{"id":7094,"date":"2011-10-04T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/?p=7094"},"modified":"2011-10-04T23:33:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T04:33:24","slug":"desis-occupy-wall-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/04\/desis-occupy-wall-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Desis Take Action At Occupy Wall Street"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"youtube_sc \" style=\"width:425px;height:263px;\"><noscript><style type=\"text\/css\">.youtube_sc iframe.yp{display:none;}<\/style><object width=\"425\" height=\"263\" class=\"yp\" title=\"YouTube video player\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/UjKzsM66aKg?version=3&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hl=en_US\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/UjKzsM66aKg?version=3&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hl=en_US\" width=\"425\" height=\"263\" class=\"yp\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><span style=\"display:block;margin-top:15px;\">The Adobe Flash Player is required for video playback.<br><a href=\"http:\/\/get.adobe.com\/flashplayer\/\" title=\"Install from Adobe\">Get the latest Flash Player<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UjKzsM66aKg\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Watch on YouTube\">Watch this video on YouTube<\/a>.<\/span><\/object><\/noscript><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UjKzsM66aKg?version=3&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;wmode=transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"263\" class=\"yp\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\u00a0<em>video courtesy of Thanu Yakupitiyage<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>I no longer live in New York, and I was following the Occupy Wall Street movement only vaguely when last week, something on FB caught my attention&#8230; and kept it. It was a lengthy note by Hena Ashraf, chronicling how she and a few other desis had gone down to Liberty Square on Thursday night and argued to change some of the language in Occupy Wall Street&#8217;s primary declaration.<\/p>\n\n<p>I recognized some of the names in her story from my own time in New York: <a href=\"http:\/\/sonnysingh.com\/\">Sonny Singh<\/a> (of, among other things, Red Baraat) and Thanu Yakupitiyage, an immigrant rights activist who is also a Lanka Solidarity member. And another, whom I didn&#8217;t know: Manissa McCleave Maharawal. These four, it seemed, had formed the posse primarily responsible for the intervention that had me riveted.<\/p>\n\n<hr \/>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nycga.cc\/2011\/09\/29\/general-assembly-minutes-929-7pm\/#more-777\">Here&#8217;s how it looks in the Occupy Wall Street notes:<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Block 4<\/strong>\u2014Grievance in supporting a document that claims that my oppression on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, religion, and things not mentioned on this document are something that happened formerly and not in the present day.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong><!--more-->Response<\/strong>: This can be addressed.\u00a0 The document says that these divisions have formerly happened.\u00a0 We know they happen now, that\u2019s why we\u2019re writing it this way.\u00a0 This document is saying \u201cwe want to leave this shit in the past where it belongs to create a new America, world, new society, where everyone is equal.\u201d\u00a0 We do not mean to ignore present-day issues.\u00a0 It was drafted so we can leave that behind.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Block 5<\/strong>\u2014That phrase erases so much history of oppression, it is idealistic, not realistic.\u00a0 We still think it should be changed, and we think it\u2019s an ethical issue.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Response<\/strong>: Rephrase, \u201cformerly divided\u201d so we can have what you would like to see written.\u00a0 Then the working group can decide whether we want to move to consensus without it.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Let\u2019s all relax!<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>We appreciate the process, we appreciate everything you\u2019ve done, we want a small verb change, we feel it is an ethical matter.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cAs one people, despite divisions of color of our skin\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Response<\/strong>: We\u2019re fine with that.\u00a0 Let\u2019s meet after and decide which phrasing to use.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Block withdrawn.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<hr \/>\n\n<p>And here&#8217;s a snippet of what it felt like, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leftturn.org\/so-real-it-hurts-notes-occupy-wall-street\">from Manissa&#8217;s point of view:<\/a><\/p>\n\n<blockquote>Let me tell you what it feels like to stand in front of a white man and explain privilege to him. It hurts. It makes you tired. Sometimes it makes you want to cry. Sometimes it is exhilarating. Every single time it is hard. Every single time I get angry that I have to do this, that this is my job, that this shouldn\u2019t be my job. Every single time I am proud of myself that I\u2019ve been able to say these things because I used to not be able to and because some days I just don\u2019t want to.<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">\u00a0<\/span><\/blockquote>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-weight: 300\">And <a href=\"http:\/\/henaashraf.com\/2011\/09\/30\/brown-power-at-occupy-wall-street\/\">from Hena&#8217;s:<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n<blockquote>Long story short, we got the paragraph changed to adequately address our concerns that it reflect issues around dynamics of power and privilege that marginalized people feel every single day. This was a very hard discussion to have, and it felt so real, it hurt. It hurt that it had to happen, it hurt that we had to explain what is really behind racism to this man, and the people around him, it hurt that so many tried to disrupt us. But at the same time, we were meant to be there, meant to be heard, to make this happen, to make these changes occur. And there were a lot of people sitting there and listening in and contributing constructively. We walked away realizing what we had just done \u2013 spontaneously come together, demand change, and create it, in a movement that we are in solidarity with, but also feel a need for constructive criticism.<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;font-style: italic;font-weight: normal\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>How many activities and movements or even conversations have I forgone, thinking that they had no space for me? How many times have I thought that some purportedly progressive activity wasn&#8217;t even considering anyone like me? How many times have I walked away, rather than saying anything, because I was bone-tired?<\/p>\n\n<p>Thanu-Sonny-Manissa-Hena-anyone else who was there:\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff\">THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t embed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/shows\/2011\/9\/30\">this one<\/a>, but if you go to about the 53:30 mark, you can actually see the post-General Assembly discussion (thanks, Manissa, for pointing this out).<\/p>\n\n<p>All four of them chatted with me, so stay tuned for an update, or Part II!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0video courtesy of Thanu Yakupitiyage I no longer live in New York, and I was following the Occupy Wall Street movement only vaguely when last week, something on FB caught my attention&#8230; and kept it. It was a lengthy note &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/04\/desis-occupy-wall-street\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,38,47,10,30,2,3,48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7094"}],"version-history":[{"count":119,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7126,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094\/revisions\/7126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}