{"id":7196,"date":"2011-10-05T09:58:38","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T14:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/?p=7196"},"modified":"2011-10-05T11:26:42","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T16:26:42","slug":"desis-occupy-wall-street-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/desis-occupy-wall-street-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"The Color of the Call: Desis at Occupy Wall Street, Pt. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<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\/ntLGlDyFvFM?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\/ntLGlDyFvFM?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=ntLGlDyFvFM\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Watch on YouTube\">Watch this video on YouTube<\/a>.<\/span><\/object><\/noscript><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ntLGlDyFvFM?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>\n\n<p><em>a video about people at the protests one week ago, courtesy of Thanu Yakupitiyage<\/em><\/p>\n\n<blockquote>&#8220;We must not miss the chance to put the needs of people of color\u2014upon whose backs this country was built\u2014at the forefront of this struggle.&#8221;\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">\u2014from\u00a0<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #000000;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-weight: bold\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com\/post\/11049895469\/call-out-to-people-of-color-from-the-ows-poc-working\">CALL OUT TO PEOPLE OF COLOR from the #OWS POC Working Group<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>How Hena Got There<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Two Thursdays ago, after Troy Davis had been executed, Hena Ashraf protested his killing at a rally in New York City. The group that she was with didn\u2019t have a particular plan, she says, but \u201cwe ended up on Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>It was her first time at Occupy Wall Street, a movement that\u2019s rapidly gaining steam and numbers. And a week ago, by her fourth time there, Ashraf had become a game-changer: one of a group of desis who stood up and insisted that the movement\u2019s primary declaration edit language that referred to racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination as though they were things of the past.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWe definitely stood out,\u201d Ashraf told me. At that point, she explained, the protests were still overwhelmingly white. (We spoke on the phone Sunday night; she was two blocks from Wall Street, heading back to the protests.) But, she added, over the course of her visits to the site, she\u2019s seen them become more diverse.<\/p>\n\n<p><!--more-->Ashraf, an independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, has been involved in activism before, but says Occupy Wall Street is \u201cnot like anything I\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe atmosphere is very electric. Anything can happen. There\u2019s so much potential for it,\u201d she says. One of its key strengths, she adds, is that there\u2019s no central leadership, no one trying to dictate what should be said. That meant that when Ashraf, Sonny Singh, Thanu Yakupitiyage and Manissa McCleave Maharawal met up at the protests a week ago, they could jump right in and make a change.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cWhat happened on Thursday was crazy and intense and amazing,\u201d Ashraf says. \u201cI\u2019m going to keep coming back. We have to keep coming back now, after what happened on Thursday, because what we did had such a huge effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Solidarity and critique aren\u2019t opposites, she notes. \u201cI think solidarity and critique can go together,\u201d she says. \u201cConstructive criticism can also be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Part 1 here:\u00a0<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #000000;font-weight: bold\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/04\/desis-occupy-wall-street\/\">Desis Take Action At Occupy Wall Street<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Related links:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ul>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/rdacbx.blogspot.com\/2011\/09\/reflections-on-occupywallstreet.html\">Reflections on Occupy Wall Street<\/a>\u00a0from Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, a hip-hop community center in the South Bronx (h\/t Thanu)<\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/bb\/business\/july-dec11\/occupywallst_10-03.html\">Wall Street Protests Spread, Channeling Anger at Corporate, Political Forces<\/a>\u00a0| PBS NewsHour (Arun Venugopal on Occupy Wall Street)<\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/blog\/163767\/we-are-all-human-microphones-now\">We Are All Human Microphones Now<\/a>, from The Nation, h\/t\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shobak.org\/projects\/index.shtml\">Naeem Mohaiemen<\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com\/\">Occupy Wall Street POC affinity group<\/a>, h\/t Naeem Mohaiemen<\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2011\/10\/03\/de-colonize-wall-street\/\">De-Colonize Wall Street, by Vijay Prashad, in Counterpunch<\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/colorlines.com\/archives\/2011\/10\/heres_to_occupying_wall_street_if_only_that_were_actually_happening.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter\">Here&#8217;s to Occupying Wall Street! (If Only That Were Actually Happening)\u00a0<\/a>from Colorlines<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ul>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ty_ushka\">Thanu Yakupitiyage on Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/anjalimullany\">Anjali Mullany, social media editor of the New York Daily News, on Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/arunnyc\">Arun Venugopal of WNYC on Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>a video about people at the protests one week ago, courtesy of Thanu Yakupitiyage &#8220;We must not miss the chance to put the needs of people of color\u2014upon whose backs this country was built\u2014at the forefront of this struggle.&#8221; \u2014from\u00a0CALL &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/05\/desis-occupy-wall-street-continued\/\">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":[56,38,47,2,3,21,48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196"}],"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=7196"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7198,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196\/revisions\/7198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}