Advancement Project

November 1, 2011

A Note on Solidarity

As a young movement, Occupy Wall Street is a decentralized demonstration of civil disobedience in which the social, racial and cultural diversity that embody its backdrop – New York City – is only beginning to manifest visibly in its base. So far, Occupy Wall Street has in large part estranged non-White communities from calls for collective action.   

For decades, joblessness and the dearth of educational and economic opportunity have plagued Black and Latino communities. However, now that symptoms of inequitable distribution of wealth have trickled up to affect the middle class, including Whites, these issues are now rallying positions of Occupy Wall Street. The question is, where was this outrage before?

The movement, presently, is stereotyped as an outcry of privileged young professionals of a mostly unemployed and underemployed white middle class. Though, the movement’s organizers would likely reject insinuations that they’ve co-opted issues central to communities of color. Still, for Occupy Wall Street to be a genuine exercise in stirring revolution, it must face up to and stand against capitalism’s role in devastating Black and other communities of color throughout this nation’s history.

The balance is in transcending race, class and political association to mobilize engaged and vocal advocates. Demands for fair wages, job creation, against corporate greed, access to health care, as well as anger with politicians who have failed in their stewardship now resonate with the majority – the “99%,” including unions, independents, moderates, conservatives and progressive-minded individuals. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” This is true for any meaningful movement.

Progress cannot be achieved through competition. Grassroots efforts cannot grow when stifled by dispute, especially between factions rising up against a common enemy – corruption and negligence on the part of the government, and the banks and corporations that bankroll its operations and influence its policies.

What can replace these divisions is mutual outrage over waning hope that this nation can recover from the purgatory of economic downturn, a hope that has drastically dissipated in recent years, leaving social unrest in its wake. Ultimately, it’s about owning your citizenship, and inspiring others to do the same.

What Occupy Wall Street “is” as an engine of change is evolving.  What it symbolizes is a pervasive restlessness. Its capacity to become more than a captivating national and international phenomenon is contingent on its ability to evolve into a multicultural and multiracial movement.

In an analysis of the movement’s progression, a recent Huffington Post article suggested, “As the protests have spread to more cities, participants have remained overwhelmingly White – even in some of the country’s most diverse places.” What splinter movements like “Occupy the Hood” suggest is that disunity undermines the movements potential, even in the face of common discord. Occupy the Hood’s mission is to raise the voices of people of color, in unity with Occupy Wall Street, to join what it calls a “humanitarian struggle.”   At face value, Occupy Wall Street has occupied hearts and minds, but there remains a question about messaging; can we translate the movement into a language that is more universal? Or, perhaps these sub-groups are necessary for it to grow organically, to allow communities to give their own unique relevance and narrative to the conversation.  Maybe that’s the brilliance of its decentralized design.

This allows protest movements like “Unoccupy Albuquerque” to take root. Unoccupy Albuquerque, building on opposition to the country’s inequitable distribution of income, raises objection to “. . . five hundred years of forced occupation of [Native American] lands, resources, cultures, power, and voices by the imperial powers of both Spain and the United States.” Occupy Wall Street provokes a national forum for articulating the long-standing grievances of marginalized communities, a triumph in itself, though it’s only the foundation for something bigger.

What made the Civil Rights Movement so powerful was its DNA.  While Black communities, churches and activists took ownership of the movement, it also became the cause of White activists, students, politicians and faith-based groups that extended from southern towns to northern cities. It was a resistance movement grounded in commonality and camaraderie. Organizers of Occupy Wall Street should strive for the same solidarity.