Brooklyn, New York
Fat People of Color: Four Basic Principles That #OWS Can Implement to Address it’s White Privilege, Colonialist, White Supremacy [First...
I requested to post the following in this space to maintain anonymity and I’d like to thank the mods of this space for allowing me to do so. I also want to acknowledge that this is a first draft and that changes may be made. I would also like to thank those who helped me edit this piece and…
[Knowing Coves: and im gonna write more about this later] OWS & the missing "minorities."
so much of this right now. i have to say, being in the financial district nearly everyday, visiting #OWS, supporting the poc/indigeneous/native communities that are attempting to make headway, i am deeply concerned. additionally, what safety protocol is there and what are the measures that choose who facilitates, leads chants, receives exposure? what lived experiences and needs are taken into account? how are queer and trans pocs, disabled pocs, undocumented pocs, womyn of color, supported with understanding of a perennial landscape of vulnerability and violence that impacts those communities with police brutality, institutional pillaging?
to see #OWS as a revolutionary anomoly, a last judgement as the barometer to scale who is “really political” essentializes the very hybrid of approaches to justice and liberation work that poc, native, indigenous people have been doing through out history. an example which i share on facebook: note the white assigned at birth male legal observer ran over by a police scooter or the incidents where white assigned at birth (read: straight, skinny, attractive to white straight men) women are flagrantly attacked. my disabled brown transgender ass is going to consider this in 2 ways— 1) if they will maul over privileged people, then people of multiple identities that challenge the mainstream empire is surely in danger at #OWS. what resources & support systemically can be harnessed for impacted on multiple levels versus the aforementioned above? 2) white people and specifically, the white woman demographic always needs saving in the racist elite heteropatriarchal script of this country, so hence #ows is a valid call to action. women of color and trans people of color, migrant workers and disabled people of color face accelerated violence everyday, some so far as murder and modern day slavery, but those are not the valuable amerikkkan narratives that fuel the white diatribe of saviorism in radical and progressive movements.
where are the “minorities.” they are doing a number of things all at once and many are organizing/healing/educating/sustaining/making liberation too. they are cooking your fancy food while they are forced to starve or limited by food deserts but grow urban gardens nonetheless, cleaning your houses and businesses, taking care of your children, incarcerated, unable to access housing, bombarded by ableist inaccessible buildings- chemicals- cognitive expectations, methodically shamed for their bodies & voices, growing your food exposed to chemicals, fighting for land rights still, working the streets, threatened by subhuman treatment even in employment or academia, being soldiers for wars b/c of limited financial resources, facing severe body dysphoria, being attacked by government-sanctioned raids, in devastating debt by system that was founded and flourished by white straight skinny christian middleclass. perhaps, people aren’t aware of the full and marvelous wealth of political struggle/landmarks by various POC and oppressed communities despite all of these obstacles, this is clearly a strategic mainstream oversight.
though i feel this way, i find that #ows is important but has to be under scrutiny for improvement and cannot be narrowly thwarted as the primary mode of political upheaval. many actions, protests, healing work, spiritual work, justice work have happened prior that led up to this and led up to initiatives that may not be getting any exposure but have pivotal change. MTV/twitter coverage doesn’t determine how political viable paths to dismantling injustice. we all have to be accountable to that and see that that work is compassionate and sustainable as well.
but at this point i am convinced: Occupy Wall Street is not a revolutionary movement. SlutWalk is not a revolutionary movement. There might be revolutionary elements, but fundamentally, these movements are about retaining and…
