Occupying White Privilege- a Revolutionary story from the inside of the Occupy Movement

p nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; There have been so many amazing articles, poems, blog posts and comments written by poor folks, people of color, and others whose stories and communities are not being centered in the ldquo;Occupyrdquo; movement. Because those stories and communities were not even taken into account in the planning of the ldquo;Occupations,rdquo; people from those communities are now having to tell organizers with white privilege and class privilege whatrsquo;s up - after things are already off and running.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Irsquo;m writing from Philadelphia. I donrsquo;t even know where to start with the hope and rage and unbelievable emotional risks.nbsp; I do have the resources to free up my time and allow me to be involved, I benefit from white privilege, I have a college education and connections in Philadelphiarsquo;s ldquo;activist span data-scayt_word="community.”" data-scaytid="1"community.rdquo;/spanbr / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; I donrsquo;t know whatrsquo;s going on in other cities, but in Philly, the ldquo;Occupationrdquo; has tents, clothing and food, daily, for hundreds and hundreds of span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="3"houseless/span folks. Shelter numbers are at record lows for this time of year ndash; here, no government officials are breathing down your neck and you donrsquo;t have to trade in your freedom of movement during the day in exchange for a place to sleep at night. The police and city-funded shelters are actually sending people to us, and I think this is a conscious strategy to overwhelm our resources and shut us down.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; They already demanded that protestors move the shanty that span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="4"houseless/span people erected in the space, and the General Assembly attendees had to vote to stand by the shanty, and stand up to City Hall. We will only face more decisions like this. Many ldquo;occupiersrdquo; will have to let go their white and class privileges and stand by the poor, will have to stop span data-scayt_word="scapegoating" data-scaytid="7"scapegoating/span immigrants and Jews and fearing people of color, will have to blame the capitalist system for the dehumanization of all of us ndash; instead of blaming each other. One of our span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="5"houseless/span neighbors holds a sign: ldquo;I am the real 99%.rdquo;br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Tiny from POOR Magazine is so on it when she talks about passing out information and doing political education.nbsp; Wersquo;ve got a lot of middle-class or formerly-middle-class white folks who have never engaged with issues of class struggle or corporate greed or mass injustice in America, at least not in public, and definitely not in big groups of people coming from a bunch of different experiences. There is a major need to be filled here for political education and learning histories of Philadelphia communities. Therersquo;s an opportunity to open up to how we are all wounded, and wounding others, with our (explicit or implicit) racism and colonizer mindset.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; A group of us have been holding regular workshops and conversations about white privilege and racism in the movement. Each time we do this more people come up who really want to center issues that affect poor and working communities of color right here in Philly. They leave excited to support the People of Color working group in the fight against this new curfew bill up for debate in City Council. The curfew laws are gentrification laws: they are only enforced against poor and working youth of color and their parents, and they play off other peoplersquo;s fears in order to keep the ldquo;wrongrdquo; people out of specific areas of the city theyrsquo;re span data-scayt_word="gentrifying" data-scaytid="8"gentrifying/span to attract shoppers and developers.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Also, every time we hold conversations about this, white folks will come up and try to disrupt us. Theyrsquo;ll say that every time we talk about race we are just distracting from the movement and making it weaker. Theyrsquo;ll say that race is a tool to divide us (true) and that when we talk about it at all, we are playing into a trap and doing exactly what ldquo;theyrdquo; want us to (FALSE).nbsp; This is only one small example of the messed up things have happened in our cityrsquo;s ldquo;Occupation,rdquo; too, like in so many. I wonrsquo;t go into more details ndash; not to let this movement off the hook, but to avoid unnecessarily triggering people. Irsquo;ll just say that they range from aggressively colorblind to explicitly racist, and they make me realize how much fear wersquo;re up against.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Lots of ldquo;Occupiersrdquo; donrsquo;t want us to organize around the curfew laws because they think the People Of Color working group is fringe and that making gentrification a core issue will be divisive.nbsp; Another class-privileged white activist and I are planning to pass out information about how the curfew and gentrification laws are central to our movement for economic justice, and we will probably field a lot of push-back from those people.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; So many of us have felt marginalized by white and middle/owning-class and male-dominated movement work. So many of us, for so many reasons, know what it is like to get that you are on the outside. You donrsquo;t talk right, you donrsquo;t look right, you donrsquo;t love right, you donrsquo;t have the time, you donrsquo;t have the energy, you are on the outside.nbsp; When Irsquo;m getting that feeling from organizers at Occupy Philly, I try to fight my way in when that feels like the right thing to do.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; But people like me are also trying to never lose that outsiderrsquo;s perspective. Wersquo;re trying tell everyone that criticism from people who we have pushed to the outside, knowingly or not, is a gift - not a threat. Articles from POOR Magazine and blog posts and letters and speeches calling on this movement to let go of white supremacy and loyalty to the ldquo;middle classrdquo; are all incredible gifts. Theyrsquo;re offerings from the outsiderrsquo;s eye that we have to take and learn from if we want this struggle to go anywhere good.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Yes, we still have to defend this movement to the people who think the status quo is fine and protest is a waste of time. But silence about how wersquo;re treating each other ndash; including the span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="6"houseless/span people who are our neighbors at the encampments ndash; will not help us now or in the long run. We have to keep being outspoken and honest, and we have to love and appreciate each other for demanding that we do this better.br / nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/p p nbsp;/p