Nooooo, Canada!
Don't you DARE turn these bright rainbows of limitless possibility into another dreary downpour of boring grey raindrops on Bay Street on October 15th! Keep your cheerless sniffs and sneers, your cringe-inducing and silencing accusations to yourselves. Wipe those dour smirks of smugness off your faces. Save the sanctimonious nitpicking for later. Take your pet issue and shove it. Talk to someone other than your circle of like-minded cronies and allies. Let's carpe fucking diem on this one, eh? The way this world is going, many of us may not get another chance.
Professional activists, radical Eeyores and oppression olympians: I hear your muttering and I call you out. Hands off these newer movements for social justice sprouting in the streets of North American cities! Give them some air. Let them grow. The protesters in New York and elsewhere might lack analysis and their politics might need critique. They might not come up with goals or tactics that make sense to you. They might not look like you, talk like you or agree with you. There are exclusions, to be sure, and privilege always rears its ugly head. There are also, from what I've seen so far, honest, compassionate and collective attempts to remedy the inevitable political and logistical problems that come with getting hugely disparate groups of people together and trying to make change. Occupy Wall Street isn't an organization. It's a living, breathing process, a big old improvised street performance, a series of creative acts. It might be flawed. So what? Didn't we learn from the last century that purity in politics is for the fanatical few? Don't we still have much to learn from each other, no matter where we're at?
Like many others, I am tremendously energized by the events on Wall Street, particularly by the sense that more than "the usual suspects" are participating, by the idea that a popular movement can swell and add people to its ranks who have not been activists, who do not usually demonstrate, who do not easily use the language of class war, capitalism and oppression. American people, moreover, who have been and continue to be consistently manipulated and lied to by an enormously powerful propaganda machine, who grew up under a succession of neo-liberal regimes, who have spent most or all of their lives having it repeatedly drummed into them that there is no alternative; people who have no health care and no social safety net. Knowing that Americans could finally muster up the anger and the courage to get out, stay out and demonstrate on Wall Street struck a ray of light into this cynical heart right from the start and since then, it's just been getting better and better.
So, I'm feeling a bit protective of this movement and a bit dismayed to think that if it comes to Bay Street in Toronto, it might be beset by all the waffling, shuffling and tokenistic gesturing that we on "the left" use to cast webs around juicy movements and suck the life out of them, while intoning our stale old mantras and checking off our speakers' lists. There's always someone who's got to apologize for not getting it right and plenty of us around to point out their sins. Mea maxima culpa. But, as I struggle to practise self-awareness, the more I see that behaving in this way just turns people off. There are alternatives. There is activism that doesn't just judge, position, denounce and condemn. There is activism that beckons, that dances, that encourages and that inspires. And that's a hell of a lot more fun than wrapping yourself in anger and beating up on your comrades.
Since when did we become such a bunch of clucking naysayers when it comes to transformative mass social action? Is it because we're all so terrorized by 30 years of trickle-down that we insist on making revolution perfect? None of us are perfect nor can we ever be, as individuals or collectively. We are individually and collectively capable of great injustices. But what I've been seeing on the faces of those people in New York, even as they were getting pepper-sprayed and arrested in the hundreds, was something I haven't seen in North America in my lifetime, at least not in such numbers (and if you've been part of such a struggle and have already seen it, I envy you); a certain crazy kind of joy, a wonderful and utterly infectious exhilaration, conveying above all a sense of the potential of this uprising. It might even be, to paraphrase those lovely words of Arundhathi Roy, the preliminary kicks of that other possible world. Can you hear her breathing? I thought perhaps, here and there, I could, reading newly jubilant accounts of assemblies and marches, seeing photos of a phalanx of pilots, a rage of Marines, a forest of brightly-marked cardboard signs all naming our collective wisdom, making it new. And if it isn't another world breathing just yet, there may be a few last promising gasps of democracy in this corporate-infested one that make me want to grab the defibrillator and yell, "Clear!"
Of course, the Occupy movement isn't a unique and unprecedented struggle, nor should it take preeminence over other resistance struggles. It is part of something much, much bigger than whichever patches of paved paradise the protesters are sitting, standing and marching on -- a history of colonialism, capitalism and resistance. After centuries of sacrifices and brave struggles mounted by those in the Global South, indigenous peoples, activists and decolonizers, we here in the belly of the beast owe it to all of those who have resisted in so many forms to seize on whatever opportunities may arise. Let's try not to screw it up for each other. Let's try to make it grow.
I'll see you in Toronto this October. Let's dance like it really might be a revolution. You never know who might join us.
Tom Goldtooth engaging in dialogue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWnD5UhbhY
Clayton Thomas-Muller engaging in dialogue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKIJAsOCiM&feature=related
Leanne Simpson calling for the recognition and non-erasure of Indigenous people's resistance and to "reject the language of colonialism and exploitation" - "I am excited and I am hopeful for the impact you are having on the world": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfvRgx5uyQs&feature=related
@nativeinsurgent, I don't think you've proved much. But thanks for the blast of curdled bile anyway.
You wish to focus on certain aspects of what I said and distort them out of recognition, then use those as justifications to rage and vent under the guise of "critique." Not everything spouted anonymously on the Internet deserves the name of "critique" and I'm not prepared to discuss much with belligerent semi-coherent assholes who think they've got a greenlight to lash out with ridiculous accusations and put words into other people's mouths due to levels of skin colour/privilege determined by them and them only.
If, as you say in one of your outbursts, I'm all that's standing between you and engaging with Occupy, then I'm glad I'm doing that. The movement can probably get along without you just fine, considering what you're showing you've got to offer. Movements don't need hateful, self-serving jerks who care more about venting on the Internet than they care about working with and engaging in dialogue with diverse others. That was what I was saying all along. So thanks for proving the point of my original blog post, which you probably haven't read. Have a nice day.
I'd like to see where I 'name called" other than when I said you were ignorant?
Also just because you identify as a POC doesn't cancel out the fact that I still think you are feeding in the stereotype of thinking that some POCs are "scary" because of they way that they deliver their message. If you still can't get the message JUST because of the way that it was conveyed (i.e. labelling them as "insulting tirades" when I see no evidence as to where I insulted you) then I can't really engage with you.
If you are taking ALL criticisms as personal assaults, it only shows me that you do not wish to talk about your priveleges and are way too defensive to really engage.
Thank you for proving my point in your response.
@nativeinsurgent: I don't think that asking for respectful dialogue is a "bourgeoise civility kick" or mere "niceties." If you are coming from a place of anger and accusation, and find that powerful and justified, I can try to understand why. But please try to understand in your turn that insulting tirades such as the one you have chosen to launch above may not be helpful to the issues at hand. In fact, by subjecting others, who may have their own oppressions to cope with, to angry blasts and petulant dismissals - "You are not an ally, EVER" - you yourself may be hurtful and engaging in oppressive behaviour. Being oppressed is not an excuse to turn around and oppress others. It doesn't give you a greenlight to demand that others stand there and just take your shit. Whether you count me as an ally or not is your choice. I too have the choice not to count you as an ally - if you're going to insist on ranting at me like a drill sergeant, I didn't sign up for your army and I'll take away the "A" in ally and add "BU." I could also just shrug and ignore you, but I'm going to try to show you the respect you didn't show me by engaging with what you actually said.
You accuse me of dismissing or silencing Jessica Yee's critique which was not the intent of my post to begin with. What I posted was not all about Jessica Yee or what she wrote - it was a plea for some solidarity and some excitement about the fact that thousands of Americans were taking to the streets to protest economic inequality. But somehow, it's become all about Jessica Yee. Now, disagreeing with people is not the same thing as dismissing or silencing them; in fact, I would argue that it shows respect for people's ideas to engage with them, not just try to nuke them with angry tirades. It's troubling to me that I am repeatedly getting simplistically misrepresented as attacking Jessica Yee personally somehow, which seems to opens me up to these really aggressive and belligerently nasty attacks. Nowhere have I attacked her. In fact, I said she made an important point. So I did listen to what she was saying. I then linked to the words of another Indigenous writer which she herself had mentioned because I preferred the way he stated the same point which is my prerogative. Jessica doesn't speak for every Indigenous person, just as I don't speak for everyone involved in Occupy (far from it in fact). How then am I silencing Indigenous folks' anger by daring to disagree with how she presented her arguments? and why would you use my opinions as an excuse for distancing yourself from the Occupy movement when in fact there are many diverse folks involved, including POC?
And, uh, far from being scared of POC, I am a POC who tries to direct my anger where it will be most effective. That means that I don't go and pile on feminists, even when one of them really pisses me off. I try to save the venom for the white supremacist patriarchs and try to figure out how to make common cause with everybody else, even when I don't always agree with them. You might want to try that instead of this toxic call-out behaviour that is poisonous, hurtful and defamatory. I observed the pile-on of a feminist blogger who had committed the mortal sin of not promoting Jessica's book - because she hadn't yet heard of it - and I found that pretty disgusting, actually.
Please consider where your behaviour turns into cyberbullying - name-calling, libel, personal attacks, etc. Is that called for? and how are you proving your point or supporting Jessica's ideas by behaving that way?
WOW. You are NOT an ally to me, at all, EVER. I can't believe you tried to insinuate that you would have listened to Jessica's post if she had basically been more eloquent, nicer and friendlier. YOU need to get off your bourgeoise civility kick and listen to POCs regardless of whether or not you think they sound nice. Talk about defensive.
You know what's offensive to me? People who hide their oppressive tendancies in supposed niceties and basically silence Indigenous folks' anger as unjustified. I'd say 500 years of colonialism justifies a lot of anger and your post just made me a whole lot angrier. You will only prove how ignorant you are by responding to my post in the same way you have dismissed other folks on this thread-- by saying I'm not eloquent enough for you to care about. Way to say you're basically afraid of big scary POCs when we merely say that we don't agree with you because you refuse to really engage with our arguments (see your dismissal of Jessica's post).
YOU are the reason why I don't engage with the Occupy movement, because I know I will be silneced by people like you who are afraid of POC's anger. Way to engage stereotypes.
@yaaaaqov, nowhere in this blog post do I dismiss meaningful and thoughtful critique: in fact, try reading it again, and you'll see that I say right up front that critiques certainly ought to be made. Also, please note, my own experiences as a sometimes racialized woman are grounded in marginalization and exclusion. No one individual or group holds a monopoly on "marginalization and exclusion." Nor do individual or collective experiences of marginalization and exclusion give anybody the right to just arrogantly dismiss others' attempts, however flawed, to work together to try to better the conditions they deplore. That is why I feel it is so important to try to find unity and not just stand on the sidelines with folded arms and a self-righteous sneer, picking away at others' politics. That is what I wrote this blog post about and since i wrote it, alas, I have seen it happening in my own local Occupy. The people who do that seem to have their own political movement: the "I am Better Than You and If You Don't Think Exactly Like Me and Worship My Words, I Will Tear You Down" movement. I don't want to be a part of any society where such people manage to be in charge, regardless of their histories. I'm with the people who can say "Yeah, we all fuck up and we'll work to fix it and there is room for all of us here if we can try to work together."
So, I don't know where you are getting the idea from that I am opposed to having space for critique and challenge, but I'd like to say here that I think "critique and challenge" need to be more than knee-jerk denunciation. It is dialogue and sharing with respect. I find that the idea of respect is slipping away from many who pride themselves on their ability to "challenge" and that the concept of "critique" is being used to engage in rants that at times verge on hatred and don't give others any chance to speak. I find that scary and not cool, myself.
this is not cool. dismissing critique grounded in experiences and histories of marginalization and exclusion is destructive and absurd. no political movement has ever or will ever make anything worthwhile happen in terms of justice and dignity without creating spaces for critique and challenge.
Nice!!! Dialogue, creativity, spontaneity and community. We need to reach out!
@hysperia, yeah, you're probably right. Tone goes missing on the intarwebs, as much as we try to convey it. The tone I wanted for that particular phrase was one of great affection mingled with exasperation but it might not have come across that way to you.
I love your excitement and mostly agree with you. But this: "Professional activists, radical Eeyores and oppression olympians" - is not very inviting.
I will admit that Jessica's article was part of what prompted me to write this blog post. But. while I don't agree with what she said and how she said it, Jessica did make an important point, albeit one that was made much more eloquently, with far greater kindness and willingness to engage, and far less condescension, by the writer she linked to, John Paul Montano.
But it wasn't all about Yee's article. I really wanted to blog a warning about how we can undermine each other with "activist cred" and identity politics, our own peculiar forms of cultural capital, the dicks that get waved around so freely on forums like these. A huge crowd of people who are told every day to fear and loathe folks like us are talking about a revolution and wanting to join us, and here we are playing Progressive Twister with each other again!
I don't want what I wrote to be taken and used to silence those of us - and I am one of those - who care deeply about ending racism. I think it's vital to keep making the connections with patriarchy, colonialism, white privilege and various forms of oppression part of all the discussions about this movement, every single one. But I feel that there are ways to do that that are useful and effective without alienating and shaming. I'll blog about that someday, I guess.
I don't want to derail the exciting conversations we could be having at such a hopeful time. I wrote this blog post because, like John Paul Montano, I wanted people to smile and think and reach out to each other and tell each other about themselves, not diss and hate on each other. C'mon, save that energy for those robber barons we could be uniting against!
Aalya explained it in the article above, and I explained it in my comment on the page where Yee's screed appears.
Spector, I think your not an ally, your an agent provacateur and a colonizer. Jessica Yee's writing is an important perspective to include. If it offends you, I think that is your own inventing content, not the reading between the lines that you may think it is.
What is it that you find so offensive, or "nonsensical"?
No better example of dissing one's allies than Yee's screed.
Great piece, as usual, Aalya. Thanks for this.
Still winning our allies' hearts and minds, I see, Spector.
I don't agree with everything you've written, but I'm totally jazzed about the kick-ass way you've described the politics of the left and its inability to step away from rigid doctrine and embrace things in a practical, 'as they are' sort of way. You're calling progressives on their elitism, and I can't get enough of that. Thanks.
Thanks, Aalya!
This is obviously a reply to nonsense like this.