The days I spent at the Occupy Wall Street action in the park were harrowing to say the least. The racism is rampant. There is no regard for the need to factor in black issues or empowerment nor is black leadership in actuality encouraged or welcome, even though they claim it is. There are many white men there are very domineering, controlling, demeaning, sarcastic, condescending and do not make black women feel safe, welcome, empowered, appreciated or protected. They have no regard for black people or women.
Women are being molested in the park and there is no real viable system in place to handle it without the need for police intervention. There are white supremacists groups running around there. There are people smoking drugs there even though it puts the entire action at risk and even after being told that the General Assembly had consensus on the fact that there should be no smoking of cigarettes as they are not only a health hazard to everyone and gives support to the tobacco companies, but also a potential fire hazard, people continue to smoke with no regard for their fellow protesters.
There is a constant marginalization of women and I was even verbally and physically imposed on and threatened by a white man who was up in my face with his fingers pointing in my face because he wanted to dictate to people what he thought they should do. When I spoke up and said that he and two other white men are not supposed to dictate to everyone what should happen but that the decision should be made through consensus he got angry. He proclaimed that he called the meeting, as if that is somehow relevant. He also got angry because I as a black woman told him that he was wrong for trying to dictate to people. Not only that but I also offered to facilitate after other people didn’t step up as things were confusing and out of control. There was no complaint about my facilitation and we actually got down to there being three points to vote on after hearing everyone voice their opinion after I did. Of course another white man felt that he was the one who should be facilitating so I said “fine you do it” but I also asked if there was a woman who had facilitating training as well and the men started to all say why does it matter if its a woman?
After they began to facilitate, everything got out of control, the group split off into factions and there was no more cohesiveness. The man who called the meeting subsequently came over to me as I was standing on the side having a conversation with two people. He took a very domineering stance and was standing with his face right in front of mine pointing his fingers at me telling me that I will never facilitate again and he was in charge. I barely heard what he was saying as all I kept saying to him was “back up.” He was threatening and I could see that he wanted to actually hit me. I threw my bag on the ground and said come on if you want to throw down. Then people pulled us apart. He might have been able to hit me but I would have given him a run for his money. I was so angry and when a black man I met there came over I was telling him what happened. Another white guy steps in between us and proceeds to explain to him what happened in order to protect the other white man. I told him he is in no position to explain to anyone what happened to me and he is being rude. The arrogance of these men is just unbelievable! The black man and I walked down the street together and he calmed me down.
This is the type of thing that goes on, but its okay and sponsored because within the confines of this movement, white people are still acceptably in charge, arrogant and superior. In other words, you can have all of the experience in the world as an organizer, activist or facilitator but if you are not a white man then its a problem. If you are a white man, even though you don’t have any experience, don’t know how to run a meeting (which I saw happen several different times), are not very bright and don’t even know how to be an organizer, its acceptable and fine, even if the meeting isn’t fruitful and doesn’t result in anything.
(via ladyatheist)
![thedailywhat:
The Kids Are All In Jail of the Day: According to a study published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Pediatrics, just under a third of all American citizens will be arrested before the age of 23.
When a similar study, published nearly half a century ago by criminologist Ron Christensen, claimed that 22% of Americans under 23 would be arrested, the result shocked the country.
The latest study, compiled by University of North Carolina-Charlotte criminologist Robert Brame and his team using over a decade’s worth of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggests that number may have increased by as much as 8.2% over the past 44 years.
“There’s a lot more arresting going on now,” said Carnegie Mellon criminologist Alfred Blumstein, who was a member of President Lyndon Johnson’s crime task force alongside Christensen. Blumstein pointed out that drugs and domestic violence — crimes that would not have been a priority for police in the 60s — account for some of the increase in arrests.
Criminologist Megan Kurlychek also noted that most smaller offenses were handled informally by local authorities 40 years ago. “Society is a lot less tolerant of these teenage behaviors,” she said, emphasizing that “arrests have worse consequences than ever for these juveniles.”
“[Arrest records] follow you forever,” Kurlychek said. “The average teenager who steals an iPod or is arrested for possession of marijuana — why do we make that define their lives?”
[usatoday.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwgpfxlPcS1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
