The Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org
pf-core frame
list of 3 items
Print
PDF
Email
list end
list of 3 items
100% Text Size
Remove Images Remove Images
Undo
list end
Close
The Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org frame
popularresistance.org
https://www.popularresistance.org/the-value-of-protest/
The Value Of Protest
Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 11.35.43 AM
Note: The author's expression of support for Bernie Sanders is his personal
viewpoint not the view of Popular Resistance.We do not take a position on
electoral matters nor are we as optimistic about the possibility of Sanders
winning the Democratic primary. We see the primary as a rigged system
designed to nominate a corporate Democrat. We cannot recall an insurgent
challenger to the Wall Street domination of the Democratic Party ever being
successful in their primary system. We reprinted DeChritopher's blog because
we appreciated his self reflection on race issues as well as his analysis of
the effectiveness of the #BlackLivesMatter protest at the Netroots Nation
presidential townall.
As a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, my first reaction to hearing about
yesterday's Black Lives Matter protest at Netroots Nation was
disappointment. This looks bad, I thought. Bad for Bernie, who is the only
presidential candidate with any chance of challenging structural injustice.
And bad for Black Lives Matter, who could easily be interpreted as shutting
down progressive discussions about immigration and economic inequality to
make people focus on their priorities. I've had my share of mistakes during
protests, as have all the activists I respect most, so I certainly had some
sympathy. But I thought their protest was just that: a mistake.
Then I watched the video of Sanders responding to the protest, or should I
say, failing to respond and instead just speaking over and past them. He
tried to just continue with his stump speech and seemed annoyed with the
disruption. Several times he looked at moderator Jose Antonio Vargas as if
he expected Vargas to control these women, once asking, "Are you in charge
here?" The closest he came to discussing policing issues directly was
mentioning his success with community policing in Burlington, VT, a city
that was pretty much all white and pretty much irrelevant to the discussion
of racist policing.
As black women, those activists are people who have always been
systematically locked out of the public discourse, and they were making
their voices heard even if it ruffled some feathers. In theory, Bernie's
campaign platform is all about the way ordinary citizens have been locked
out of the political discourse and the need to make those voices heard. But
when the very thing he says he is looking for appeared right in front of
him, he didn't see it. As my dad says, if it was a snake it would have bit
him. And this time, it did.
Others have written thoughtful reflections on what this protest meant for
challenging white privilege. The value for me personally was in what the
protest exposed in Bernie Sanders, and by extension, myself. When asked
directly about white supremacy and police violence against people of color,
Sanders responded by talking about fixing the economic system and providing
more jobs. He didn't explicitly connect unemployment with getting killed by
police, but the implication was that if a black person doesn't have a job,
we can pretty well expect that he'll get gunned down by a cop. Bernie was
focused on Big Ideas, and derailing that to talk about one woman, or even
one certain segment of the population, seemed like a frustrating
distraction.
The thing is, this specific protest was in honor of Sandra Bland, who had a
job when she was arrested for not using a turn signal and died in custody.
In fact, she moved to Texas for her job, but her pursuit of a career didn't
save her. On the other hand, the 31% of unemployed white high school
graduates mentioned by Sanders don't get killed by police at anywhere near
the rate of the 51% of unemployed black high school graduates. In
retrospect, Bernie's response to the BLM disruption looks like an exercise
in avoiding the obvious fact that race matters.
Like Sanders, my tendency is to zoom out from the personal and look at
things structurally and systemically instead. When I think about
anti-racism, I tend to focus more on changing institutionalized inequality
than on challenging individual attitudes. In the past I've worried that the
BLM movement's focus on the names of specific people killed by police might
simplify the need to dismantle complex systems into a perspective that
considers justice done when specific killer cops are prosecuted. The most
disappointing part about watching Sanders yesterday was the degree to which
I recognized myself in him.
Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 11.35.28 AM
But the BLM protestors chanted "Say her name!" in reference to Sandra Bland
because Bland's particularity demonstrates that increased economic
opportunities alone will not solve the problem. We also have to actually
confront racism. Bernie never did say her name, and his failure to depart
from his script to validate the particularity of Bland's life is inseparable
from his failure to really see the particular living black women standing
right in front of him as the embodiment of everything his campaign strives
to be.
I think Bernie Sanders can actually win the presidency, but to do so he
needs the energy and grassroots organizing of the Black Lives Matter
movement on his side. It's early enough in the campaign that with some
serious reflection and humility, he can learn from this and earn the trust
of the movement. And importantly, when he is president, this learning
experience will make him far better at dealing with the reality of racism
and other kinds of oppression that plague our country.
The BLM protest revealed the deficit not only in Bernie's campaign, but in
the approach of folks like myself who would rather avoid the particular
lived experience of individuals who suffer from oppression. An exclusive
wide-angle view on structures is just as much of an oversimplification as an
exclusive narrow focus on individuals. Like any oversimplification, it
compromises our ability to find adequate solutions to real world problems.
Avoiding the particular also blinds us to our real allies when they are
right in front of us.
Some might say that people like me could have been taught these lessons
without disrupting a critical dialogue with Jose Antonio Vargas and possibly
damaging Sanders' campaign. Maybe so. But that would have required people
like me and Bernie Sanders to really see and listen to these people, which
was exactly the problem. Part of the point is that the lived experience of
black women is excluded from the public discourse. It's never going to be
their turn to have their voices heard, so they have to create the
opportunities to make their voices heard. Protests are always criticized as
being at the wrong time because those who need to protest are never the
people writing the agenda. That's the value of protest.
Bernie Sanders rightly recognizes that all of us are increasingly excluded
from the political discourse that shapes our country. If his campaign is to
realize it's revolutionary potential, we would do all well to follow the
lead of the women of Black Lives Matter who made their voices heard at
Netroots Nation.
The Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org frame end
PrintFrienThe Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org
pf-core frame
list of 3 items
Print
PDF
Email
list end
list of 3 items
100% Text Size
Remove Images Remove Images
Undo
list end
Close
The Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org frame
popularresistance.org
https://www.popularresistance.org/the-value-of-protest/
The Value Of Protest
Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 11.35.43 AM
Note: The author's expression of support for Bernie Sanders is his personal
viewpoint not the view of Popular Resistance.We do not take a position on
electoral matters nor are we as optimistic about the possibility of Sanders
winning the Democratic primary. We see the primary as a rigged system
designed to nominate a corporate Democrat. We cannot recall an insurgent
challenger to the Wall Street domination of the Democratic Party ever being
successful in their primary system. We reprinted DeChritopher's blog because
we appreciated his self reflection on race issues as well as his analysis of
the effectiveness of the #BlackLivesMatter protest at the Netroots Nation
presidential townall.
As a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, my first reaction to hearing about
yesterday's Black Lives Matter protest at Netroots Nation was
disappointment. This looks bad, I thought. Bad for Bernie, who is the only
presidential candidate with any chance of challenging structural injustice.
And bad for Black Lives Matter, who could easily be interpreted as shutting
down progressive discussions about immigration and economic inequality to
make people focus on their priorities. I've had my share of mistakes during
protests, as have all the activists I respect most, so I certainly had some
sympathy. But I thought their protest was just that: a mistake.
Then I watched the video of Sanders responding to the protest, or should I
say, failing to respond and instead just speaking over and past them. He
tried to just continue with his stump speech and seemed annoyed with the
disruption. Several times he looked at moderator Jose Antonio Vargas as if
he expected Vargas to control these women, once asking, "Are you in charge
here?" The closest he came to discussing policing issues directly was
mentioning his success with community policing in Burlington, VT, a city
that was pretty much all white and pretty much irrelevant to the discussion
of racist policing.
As black women, those activists are people who have always been
systematically locked out of the public discourse, and they were making
their voices heard even if it ruffled some feathers. In theory, Bernie's
campaign platform is all about the way ordinary citizens have been locked
out of the political discourse and the need to make those voices heard. But
when the very thing he says he is looking for appeared right in front of
him, he didn't see it. As my dad says, if it was a snake it would have bit
him. And this time, it did.
Others have written thoughtful reflections on what this protest meant for
challenging white privilege. The value for me personally was in what the
protest exposed in Bernie Sanders, and by extension, myself. When asked
directly about white supremacy and police violence against people of color,
Sanders responded by talking about fixing the economic system and providing
more jobs. He didn't explicitly connect unemployment with getting killed by
police, but the implication was that if a black person doesn't have a job,
we can pretty well expect that he'll get gunned down by a cop. Bernie was
focused on Big Ideas, and derailing that to talk about one woman, or even
one certain segment of the population, seemed like a frustrating
distraction.
The thing is, this specific protest was in honor of Sandra Bland, who had a
job when she was arrested for not using a turn signal and died in custody.
In fact, she moved to Texas for her job, but her pursuit of a career didn't
save her. On the other hand, the 31% of unemployed white high school
graduates mentioned by Sanders don't get killed by police at anywhere near
the rate of the 51% of unemployed black high school graduates. In
retrospect, Bernie's response to the BLM disruption looks like an exercise
in avoiding the obvious fact that race matters.
Like Sanders, my tendency is to zoom out from the personal and look at
things structurally and systemically instead. When I think about
anti-racism, I tend to focus more on changing institutionalized inequality
than on challenging individual attitudes. In the past I've worried that the
BLM movement's focus on the names of specific people killed by police might
simplify the need to dismantle complex systems into a perspective that
considers justice done when specific killer cops are prosecuted. The most
disappointing part about watching Sanders yesterday was the degree to which
I recognized myself in him.
Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 11.35.28 AM
But the BLM protestors chanted "Say her name!" in reference to Sandra Bland
because Bland's particularity demonstrates that increased economic
opportunities alone will not solve the problem. We also have to actually
confront racism. Bernie never did say her name, and his failure to depart
from his script to validate the particularity of Bland's life is inseparable
from his failure to really see the particular living black women standing
right in front of him as the embodiment of everything his campaign strives
to be.
I think Bernie Sanders can actually win the presidency, but to do so he
needs the energy and grassroots organizing of the Black Lives Matter
movement on his side. It's early enough in the campaign that with some
serious reflection and humility, he can learn from this and earn the trust
of the movement. And importantly, when he is president, this learning
experience will make him far better at dealing with the reality of racism
and other kinds of oppression that plague our country.
The BLM protest revealed the deficit not only in Bernie's campaign, but in
the approach of folks like myself who would rather avoid the particular
lived experience of individuals who suffer from oppression. An exclusive
wide-angle view on structures is just as much of an oversimplification as an
exclusive narrow focus on individuals. Like any oversimplification, it
compromises our ability to find adequate solutions to real world problems.
Avoiding the particular also blinds us to our real allies when they are
right in front of us.
Some might say that people like me could have been taught these lessons
without disrupting a critical dialogue with Jose Antonio Vargas and possibly
damaging Sanders' campaign. Maybe so. But that would have required people
like me and Bernie Sanders to really see and listen to these people, which
was exactly the problem. Part of the point is that the lived experience of
black women is excluded from the public discourse. It's never going to be
their turn to have their voices heard, so they have to create the
opportunities to make their voices heard. Protests are always criticized as
being at the wrong time because those who need to protest are never the
people writing the agenda. That's the value of protest.
Bernie Sanders rightly recognizes that all of us are increasingly excluded
from the political discourse that shapes our country. If his campaign is to
realize it's revolutionary potential, we would do all well to follow the
lead of the women of Black Lives Matter who made their voices heard at
Netroots Nation.
The Value Of Protest | PopularResistance.Org frame end
PrintFrien
