OWS and Race Issues.

I believe I just watched something I can say is the first time I have had my support for the OWS movement seriously shaken. I've spent the last 15 minutes or so watching MODS....not guests, but MODS in the Occupy Oakland LiveStream chat room going on and on about how Race makes everything different.....there are no poor white people....if white people are poor, it's not nearly as bad as a black person who is poor...Oh and the best one, white folks who are down don't have the system holding them there as "POC" (People of Color, I surmised) do.

Okay, I need to say this and Rant is the place to do it, I feel. I'm white, and I don't think it should matter. RACE shouldn't have a thing to do with this. It's supposed to be about political change and bringing some equality to the economic system between the unthinkably wealthy few and the struggling majority who support them. Just exactly where is race supposed to fit in there?

I don't see the spot for it now, or ever. Not here in OWS and DEFINITELY not in a way used to separate us and draw even more lines between those of us who are trying so desperately to bring all sides TOGETHER so some change may actually be possible at the end of all this.

Now I have been among the first in threads to point out the differences from one location to the next and how the movement cannot be judged by the bad actions of one or even several cities. However, there are exceptions where the bad behavior of one location CAN have a very serious effect across ALL. Racism...and that is what this was, RACISM, is one of those things that can have that effect. Particularly when it's being said and supported by moderators and apparently condoned at that level. The room had plenty arguing it...but plenty of time out's and bans flowing as well.

Oh...... I want to add something else and this is a personal observation. While we all feel for Scott Olsen, and I want an investigation as much as the next guy..and I MEAN that, there are things that just aren't helpful. Oakland's LiveStream running a ticker across the bottom of the screen offering $1,500 to the person who can identify the Officer that fired the infamous shot is *NOT* what I would call productive. It sounds a heck of a lot more like a bounty and if people want to fuel the fire with the Police, I can't think of a more effective method. Insanity is what I call it. Just a total lack of long term thinking and insanity.

Some Police are already against OWS, but more importantly, a great number more are sympathetic in private, if not openly. If something like this becomes a common tactic, that whole sympathy vote could dry up and blow away along with any chance of peace with authorities while the protests continue.

I'm calling it an early night. The Cards won this game of the series...after 11 innings. For sports people, that is good news...For me, it means the friends I made and left behind at Occupy STL don't have to worry about rowdy fans crashing through the middle of their camp. On that note, it's time for an early turn in, for a change.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I believe I just watched something I can say is the first time I have had my support for the OWS movement seriously shaken. I've spent the last 15 minutes or so watching MODS....not guests, but MODS in the Occupy Oakland LiveStream chat room going on and on about how Race makes everything different....

OWS protesters are hardly an inclusive bunch.
Pictures from the Oakland OWS Here

WOMEN QUEER AND TRANS ONLY
PEOPLE OF COLOR TENT!
STOP WHITE GENTRIFICATION IN OAKLAND
WOMEN TRANS QUEER CAMP

“The encampment has already fractured into a series of micro-neighborhoods, just like a real city,”
“But at Occupy Oakland, where you are permitted to live is determined by your gender and/or racial or sexual identity.”

reply to post by alfa1

I'd seen those in the pictures. As usual, Cryptome has carried their daily spreads of camp and protest pictures on a daily basis. However, I saw some interesting things at Occupy STL too, and I can say from direct and personal knowledge that those objectionable things were NOT condoned and barely tolerated by Occupiers at the time. It was a bit of a shock to see this racist garbage spewed at the Moderator level and bans/time outs being thrown against those who tried to call them on it.

Few things could radically and almost immediately turn me from a supporter to a die hard opponent to OWS, but racism of any form taking hold as a part of the movement is #1 at the top.

For those I've heard challenge the concept....Racism is just as real, vile and obscene when it's a black person injecting it against white people as any 'Nazi' or Aryan white person forcing it upon a black one. Nothing justifies it and society simply cannot tolerate it at any level, in ANY direction.

Here is hoping the people on Oakland either get a grip on their more vile and base elements or simply eject them from the OWS camp/movement entirely before it costs them the sincere support and sympathy of a nation watching events there very closely.