area especially- of which I feel like I’ve been a part of- has been very isolated from communities of color and don’t have their finger on the pulse of what will involve them. The reasons have to do with the campaigns we’ve embarked on and the style that we’ve approached them. The focus on this word is indicative of that.

I’m all about decolonizing.
I’m all about fighting capitalism.

I have only no songs, since 1994 that use the word “capitalism”. I have only 1 song since then that uses the word “communist”. However, everyone knows that I’m a communist and that I want to destroy capitalism. This is because I talk about what we need to do and what’s wrong with this system without using the same terminology.

Most folks of color have no idea what the term decolonize means. It is not a liberating term to most, it is simply another term that academics use. Similarly, most don’t even have the political connotation with the word Occupy as it relates to colonialism.

Also, the debate over the name change hasn’t been POC on one side and white folks on the other. There were both POC and White folks voting for the name change, and POC and White folks voting against. Your view about the name change doesn’t make you somehow more on the side of people of color than I am.

Like I said, Saturday, I canvassed door-to-door in West Oakland. ACCE has been canvassing door-to-door in East Oakland since just after Nov 2. What I hear from the response from folks at ACCE and from my own interactions with folks of color that I know in Oakland, is that people are excited by OO, if a little confused on the ultimate goal, the name is the identifier, and they feel that it is connected to the larger movement and that it actually has the ability to change things through direct action. One of the reasons people feel its connected to the larger movement is the name.

Of course, the MAIN thing against it that people of color voice- particularly the Black folks I talk to- is “Oh, you mean all the White folks downtown?”

That doesn’t change with the name.
It will only change through involving ourselves in campaigns that people feel have the power to affect their material condition in their daily life. This is something that even POC movements in my lifetime have failed to do.

The real problems of race and racism in this and any movement don’t begin to get solved with a name change. They begin with a movement that actually addresses the material needs of people of color and one which makes space for people of color. Let’s talk about the remedies to those problems.

Although you say my comparison stinks, you did not negate it’s analogical validity.

My opinion doesn’t overlook your, or anyone’s opinion. It disagrees with yours.

Please don’t come at me disrespectfully with comments like “Clean your draws, Boots”.

Thank you.

Riley puts forth a problematic defense of the word ‘Occupy’ with the attempted analogy of Alcatraz (for very obvious contextual reasons!) He follows with a sweeping generalization of Latin American resistance movements in addition to other arguments that don’t hold weight. Occupy Oakland, uncontroversially at the forefront of these recent waves of protests, sadly missed an opportunity to deepen the discussion with a true language of resistance informing its future actions.

– DisOccupy

What UC Davis Pepper Spraying Tells me about the racialized politics of sentimentality, by Occupy White Supremacy

By now we’ve all seen the John Pike memes lampooning the officer who pepper sprayed protesting UC Davis students. Pike deserves no sympathy, but as a ‘flashpoint’ moment in the Autumn of Occupy, the sister in the above video, also a UCD student, asks some very important questions and offers important analysis. The post comes from a Tumblr site that puts a new twist on #OWS by calling itself ‘Occupy White Supremacy.’ In another commentary, since celebratory appraisals of Occupy in the left media say that it has achieved victory by putting the issue of wealth inequality at the forefront, the site asks in that discussion, what is being left out? What is left being unsaid?

So, let’s talk about another OWS….

Occupy white supremacy… and the machinery of whiteness…and structural racism…

When are we going to start talking about why the mainstream media is so ‘horrified’ and concerned, when certain people are ‘victims’ of police violence over others?

Check out the Tumblr site here!

Occupied Panels, by DisOccupy

Many people undoubtedly tuned into Democracy Now! today and listened to the Nation Magazine/New School panel discussion on Occupy that took place last week in NYC as presented on the program. The participants included Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, Patrick Bruner, Rinku Sen, and William Gredier. In the course of the edited broadcast, panel moderator Richard Kim offered up a question to Sen about Occupy Wall Streets being seen, in his words, as an initially white, middle class, college-student thing and the potential for collaborative efforts in wake of the strides made since that time. If the criticism is already to be relegated as a thing of the past, what then of the makeup of the very panel in question? Allow us to break down the demographics: three white men, a white woman, and an Indian woman of color (double bonus score!)

Being New York City and all, I’m sure it mustn’t have been hard to have found Black, Latino, Indigenous people or Persons with Disabilities to offer their perspectives and experiences on not only a single question of inclusiveness, but of general points of view overall. That wasn’t this case in this instance of ‘occupied panel discussions’ (and it surely isn’t the sole, either)

– DisOccupy

Flotilla controversy within Occupy Wall Street shows Palestine continues to be a fault line, by Ben Lorber

Tel Aviv, but not Gaza?

“Occupy Together” has since the beginning noted solidarity with Tel Aviv. The  J14 protest movement in Israel have been problematic in purposefully not extending their solidarity to occupied Palestine. Given this backdrop, it was surprising to see a tweet earlier this month by Occupy Wall Street in solidarity with humanitarian vessels attempting to reach Gaza’s shores. Hours later, however, as Ben Lorber writes:

…Occupy Wall Street’s tweet mysteriously disappeared from its home page on Twitter. The Twitter-sphere was instantly taken aback- “didn’t realize #OWS is non-political!!” remarked one tweeter, while another insisted that “If #OWS can not support #FreedomWaves and #Gaza then they should not compare themselves to #ArabSpring or #Tahrir.” The Canada Boat to Gaza, who earlier had nodded in satisfaction, now, shook its head in disappointment, offering, in the face of Occupy Wall Street’s fear of involving itself in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a few words by Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Full post here!

Occupy Where? What’s In It For Black and Brown People? by Bruce Dixon

blackagendareport.com

Bruce Dixon of the Black Agenda Report asks what would have been the case if OWS was a heavily dominated people of color initiative from the onset (read block quote below) before looking onward towards possibilities. Based out of Atlanta, Dixon mentions how race issues are met with resistance and dismissed as ‘divisive’ while also noting how gentrification in the city can be addressed by activists who bend the influence towards the everyday concerns of black folk.

If the first occupiers in Zucotti Park had been young and black, they’d instantly have been branded a street gang and arrested en masse, with or without violence, but certainly with little media play or sympathy. If the first occupiers were black, and blathering about the ravages of finance capital and how neither of the two parties were worth a damn, they certainly would not have been endorsed by what passes for the preacher-infested local leadership of black communities. Tied as they are to corporate philanthropy, corporate financing, the corporate-run Democratic party and its corporate-friendly trickle-down black president, our black misleadership class would have run, not walked away from black occupiers who failed to identify as staunch pro-Obama Democrats.

What if the occupiers had been brown? Here’s a clue. In the last few years, hundreds of thousands of immigrants at a time have stayed away from work in near general-strike proportions to march on May Day, no less, for their human rights. The anecdotal evidence is that ICE agents raided many workplaces in California, Texas, New York, Arizona, Illinois and elsewhere, and that without much notice in the corporate media, a wave of retaliatory harrassment, jailings and deportations ensued. Certainly, the Obama administration is on track to deport a record 400,000 immigrants for the third year in a row, already far outstripping Bush’s eight year total. There are in fact, gang injunction-type laws in many states which make it a criminal offense for young people in designated (black and brown) neighborhoods to assemble in groups in public places for any reason.

Full post here!

Occupy the Ghetto, by Bryan K. Bullock

In this piece, lawyer Bryan K. Bullock takes a look at how the “Occupy” movement has failed to articulate a racial justice agenda on behalf of its own contradictions. The frame is “Main Street” vs. Wall Street, but what about King Drive?

I went to a meeting of a local “occupation” group, which was, predictably, attended mainly by liberal whites. I walked in just in time to hear a young white man suggesting that confrontation with the police was the logical next step because drastic measures were needed. He obviously has had a different life experience than I have had in dealing with the police and therefore didn’t know what he was asking for. I spoke and expressed my sentiments to the group, namely that we in poor black communities need grocery stores, economic investment and jobs, and that the “occupy” movement was not addressing these fundamental issues. I told them that unless they were willing to address these issues, I personally, would not want to “occupy” with them. They listened. Most, though not all, agreed with my thoughts. Then they began to say that they were concerned about the “big” issues like Wall Street and wars and that they probably needed to also be concerned about the people who live in places like Gary. I was insulted by their arrogance. Living in a food dessert IS a big issue. Living in an economic wasteland IS a big deal. Having one’s school system privatized IS a big issue. Rampant crime, underground economies and police brutality ARE big issues. Not having jobs that one can walk to or that are located in one’s hometown, IS a big issue.

Full post here!

Occupy Wall Street’s Race Problem, by Kenyon Farrow

Speaking of Percentages...

An article in the American Prospect lays bare the stark race problem of the “Occupy” movement. Writer Kenyon Farrow analyzes the problematic frames in addition to other manifestations of white privilege.

Comparing debt to slavery, believing police won’t hurt you, or wanting to take back the America you see as rightfully yours are things that suggest OWS is actually appealing to an imagined white (re)public. Rather than trying to figure out how to diversify the Occupy Wall Street movement, white progressives need to think long and hard about their use of frameworks and rhetoric that situate blacks at the margins of the movement.

Full post here!

Statement from DeColonize LA, by DeColonize LA

A statement was posted by DeColonize LA yesterday on the UnpermittedLA blog questioning through their shared experiences the ‘leaderless’ claims of Occupy LA and how it has actually functioned to marginalize the more disenfranchised sectors of the 99%. The breaking point came when a flier with names and photos of activists was circulated accusing them of seeking to ‘hijack’ the movement and provoke police. At this juncture, DeColonize LA is shifting focus to form popular assemblies throughout the city instead.

We made several attempts to present proposals, workshops, and discussions at the General Assembly, in small groups, and in one-on-one conversations. Although the overall Occupation movement nationally aspires to use participatory democracy and the consensus process to be inclusive of the people, the efforts by the leadership to maintain informal control have prevented discussion or recognition of patriarchy, white supremacy, classism, heteronormativity, and other layers of oppression that exist in the broader society, which continue to be perpetuated within this “occupation.” Women of color in particular have been silenced. Many of us are tired of futilely trying to explain to middle class white activists that they really aren’t experiencing the same levels of oppression as people of color or the working class or underclass. The constant rhetoric of the “99%” and calls for blind “unity” have the effect of hiding inequalities and very real systems of oppression that exist beyond the “1%-99%” dichotomy and rendering invisible the struggles of a majority of the people in this city.

Full post here!

A History of Georgia’s 1%: Why You Must Face Race to Occupy Atlanta, by Kung Li

Lewis gets blocked at Occupy Atlanta

Last Friday, Civil Rights Activist turned Congressman John Lewis was blocked from addressing Occupy Atlanta’s general assembly. The person who opposed the idea did so on the basis of “kick starting a democratic process where no singular human being is inherently more valuable than any other human being” – you know, the very ideal Lewis risked and damn near lost his life as a black man and SNCC organizer decades before the Occupy movement ever got started. The incident highlights many of the issues Disoccupy aggregates articles on. A news & analysis piece from Colorlines delves into why confronting race is integral to any efforts to take on the 1% and offers historical examinations of Occupied Atlanta in 1865/1906/1960/1996 and 2011 to further shine a light.

Getting it right about race is important for the Occupy movement everywhere, but especially here in Georgia, where there is nothing subtle about the relationship between race, corporations and the government. Georgia’s government was created by and for plantation farmers, the original 1 percent, running antebellum corporations. And that 1 percent has been using everything in its power, most notably the criminal justice system, to hold on to its centuries-old gains.

Full post here!

BLACK OUT! At Occupy Philadelphia, by Complex Brown

Black Out! http://complex-brown.tumblr.com

Over the weekend, two black women were called the N-word by two volunteers at Occupy Philadelphia (and that’s not all!) A Black Out protest was organized in response to the hateful racial epithets. The participating activists were actually derided as being divisive and told by people who came up to them that racism is a thing of the past. Forget that Blacks and Latinos have been the hardest hit by the recession.

We spoke out about RACISM IN THE 99 percent. We spoke out about how nobody was talking about the racist foundation of corporate greed. How do we talk about classim without taking about racism? American wealth can not be discussed without mention of free African slave labor, the rice, tobacco, sugar and cotton industry. We were called racist because we empowered ourselves and stood up for what was right.

Full post here!

Desis Take Action At Occupy Wall Street, with video by V.V., with video by Thanu Yakupitiyage

A great link that, aside from great conversation on video, also points out how the General Assembly’s official document doesn’t tell the full story of how it feels to be a person of color fighting for a voice at Occupy:

How many activities and movements or even conversations have I forgone, thinking that they had no space for me? How many times have I thought that some purportedly progressive activity wasn’t even considering anyone like me? How many times have I walked away, rather than saying anything, because I was bone-tired?

Full post here!

Seven Occupy Wall Street Racial Justice Roadblocks Posted, by Ernesto

As so many people of forward seeking to make sense of Occupy and move forward, Ernesto approaches some inherent obstacles, like Consciousness of History, Credibility Gaps, The Power of Political Trickle Down, Lack of Leaders Means Leaders Move Covertly, Lack of Agenda, Occupy Language, Process Issues. He concludes by addressing those people of color who engaging with Occupy:

It is the obligation of people of color who want to be involved in Occupy efforts and wish to see more political investment by communities of color to organize in a united fashion independent of Occupy actions, and to do community outreach. It is on you to meet with our communities who cannot or will not come out to these events, for whatever reason, hear openly and share their concerns with a movement you clearly wish to support. It is up to you to lead community mobilizations. If you have no relationships or credibility in those communities, beyond your skin tone, it is up to you to be honest about that and mend fences and/or build relationships.

Full post here!

Zucotti Park: A Distorted View Minus Millions of Americans, by Janell Ross

As the conversation about the intersection of Occupy and people of color gains momentum with the public, an issue that many of us have struggled with is the fact that photographers will often spot a group of people of color within a larger crowd and start shooting away. While we’re happy to see more images of people of color featured in the media, we know that this can also paint a distorted view of the struggle that remains before us to decolonize this movement. Huffington Post reporter Janelle Ross explains the irony of being photographed for the sake of multiculturalism, despite the fact she was working on a story and not demonstrating:

I wasn’t carrying a placard decrying the evils of corporate greed or growing income inequality, just my standard equipment — a notebook, my oversized purse and a pen. And, I was there.

“Oh, well, that’s OK,” one photographer said when I told him that I was just a reporter and probably not the best person to mention in his caption. “I want to convey the fact that there are some black people here.”

The conversation was a reminder of the often simplistic, sometimes exasperating way that diversity is thought about, handled and cultivated in America.

Read the entire post here!

Making Room for Racial Justice in the People Power Exploding Around Us, by Rinku Sen

So incredibly good you’ll find yourself going back. Rinku Sen’s analysis is not getting anywhere near the attention it deserves, please spread it widely:

My friend Anita Earls said once that in this country, we have something called “universal white man” standing. I don’t think Anita would mind if I added “straight” to that description. She means that white men are the standard of universalism, and if something doesn’t affect them, it is considered a side issue and not part of the universe. Given the terrible conditions in which the average white man finds himself these days, I certainly agree that we need to speak to the specifics of their situation. But addressing other systems of oppression, and the people those systems affect, isn’t about elevating one group’s suffering over that of white men. It’s about understanding how the mechanisms of control actually operate. When we understand, we can craft solutions that truly help everybody. Building movements that include groups that explicitly address the racial, gender and sexual dimensions of our economic system is key to that process.

Full post here!

Indians Counter Occupy Wall Street Movement With Decolonize Wall Street, by ICTMN Staff

Indian Country Today Media Network highlights some of the debates about Occupy:

While many people in Indian Country can sympathize with the protestors’ claims, there is also some growing criticism for the idea behind its name, which overlooks the first occupants of the Wall Street area. This has given rise to the response from Native bloggers and activists to not Occupy Wall Street but Decolonize Wall Street.

Full post here!

#decolonizewallstreet Flyer, by Julian Padilla

Occupied Wall Street, circa 1660

Get your flyer on:

“as the world watches us occupy wall street, letʼs not forget the history of occupation on which this street was built.”

Created by Justin Padilla, OWS’ People of Color has ’em here!

Zombie Capitalism and the Post-Obama Left, by Vijay Prashad

Vijay Prashad

Public intellectual Vijay Prashad challenges the notion that people of color fighting to make their voices heard at OWS is about division and hopelessness. In these trying times for people of color around the continent trying to make sense of all of this, his optimism is emotionally lifting:

Early into the OWS, a few people challenged one of thesentences in a draft, namely that the people in protest were of “one race, the human race, formerly divided by race, class.” So, Hena Ashraf, Sonny Singh, Manissa McCleave Maharawal and others contested the assertion that the divides in our humanity are now superseded. It is such contentiousness that builds our movement; it does not divide it. Capitalism, built on the inequality of property and of social formations that it inherited, is one of the primary engines of social division. The force of goodwill cannot annul or supersede its divisions by fiat. They have to be struggled against, even inside our new movements. That there is now a “People of Color Working Group” in the OWS (http://pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com/) and a website dedicated to a much deeper commitment to anti-racism in OWS (https://disoccupy.wordpress.com/) is a sign of hope, not despair.

Full post here!

The General Assembly and Grassroots Democracy, by UnpermittedLA

Yup.

Victor’s post on his experience at OLosA is one of our most popular reads here. He sent us a link to blog which provides more analysis, explains why it’s important to stay critical, and has a lot of great ideas for moving forward:

My intent here isn’t to be a cynic.  There are a lot of amazing things happening in the Occupy LA organizing space, and as stated above I believe it has the potential to explode into something historic, if it isn’t already.  However, there are a lot of problems which are already turning people off and preventing us to move forward and be everything that we can be.  This critique is meant to identify these problems.  Where I refer to “leaders,” I truly do not refer to individuals, but to the very concept of leadership as it is existing in effect.  I believe that if all of the current leaders were replaced with new people without changing the structures in place, there would be no noticeable changes.  Criticism is necessary for movements, and this criticism is meant to be constructive.  I know that not everyone will respond productively or take these issues seriously, but ignoring serious concerns or responding with personal attacks will hurt the movement rather than defend it.

Read the full post here!

#Occupy Wall Street & the Language of Resistance, by Maegan La Mala

We don't really care so much about your one demand, but what the hell is that skinny white lady doing on top of the bull?!

La Mala stages an excellent critique of OWS and its narrative. We especially like the way she breaks down some of the branding and signage she saw:

I also saw a lot of signs based in the idea of privilege and the bullshit notion of who deserves what. Young people held signs lamenting not being able to pay their student loans and how having gone to college didn’t bring the jobs and success they expected. I thought about the high Latino high school drop out rates and my own lack of a college degree. Were we included in this dialogue/narrative or even within this “movement” were there some who weren’t worth fighting for – some who don’t deserve the “American Dream” because of not following the prescribed order of things.

Read the full post here!

Decolonize L.A.–That’s the Movement We Need!!!, by Emma Rosenthal

Wheelchair Accessible Restroom

What happens when you claim to be the 99% but willfully ignore or patronize radical dis-ability rights activists who correctly point out that if you want an encampment, you should–at minimum–provide wheelchair accessible porta-potties? You’re gonna get called out by radical crrpl gurls like Emma Rosenthal. When Rosenthal realized that Occupy LosA’s organizers weren’t planning around securing an accessible space for folks with dis-ablities, she made a concerted effort to reach out across different mediums; instead of getting a formal response, she was ignored by some and mocked by others. It only went downhill from there:

Those weren’t the only responses I got, Someone else tweeted me to let me know Ron Kovic had spoken “from his chair”, as if one celebrity crrpl (who is NOT a dis-ability rights activist or advocate) means there’s access. Others said they saw other people with canes and wheelchairs, so I should just shut up. (Did anyone ask them what it took to attend, and if they needed anything?, so is attending, by extension, a form of complicity, simply because by being seen, we’re allowing PWODs to deny access issues persist?) And what of Ron Kovic? Do the crowds respond to his celebrity, the same way they respond to ordinary crrpl folk?  Does he bring his own attendants and assistants? Shoot, Ron can afford a driver, and even his own personal RV, complete with bathroom if he needs one.  This ISN’T a personal issue. IT MUST BE TREATED AS A COLLECTIVE ISSUE!!!

You can read the full post here, where Rosenthal also provides ideas about how to move forward. (And, if you’re interested in reading more about why “the responsibility for access lies with the event planners [and] is not the responsibility of the individual attending the event,” make sure you check out Rosenthal’s Guide to Accessible Event Planning!)

Some Thoughts on Occupy L.A. General Assembly, by Victor

Victor originally posted his analysis about Occupy LA’s General Assembly on Facebook, and has been generous enough to allow us to re-post it here in full. Some of his points are unique to OLosA, especially the local organizers’ unilateral decision to work hand-in-hand with the police. But a lot of his points also echo a lot of the sentiments of people of color who have attempted to participate at Occupy Wall Street (OWS), which started two weeks before. OWS’s white organizers and facilitators created a model which is being repeated in cities all around the continent, and continues to marginalize men of color, queers, and women of color in particular.

The General Assembly was rather messy and undemocratic:

1) The “mic check” method that the organizers are copying from the NY Occupiers is a Pavlovian conditioning tool. That is, but having the crowd repeat every last goddamned word that comes out of the speaker’s mouth, it begins to INVALIDATE internal dissent and force the person to accept what is being said and repeated as truth. It is almost like a cult. This is NOT democratic any way.

2) A full 85% of the speakers, at least during the “controlled” portion of the General Assembly, were white. Among comrades last night, there was much discussion how there seems to be a lot of tokenism with people of color, but that decisions are essentially being made by a few white individuals.

3) Even though the movement is being claimed as leaderless, there are “leaders” who have been directing for the last week. None of the local L.A. people have ever seen who these people are, or where they came from. From what we heard, they’re from West L.A.

4) A People of Color/Womyn/Queer Committee was established to address the fact that Occupy L.A. was NOT inclusive of the demographics in L.A. The brother from this committee who spoke was downright amazing, and held it down. He even dispensed with the bullshit “mic check” repeating thing. As the brother was speaking and giving his righteous criticisms and pointing out male, white, class, and hetero privilege, only a handful of us people of color and white allies were clapping. Everyone else looked annoyed and puzzled.

5.) The organizers of Occupy L.A. have been working in cooperation with the LAPD since the beginning.

6.) The permits that Occupy L.A. got were only for camping on the sidewalks, not in the park.

7.) The LAPD told the people from Occupy L.A. that they absolutely had to be out of the park and on the sidewalks by 10:30PM.

8.) At the General Assembly of (September 30), it was decided that the collective vote to decide whether to camp in the park or on the sidewalk would be made the following night, (October 1).

9) At last night’s General Assembly meeting (October 1), the organizers had already made the decision to follow the LAPD’s demands and camp on the sidewalk, WITHOUT the democratic input of everyone at the park!

10) A womyn of color from the audience pointed out that the General Assembly had not followed it’s own procedure and allowed the issue to be analyzed and argued collectively–which resulted a prolonged, messy discussion. She was asked to speak and make her proposal. As she was doing so, she kept being interrupted and “coached” by some of the organizers. A couple of us ran up to her to give her support so she could speak her mind without interference.

11.) There was much frustration over how “occupation” would be handled. The organizers kept stressing that they wanted this movement to last three months and that by disobeying the orders of the LAPD, they would come and shut it down. The other argument was that the movement should have NEVER been negotiating with the cops in the first place, and that by following the city ordinance, it was NOT an occupation at all.

12.) Rather than have the collective present decide if they would stay in the park or on the sidewalks, they used fear mongering tactics to scare people into following what they wanted–to follow the orders of the LAPD.

13.) We argued that if the collective decided to stay in the park, that those who chose not to sleep there had to find a way to demonstrate solidarity to the occupiers in the event that the cops would attack.

14.) The organizers were taking an individualist approach and stated that THEY had decided for everyone that the movement should stay on the sidewalks, and that anyone who stayed in the park was on their own.

15.) The organizers tried to instill fear in the people present by announcing that cops and firefighters were already stationed just a few blocks away. Our own scouts went ahead to check it out and this proved to be FALSE.

16.) As we stayed arguing with the organizers, one of the main dudes (white male) seemed exasperated and kept telling us that we were basically ruining all of HIS hard work he put into the movement. If we stayed in the park and got arrested, it would be HIM that would get the gravest consequences from the cops, because they apparently told him as such.

17.) As people began moving to the sidewalks, a circle of us decided to fuck it and stay in the park past 10:30PM. A few comrades decided to camp inside the park as well. Those who would not be camping stayed to give them support and solidarity.

18.) The organizers tried to instill fear in people saying that the cops were already on their way because they had heard it on their own police scanners. They didn’t have any.

19.) 10:30PM came and passed, and no cops. In fact, people started coming into the park around midnight and laying about, chatting, sleeping, WITHOUT any police interference. By 1AM, everything was chill.

I have much more to say about this event in particular with hierarchy, white privilege, lack of democratic centralism, etc.

Manna-hata, by Joanne Barker (Lenape)

Joanne Barker’s Tequila Sovereign blog provides a brief history of Manna-hata, its usurption by European colonizers, and wonder if:

Perhaps those who now claim to OCCUPY WALL STREET in the name of reforming America’s economy could remember their history and call it something else (see Racialicious’ post on the importance of language in opposition). Wall Street is, after all, already an occupied territory. As are all of U.S. land “holdings” in northern America, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.

Full post here!

OCCUPY WALL STREET: The Game of Colonialism and further nationalism to be decolonized from the “Left,” by Jessica Yee

Created by Erin Konsmo (Métis/Cree) http://erinkonsmo.blogspot.com/

Jessica Yee connects the colonial project to capitalism, and cautions against the dangers of nationalism:

We don’t need more occupation – we need decolonization and it’s everyone’s responsibility to participate in that because COLONIALISM AFFECTS EVERYONE. EVERYONE! Colonialism also leads to capitalism, globalization, and industrialization. How can we truly end capitalism without ending colonialism? How does doing things in the name of “America” which was created by the imposition of hierarchies of class, race, ability, gender, and sexuality help that?

Full post here!

Let’s not ask “Where are all the people of color,” by Midwest Mountain Mama

Brilliant:

WE have been organizing for the past 500 years, and WE have been the ones organizing especially hard in the post-911 world—THEY are joining the rest of us. THAT is the point to me—to make sure the question does not get rewritten to “where are all the people of color” when we all know the real question is “where have the white folks been?”

Originally found here!

Reflections on #OccupyWallStreet, by The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective

Photo: RDAC-BX

From the RDAC-BX:

Our intention is not to dismiss it as just this, but the gut feeling was that there is a serious disconnect down there. We left with mad questions! Where was the hood? Where was the poorest congressional district in the USA, from The South Bronx at? Like we say in Hip Hop, where Brooklyn at?

Read the full post here!

Brown Power at #OccupyWallStreet, by Hena Ashraf

Photo: Liza Eliano for Hyperallergic

Hena Ashraf recounts what can only be described as a traumatic experience at the hands of Occupy Wall Street’s white facilitators and leaders. Ashraf and her friends had to fight in order change the movement’s Declaration, and faced and entirely uphill battle, emblematic of the white supremacist structure that controls OWS:

The facilitator who had earlier attempted to shut us down, came and said we should come back the next day to finish our discussion. We said no, let’s do this right here and now, and hammer it out in 10 minutes, which we did. A white woman came up to me and asked, why didn’t we leave the main facilitator alone? I told her he wanted to listen to us and chose to sit down here with us, we didn’t force him. These were the unfortunate distractions and disruptions we had to deal with. I realized that change on the ground is hard, messy, and painful, and we could feel all of this.

Ashraf and her friends fought to change a line which read, “As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or lack thereof, political party and cultural background, we acknowledge the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival requires the cooperation of its members […]” The line now reads “As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members […]” That this much emotional and intellectual work leads to such a tiny victory is depressing (at best). Let’s commend Ashraf and her friends for their bravery under unbelievable pressure.

Read full post here!

Call for Entries (Updated!)

From New York to California, and everywhere in between, Occupy has created a massive and media-savvy movement that has captured a lot (perhaps too much) attention. While white author/activists have written that “Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination,” we feel that such celebratory rhetoric effectively erases the endless efforts on the part of people of color to dismantle oppression–in fact, we can think of nothing less radically imaginative than surviving under the multiple layers of systems created to destroy us as people of color. Similarly, when other white author/activists write that we “Either […] join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or […] stand on the wrong side of history,” they discount the many ways in which Occupy has created a movement that not all people of color want to take part in.

Let’s begin by approaching the name of the first encampment, Occupy Wall Street, by stating what we feel should be obvious: every city on the continent is occupied indigenous land. Wall Street was built on Algonquian land, and has been occupied ever since. After African slaves built Wall Street for European settlers, it was home to the slave market, and eventually became an African burial ground for up to 20,000 bodies. Since its arrival on this continent, capitalism has always been a system of exploitation based on race. Wall Street is one example of usurped land and slave labor, stolen to quell the desires of European colonizers. To attempt to create a movement that ignores this reality is fundamentally flawed, and it is not clear to us that it will ever move forward. When white Occupy Wall Street activists say they want to dismantle capitalism, they should realize its origin and understand why a slouching economy disproportionately affects people of color.  We feel that if these issues had been consciously integrated from the start, people of color in various Occupy locations (including Wall Street) wouldn’t be feeling the heat of white supremacy today, and believe that Occupy’s white organizers bear the full burden of this reproduction of oppression.

This blog seeks to aggregate radical critiques about Occupy around the continent (including Canada, of course). We’ve begun posting links to some of the most relevant existing analysis from people of color who have been disenfranchised from this movement, but we’re also seeking your links and/or direct entries to this blog. For the moment, we’re interested in providing an outlet for people of color who have had to fight to have their voices heard by the white mass that now controls this movement. If you consider yourself a white ally, we ask that you keep your entries to yourself at this time, and instead read these posts and only comment when you feel it is necessary (there’s already plenty of space for your voice at Occupy, and we want to create an online site for, by and about people of color); you can also consider volunteering to run errands and cook a meal or two for a person of color for a day so that they have the time to sit, think and write about their experience for an audience. A few exceptions to this rule: we want to hear from disability rights activists of any identity, to begin to understand what your experience with Occupy has been as well. We also welcome photographs from anyone.

We doubt you need ideas, and would love to simply provide a space for you to share your experiences. But there are many other potential topics of inquiry:

• One idea includes analyzing the General Assembly and Facilitation model, who it works for, and who it silences. We think that Human Microphone and Stack, and other forms of culturally-white communication can sometimes work in oppressive ways. Because white people enter Occupy as teachers already possessing these “skills,” people of color are left with no choice but to take the place of students who are eager to mimic an often foreign process, and have no room whatsoever to challenge it.
• Another topic includes challenging Occupy’s notion of police brutality, and the way white folks hog up an issue that so unevenly affects people of color after getting roughed up once or twice by the cops during a protest. Police brutality and state violence are everyday realities in communities of color, but Occupy has made it seem like white kids are suddenly the ones suffering. The day that 700 people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, we heard that “the whole world [was] watching.” Is that the reason the whole world wasn’t watching the 1,000 mostly black people who attended Troy Davis’ funeral that Saturday?
• We also want to hear from those of you who want to examine Occupy’s branding. Aside from the problematic nature of the word “occupy” itself, we’re worried that calling this the “99%” whitewashes reality. As shown by the many blog links we’ve already posted, few people of color feel this is a “democratic” and/or “horizontal” process. Why does Occupy choose to use so many words that obscure the way people of color have been marginalized at this encampment?

We seek writing in the form of short blogs, lists of demands, poems, journal entries, long-form essays (we have no word minimum, but ask that essays be no longer than 1,500 words before discussing this with us), as well as art work, recordings, photographs (we have a feeling a lot of you have taken photos that reflect some of the very misguided signs with racist slogans, white activists wearing “war paint,” endless streams of ridiculously offensive Guy Fawkes masks etc., and we really, really need them, so please send them over!). Please send all questions and entries to disoccupy@gmail.com, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Why Occupy Wall Street should matter to People of Color, by Kevin Alvarez

Photo: Kevin Alvarez

Kevin Alvarez has been an early participant at OWS, and explains the ways in which people of color have been marginalized, and why they should take part in the movement and take over leadership roles:

“The disparity in the number of members/participants/citizens/activists of color that are taking part compared to the number of white people (esp. males). Now, I expect a “why do you have to make it about race?” response, because that is typical when someone’s privilege is confronted, but I want this to be constructive.”

Read full post here!

An Open Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Activists, by JohnPaul Montano (Nishnaabe)

Photo: Native News Network

We were surprised to find that this post, written just one week after the start of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), hardly made round on the internet. Please consider reading it in full, commenting and re-posting widely–it is his voices that OWS’s white leadership needs to answer to.

“Hoping and believing that you enlightened folks fighting for justice and equality and an end to imperialism, etc., etc., would make mention of the fact that the very land upon which you are protesting does not belong to you – that you are guests upon that stolen indigenous land. I had hoped mention would be made of the indigenous nation whose land that is. I had hoped that you would address the centuries-long history that we indigenous peoples of this continent have endured being subject to the countless ‘-isms’ of do-gooders claiming to be building a “more just society,” a “better world,” a “land of freedom” on top of our indigenous societies, on our indigenous lands, while destroying and/or ignoring our ways of life. I had hoped that you would acknowledge that, since you are settlers on indigenous land, you need and want our indigenous consent to your building anything on our land – never mind an entire society.

Read full post here!