OWS from diverse perspectives
December 3, 2011 7:20 AM Subscribe
The Occupy Wall Street movement is being discussed pretty intensely over at Racialicious, a website about "The intersection of race and pop culture". The site claims that "over 70% of our audience is of color, and about 25% of our audience is from outside of North America." Maybe that's why their discussions of the OWS movement are unlike anything I'm used to seeing in the mass media here. Some examples are below.
Racial Fractures and the Occupy Movement
"People often tell me that I don’t look like your average Occupy protestor. [...] As a black woman, I feel any conversation about economic inequality is incomplete if it doesn’t also address racial inequality as well. The various occupations across the country present spaces for such conversations to take place. I’ve found plenty of reasons to support the Occupy movement, but does the movement support me?"
"Despite under-representation at Occupations around the country, black and brown people make up the majority of those suffering economically."
Brown Power at Occupy Wall Street
"At the general assembly a document was introduced called `The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City'."
"I, Thanu, Sonny, Manissa, and Natasha felt that some language needed to be urgently changed. [...] The line was: `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 first major concern amongst us was that the phrase `formerly divided by' was unrealistic, and erased histories of oppression that marginalized communities have suffered. The second concern was that the `human race' language also felt very out of touch."
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My selections are a bit random. There are many more Racialicious articles tagged with Occupy Wall Street. Much food for thought. The comments on the articles tend to be even more thought-provoking than the articles themselves.
Racial Fractures and the Occupy Movement
"People often tell me that I don’t look like your average Occupy protestor. [...] As a black woman, I feel any conversation about economic inequality is incomplete if it doesn’t also address racial inequality as well. The various occupations across the country present spaces for such conversations to take place. I’ve found plenty of reasons to support the Occupy movement, but does the movement support me?"
"Despite under-representation at Occupations around the country, black and brown people make up the majority of those suffering economically."
Brown Power at Occupy Wall Street
"At the general assembly a document was introduced called `The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City'."
"I, Thanu, Sonny, Manissa, and Natasha felt that some language needed to be urgently changed. [...] The line was: `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 first major concern amongst us was that the phrase `formerly divided by' was unrealistic, and erased histories of oppression that marginalized communities have suffered. The second concern was that the `human race' language also felt very out of touch."
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My selections are a bit random. There are many more Racialicious articles tagged with Occupy Wall Street. Much food for thought. The comments on the articles tend to be even more thought-provoking than the articles themselves.
This post was deleted for the following reason: We already have a ton of OWS posts. If you'd like to make a post about this aspect of OWS, put together some non-random links that are more than "read Racialicious" and it would make a good post here. This is a little too much of "link that should be in an exiting thread" sort of thing, but please feel free to put something together for tomorrow if you want. -- jessamyn
Why should it be deleted? This looks interesting and topical - I haven't followed the links yet but I will.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:26 AM on December 3, 2011
posted by From Bklyn at 7:26 AM on December 3, 2011
Earlier this month, organizers took heat for refusing to allow state representative and civil rights legend John Lewis to address the crowd.I saw that, it was sooo stupid. They apparently had no idea who he was -- one person called him a senator. That said, this bit gets part of it wrong too. It was the general assembly, not 'organizers' and he's a congressperson, not a state rep.
posted by delmoi at 7:31 AM on December 3, 2011
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posted by timsteil at 7:26 AM on December 3, 2011