Occupy Wall Street's Race Problem.
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Occupy Wall Street's Race Problem
Kenyon Farrow
October 24, 2011
White protesters need to rethink their rhetoric.
The economic crisis has disproportionately affected people of color, in particular African Americans. Given the stark economic realities in communities of color, many people have wondered why the Occupy Wall Street movement hasn’t become a major site for mobilizing African Americans. For me, it's not about the diversity of the protests. It's about the rhetoric used by the white left that makes OWS unable to articulate, much less achieve, a transformative racial-justice agenda.
One of the first photos I saw from the Occupy Wall Street protests was of a white person carrying a flag that read “Debt=Slavery.” White progressive media venues often compare corporate greed or exploitation to some form of modern-day slavery. But while carrying massive amounts of debt, whether in student loans, medical bills, or predatory balloon-payment mortgages is clearly a mark of a society that exploits poor and working-class people, it is not tantamount to chattel slavery. In fact, slaves, who were the property of others by law, for centuries symbolized wealth. A slave, as property, could be sold as a commodity to clear debt. Currently, black households carry about $5,000 in wealth compared to $100,000 for white households, according to a recent Brandeis University study. Arguing that white working- and middle-class people are slaves to debt or corporations undermines not only the centrality of the African slave trade to the birth of the modern corporation but the distinct ways in which debt prevents many blacks from achieving middle-class status.
In this way, white progressives subscribe to the same “slavery” line conservatives use to incite white fears of economic and political subjugation. Rush Limbaugh, according to Media Matters, equated the 2009 health-care law to slavery, noting, “It's not going to be a matter of whether you can or cannot pay. It won't be a matter of whether you have coverage or don't have coverage. What'll matter is that all of us will be slaves."
Pundits have observed that many black people may be staying away from the Wall Street protests to avoid (additional) direct contact with police. Last year, New York City carried out 600,000 random stop-and-frisks, half of which were conducted on black citizens, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union; it makes sense that blacks, who are often in daily contact with police, would stay away from an event where interaction with law-enforcement officers would be inevitable. In fact, on October 22, scores of OWS protesters joined a Harlem demonstration against the practice of stop-and-frisk, during which several people were arrested.
But when the New York Police Department began to act violently against the mostly white protesters on Wall Street, many of the videos posted by OWS attendees on YouTube made the point that protesters were arrested, beaten, or pepper-sprayed “just for asking the police a question” or for “just exercising their right to protest.”
In contrast, many nonwhites assume the worst in any interaction with police, and if the worst doesn't occur, we often consider that the exception, not the rule.
In a London Guardian op-ed, white feminist writer and Democratic strategist Naomi Wolf wrote that she was arrested at an OWS demonstration while “standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown,” as if to connote that nice white ladies on the way to high-society gatherings wouldn't or shouldn't be treated as criminal by the police. She went on to detail the ways in which police lied or broke the law in handling the protest. Though blacks and Latinos are never mentioned directly, statements that accuse police of misconduct when they clash with ostensibly law-abiding activists highlight how much white occupiers take for granted that only “criminals” will be the target of police violence and harassment.
Another fundamental flaw of white progressives (like many participating in the OWS movement) is the “take back our country and/or democracy” framework. In order to be invested in that idea, you have to see and believe that you had some stake in it to begin with. If you've been stopped and frisked 50 different times with as many fines to pay, or you're ? -positive and your welfare benefits were cut off because you were too ill to keep an appointment with a case manager, it's hard to believe that the government is just broken—it seems pretty insistent and hell-bent on your demise.
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.
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http://www.prospect.org/article/occupy-wall-streets-race-problem
Comments
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Interesting read. props on this thread
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Interesting but I think the article falls short. I have participated in the Occupy Wall Street protests in NY and saw nothing to suggest Blacks would feel out of place there. Plenty of Blacks were there, and we all know Russel Simmons, Kanye, and Lupe Fiasco along with many other Black rappers have called themselves supporters. I hear where the author is coming from but the OWS people to me are on our side. They may not understand that Blacks have dealt with unjust police policies for years but many are willing to listen. I support the OWS movement 100% as a Black man and will attend another protest Saturday.
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Either:
? is too damn lazy and/or disillusioned and/or cynical and/or hopeless and/or unaware of the stakes to go out and protest
or
? is too scared to go protest because they could lose what little work they do have if they're at a protest and not at their work place. Most blacks cant afford to be taking days off to hold a damn sign. ? around and be holding a "Will Work for Food" sign instead. -
nah ive seen PLENTY of blacks at the NY one.
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The race problem is them white households getting what they want and it's right back to the way it was. They're gonna shut they doors in our faces and lock them. Just like they been doing. White folks with white problems. They don't stand up for ? , but now they want bodies for they little movement. Good luck with that, I say.
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I dont need no white man to stand up for me
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i really feel like it may have started with a few sincere people but now the whole thing reeks of some kind of covert operation. when has protesting and ? EVER yielded results as large as are demanded? ? , even after all that sitting in and ? black folks in america are not better off. just ? over in another kind of way. smh @ muthafuckas still thinking the u.s is a real democracy. that ? been dead and the economy been dead since 1933. you muthafuckas better start learning how to grow food find water , build homes and clothe yourselves cause all that picketing and 'civil unrest" is a waste of energy.this will serve a historical lessons for generations to come that when u start something off wrong (like the u.s.) it will crumble horribly.
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^Every grassroots organization is eventually infiltrated, thats why the revolution wont and cant be televised. That's one of the realest quotes ever.
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Good read.
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The race problem is them white households getting what they want and it's right back to the way it was. They're gonna shut they doors in our faces and lock them. Just like they been doing. White folks with white problems. They don't stand up for ? , but now they want bodies for they little movement. Good luck with that, I say.
^^^^ Cosign this smart man. Once this ? blows over them white folks aint gonna be holding hands with us and it's back to the same ol same ol. They see a black person outside their place of business with a sign they usually call the police. Corporations BEEN ? us over. Whitie just now realizing they been getting ? a little too. Until I see some crackas protesting with us for OUR movements u aint gonna be seeing me at none of these Occupy protests. Also ? need to quit with the marching and holding signs. That ? really don't be doing nothing. It's 2011, not 1965. -
I think you and those who think like you should be exported to North Africa. I swear to ? (for me that's unusual) you hip hop culture types seriously need to find another country to live in....cause you sure as hell don't appreciate this one. FYI not only are black folks not better off...most white people are losing more ground every day & they can't hide behind there skin color & snivel there lives away.
You see how you wrote that.......them two ? aren't even the same thing!
Just because the last few years white folks have been losing their houses to foreclosures and not being able to find jobs isnt the same thing as us black folks not being able to even get a dam home loan or get hired for a job because of skin color for over 50 decades!..........yall white folks think your hurting now.....boo hoo hooo for less than half a decade.........yall are just now starting to feel just a small fraction of what us black people have been going through for dam near half a century! -
I think you and those who think like you should be exported to North Africa. I swear to ? (for me that's unusual) you hip hop culture types seriously need
``to find another country to live in....cause you sure as hell don't appreciate this one. FYI not only are black folks not better off...most white people are losing more ground every day & they can't hide behind there skin color & snivel there lives away.
shut up ? . i've moved MYSELF to africa. ? the u.s. and ? you too. you and your cracka brothers can have that raggedy ? . and for rthe record you coward ? , hip-hop is not culture, thusly i am not a "hip-hop culture type". so you say that white folks aint better off (since the civil rights era) ? so youre proposing that there is no race [problem and that blacks and whites share an ecuivocal social sitiuation in amerikkka? GTFOH you ? troll. youre one of those rare posters i would seriously come out of pocket to meet just so i can hear you scream through your ? fingers when i knock your ? teeth in. -
that occupy wall street facade just shows you how delsusional and hypocritical crakkas really are. youre standing in front of the jp morgan chase building with a sign that reads "debt=slavery" but when nyggas brought up the fact that jp morgan chase used to insure slaves and cash in slave vouchers yall crakkas said "oh nygger, quit your whining and stop living in the past."
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White people having.. ? nightmares.. they got a cold alot of us have the flu...
A small dose of how the other half is living = Chickensoup for the soul. -
Lol @ you conceding the unadulterrated truth..
Payback for what ?
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that occupy wall street facade just shows you how delsusional and hypocritical crakkas really are. youre standing in front of the jp morgan chase building with a sign that reads "debt=slavery" but when nyggas brought up the fact that jp morgan chase used to insure slaves and cash in slave vouchers yall crakkas said "oh nygger, quit your whining and stop living in the past."
Good points but now that some whites are finally seeing how unfair the system is, it could help blacks and all races in the long run because finally change could happen that would impact the avg person. Examples being more low income housing, some debt forgiveness, and an ending to the war in Afghanistan so money spent there can finally be spent here. Not saying its gonna happen quickly but if this movement holds its ground and people keep participating, things can change for the better. That's why so many Black civil rights leaders have embraced this movement, everyone can be helped if we just keep pushing for change. We cant give up now.....the OWS movement really won me over when I saw so many of the protestors speaking up on racism and the police, issues Blacks have mentioned for decades. Theres room for everyone in this, any issues that we have can be brought to the spotlight if Blacks start participating more. -
truth spitter wrote: »^^^^ Cosign this smart man. Once this ? blows over them white folks aint gonna be holding hands with us and it's back to the same ol same ol. They see a black person outside their place of business with a sign they usually call the police. Corporations BEEN ? us over. Whitie just now realizing they been getting ? a little too. Until I see some crackas protesting with us for OUR movements u aint gonna be seeing me at none of these Occupy protests. Also ? need to quit with the marching and holding signs. That ? really don't be doing nothing. It's 2011, not 1965.
You really think the civil rights movement accomplished nothing?? Those people holding signs and doing sit ins helped Blacks get the right to vote and do business anywhere we please in the South, the movement wasn't perfect obviously but it did accomplish a lot. What should people be doing instead, shooting at cops and govt officials? -
kingblaze84 wrote: »Good points but now that some whites are finally seeing how unfair the system is, it could help blacks and all races in the long run because finally change could happen that would impact the avg person. Examples being more low income housing, some debt forgiveness, and an ending to the war in Afghanistan so money spent there can finally be spent here. Not saying its gonna happen quickly but if this movement holds its ground and people keep participating, things can change for the better. That's why so many Black civil rights leaders have embraced this movement, everyone can be helped if we just keep pushing for change. We cant give up now.....the OWS movement really won me over when I saw so many of the protestors speaking up on racism and the police, issues Blacks have mentioned for decades. Theres room for everyone in this, any issues that we have can be brought to the spotlight if Blacks start participating more.
Too late provocateurs have already infiltrated. In the media they are already using buzz words to define it as a democratic party movement and using the tea party as a dividing opposition, I think you can see where this is going. Theres money starting to flow in the circles and thats whats going to muck ? up completely. -
see, if you was into your bible you would know that that ? aint gon' work. i dont remember the exact book but to paraphrase: "there was a poor wise man who saved the city, but when the city got back on its feet, they aint remember that nygga." you can be as myopic as you want to be, but theyve shown you who they are time and time againkingblaze84 wrote: »Good points but now that some whites are finally seeing how unfair the system is, it could help blacks and all races in the long run because finally change could happen that would impact the avg person. Examples being more low income housing, some debt forgiveness, and an ending to the war in Afghanistan so money spent there can finally be spent here. Not saying its gonna happen quickly but if this movement holds its ground and people keep participating, things can change for the better. That's why so many Black civil rights leaders have embraced this movement, everyone can be helped if we just keep pushing for change. We cant give up now.....the OWS movement really won me over when I saw so many of the protestors speaking up on racism and the police, issues Blacks have mentioned for decades. Theres room for everyone in this, any issues that we have can be brought to the spotlight if Blacks start participating more. -
so in other words, them crakkas sho'll put you in a tough position with this occupy wall street didnt they?ether-i-am wrote: »? make everything about race or how black people don't fit in or how something doesn't accurately speaks to black people.
? will complain in heaven. -
LOL --- you DON'T scare me. You actually think people aren't getting tired of hearing how oppressed black people are....constantly whining about what you haven't got.....on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on....yeah that truth makes you mad. FYI if my roots were actually in Europe? I still wouldn't move there....the radical Muslim invaders are destroying that country as we speak.
not trying to scare you. of course u will remain an anonymous coward ? . i was just speaking my mind. i know youre a coward who hides behind a screen name and wioukdnt DARE say that ? you talking in the presence of a black person over the age of 10. who the ? is whining ? ? where did u see me whine? i just said some facts. the civil rights movement didnt do much of ? for black folks in the end. and this was cited to illustrate that protests and the like by ANY RACE are fruitless. either way im not that dude to stand idly by if i see myself in a disadvantageous situation so instead of complaining i actually make moves. you the one that cant handle the truth hence when you see the word "black" regardless of context for you to jump into your stupid ass tirades that will only be communicated over the internet where u dont have to fear getting stomped. i got white friends that would stomp the ? out of you for the shityou talk. ? ? . since when is europe a country? and are we in the days of the crusades or something? what the ? is a "radical muslim invader"? yeah..sure...europe has been well off for centuries before muslims came there. muslims are responsible for european economies failing, the burgeonig heroin and ? epidemic there and for the vast amount of human trafficking that takes place there. yeahhhh...ok.
stupid coward ? . -
So you have been oppressed for over 500 hundred years? WOW! - Thanks for proving my point. Do you honestly think that this country is that bad? Do you ever look beyond your own narrow-minded perspective on what this country affords all of its citizens? Seriously if America was/is has bad as so many of you claim? how has it survived for well over 200 years?
FYI when America implodes this man will be prepared. I really can't follow why so many of you hip hop culture types complain endlessly about what you haven't got? constantly complaining within these pages about one thing or another.
Do you ever look beyond and think about current events e.g., in other parts of this world? Greece, Libya ? seriously how can anyone appreciate what they have right now? if this country survives for another 50 years will your children be complaining worse than you do now? probably. The current generation of young Americans have got to be the most ungrateful beings this planet has ever known.
meant 5 decades but might as well be 50! -
Last Of My Kind wrote: »Too late provocateurs have already infiltrated. In the media they are already using buzz words to define it as a democratic party movement and using the tea party as a dividing opposition, I think you can see where this is going. Theres money starting to flow in the circles and thats whats going to muck ? up completely.
There were infiltrators in the civil rights movement too and it still succeeded overall. MLK Jr was called a Communist and anti-American by many during his day, and look how revered he is now. My point is people have to keep pushing for change if we want justice for the poor and middle class, we can't let money and outside forces dissuade us. Otherwise, who the ? else is going to push for real change??!!
Theres only so much ? can do from behind a computer, we gotta take action and demand change in public! -
see, if you was into your bible you would know that that ? aint gon' work. i dont remember the exact book but to paraphrase: "there was a poor wise man who saved the city, but when the city got back on its feet, they aint remember that nygga." you can be as myopic as you want to be, but theyve shown you who they are time and time again
I understand some white people will never want things to change overall but change is still possible. To just give up and throw our hands in the air isn't gonna solve anything, we can only solve our issues by getting out there and demanding change. People did it in the 60s and got the Vietnam War to end. People did it during the civil rights movement and now we have not just a Black president (whose been disappointing as hell but still) but also many Blacks in govt. We also have many more freedoms as Black people compared to our ancestors in the 1950s and 60s. My point is, things CAN get better.
We will be lying to ourselves if we say life has gotten worse for Blacks overall since the 1960s. That tells me movements can create change, and the OWS movement can possibly create change too. We got nothing to lose at this point bro! -
And to those saying movements dont change anything, ask Nelson Mandela if apartheid ended.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wiYdUe36_Q