Racism and the Occupy Movement

[chanel]

Disclaimer: I do not believe that one person's ignorant opinion on the "n-word" is indicative of racism of any group. However I found this entire conversation quite provocative.

Notes from Occupy Philly meeting last night:

Alex: Thank you for bringing this. We live in a racist white supremacist society where white people are privileged in every way. We need to recognize that reality, it exists in our minds as well as society. I absolutely support this coming to GA. We’ve been needing to have a frank discussion about race for a while now. In reference to Cindy’s concern, in the past we’ve had contentious GAs where race has been a central part, but it’s exploded because it hasn’t been directly addressed.

Anna: This could break up Occupy, so it needs to be spoken. If we’re not here together, we’re not here for the cause.

John: I know people willing to take action against Occupy, but they don’t want to; they want to feel a part of Occupy.

Brad: One thing you’re going to learn in an atmosphere is, the word n*gger refers to an ignorant person, it’s not about black people, not about race. There’s no reason for you to be offended because it’s about being uneducated, ignorant, not being black.

John: How can you say that? Don’t use that word.

Brad: If people feel offended by that kind of talk, they can take them outside and fight, but not in this room. You need to look n*gger up in the dictionary. It doesn’t mean “black person.”

[John leaves the room]

[People in CoCo speak out against Brad’s use of racist language]

[John re-enters the room]

Brad: John, you’re a big guy. You should be able to handle those people.

Alex: Brad, you need to stop.

John: It doesn’t matter what I can handle, if someone calls me a n*gger, it’s disrespectful, it’s a disgrace. That word is racist. It’s the same as me calling you a cr*cker.

Minutes from the meeting can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPhil...13112-coco-notes-monday-13012/315399215163116

Apparently, the minorities aren't feeling included and are discussing "taking action".

What do the lefties call that?

 

[DeeCee]

Someone sent me an email about an Islamic bigot who is at one of Florida's "occupy" movement.

 

[chanel]

That would be interesting to read. Do you have a link?

I'm going to start another thread about a provocative conversation from the same facebook page. This one is about sexual abuse and human slavery at Occupy Philly.

 

[chanel]

Uh oh. Looks like racism is destroying the movement. Where's the press?

People of Color WG (John P.) - It has been a rough month for us and as a result of the racial issues in OP, a lot of POC members have decided to leave OP as a whole, some have decided to take breaks, most of us have decided to pursue the things we were doing before OP. I was an activist before OP and I will be an activist for the rest of my life.

John: POC does stand for people of color. It wasn’t just me, I don’t speak for others. There’s only one other POC member here, all others have pulled out, they’ve made it perfectly clear, we are not wanted here. You don’t have to write a statement disowning us, we already feel unwelcome here. That’s why we made a statement, not for you to feel sorry for us, it has nothing to do with that. People are gonna be people, if they wanna leave they’re gonna leave.

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPhil...tation-wg-hiatus-announcement/320355148000856