View Single Post
Old 04-29-2012, 10:59 PM   #2
Despanan
 
Despanan's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Sugar Hill
Posts: 3,887
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manissa McCleave Maharawal
Let me tell you what it feels like to stand in front of a white man and explain privilege to him. It hurts. It makes you tired. Sometimes it makes you want to cry. Sometimes it is exhilarating. Every single time it is hard. Every single time I get angry that I have to do this, that this is my job, and that it shouldn’t be my job. Every single time I am proud of myself that I’ve been able to say these things because I used to not be able to and because some days I just don’t want to.

This all has been said by many, many strong women of colour before me but every time, every single time these levels of power are confronted it I think it needs to be written about, talked about, gone through over and over again.

And this is the thing: that there in that circle, on that street-corner we did a crash course on racism, white privilege, structural racism, oppression. We did a course on history and the declaration of independence and colonialism and slavery. It was hard. It was real. It hurt. But people listened. We had to fight for it. I’m going to say that again: we had to fight for it. But it felt worth it. It felt worth it to sit down on a street corner in the Financial District at 11:30 pm on a Thursday night, after working all day long and argue for the changing of the first line of Occupy Wall Street’s official Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. It felt worth it not only because we got the line changed but also because while standing in a circle of 20, mostly white men, and explaining racism to them, carefully and slowly spelling out that I as a woman of colour experience the world way differently than the author of the Declaration, a white man; that this was not about him being personally racist but about relations of power; and that he urgently needed to listen to and believe me about this … this moment felt like a victory for the movement on its own.

And this is the other thing. It was hard, and it was fucked up that we had to fight for it in the way we did but we did fight for it and we won. The line was changed, they listened, we sat down and re-wrote it and it has been published with our re-write. And when we walked away, I felt like something important had just happened, that we had just pushed a movement a little bit closer to the movement I would like to see – one that takes into account historical and current inequalities, oppressions, racisms, relations of power, and one that doesn’t just recreate liberal white privilege but confronts it head on. And if I have to fight to make that happen I will. As long as my people are there standing next to me while I do that.

Later that night I biked home over the Brooklyn Bridge and I somehow felt like the world was, just maybe, at least in that moment, mine, as well as everyone dear to me and everyone who needed and wanted more from the world. I somehow felt like maybe the world could be all of ours.
As far as "Ron Paul, neo liberals, and reformers goes" While Ron Paul has enjoyed SOME support from Occupiers, largely due to his anti-fed stance, his vocal support FOR the movement and the fact that he is the ONLY Presidential Candidate who is anti-war (Occupy is currently extremely concerned about the possibility of war in Iran) Occupy is overwhelmingly anti-capitalist, and those of us who aren't are getting more radical every day (it really only takes getting the shit kicked out of you by the NYPD and spending time in lock-up with more experienced activists to radicalize a moderate...and the NYPD have been beating and arresting the shit out of us. (<-- Watch those, especially the second one, you'll get to see the police break a window with my comrade's head).
With every arrest Occupy becomes more radical, more anti-capitalist, and more revolutionary. This is a very good thing, because shit has been getting freaking gonzo nuts lately, and if we all don’t want to find our respective countries goose-stepping through a robo-cop hell anytime soon, something radical needs to be done.

So how did Occupy come to be seen as “a movement plagued with white privlege, Ron Paul wankers, neoliberals and reformers” dominated by Chauvinist, Racist, White Men so un-aware of their own privilege that “every occupier is a frustrated dictator”?
Well, there are a number of reasons…for one thing, Occupy is a multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-ethnic, populist movement taking place in a world which has been dominated by Capitalist oppression and propaganda for centuries. It is only natural that there are going to be clashes, misunderstandings, rudeness, criminal activity, and downright crazy bullshit. That’s life, and it’s further complicated by Occupy’s Lateral Anarchist Structure. Versus brought up a point in the other thread actually:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Versus View Post
Also, this distinctly reminds me of when the government labels service men as rogues when they commit some kind of atrocity.

You have to take responsibility for everything that you create, not just the good things, but the bad as well. I understand that society as a whole generates these types of attitudes, but OCW as a whole needs to acknowledge that they exist within the movement because they are allowed to. That includes you, Despanan.
There is a distinct difference between Occupy, and the Military (or a regular political movement or party). When a soldier “goes rogue” he is part of a mission with specific goals, he has a set of homogenized ideals he’s supposed to follow, and a command which he is obliged to obey which must also answer for its actions.
Occupy has none of this, it is an Anarchist movement dedicated to the dismantling of illegitimate heirachal power structures, not by working within those structures, but by bypassing them entirely, and instead approaching the problem through bottom up egalitarianism and direct action. This is evident in the Declaration of the Occupation:

Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCGA
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
So how the hell am I supposed to “create” an oppressive environment in Occupy Newfoundland, let alone take responsibility for it? I didn’t not let Saya get a word in edgewise. Occupy didn’t tell that guy to bring a People’s Republic of China Flag to the march for Danny Cheng. It’s not our fault that, when Adbusters gave Occupy its name based on the Occupied Factories movement in Argentina, they didn’t think that it had a different connotation to Native Peoples.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Versus
]It's not the responsibility of people to overlook what you feel isn't there, because it's a very real thing to the rest of us. "Be more like a white middle class male." gets really, really old. It's YOUR responsibility to show that it's not there, and by not even taking the first step to acknowledge that racism, sexism, and homophobia are present within YOUR movement, you further alienate would-be supporters without your privilege.

If you don't acknowledge my issues and work to overcome them, how am I supposed be elevated to a position where I can work with you to overcome something we all face?

I am not overlooking this stuff. Nor are other members of Occupy. As you can see, this stuff has been addressed and will continue to be addressed.

What I am pointing out to you, Saya, and anyone else who bought in to the narrative that Occupy is just a bunch of racist, privileged white men flying the colors of revolution in an effort to reclaim their middle class and replace our current dictators with themselves, is that this narrative is a lie. Not only that, it is a lie of omission.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by KontanKarite
I promote radical change through my actions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger
I have chugged more than ten epic boners.
Despanan is offline   Reply With Quote