Structural elitism has created the chasm between the wealthy and the poor, but structural racism has created the black ghettos.
by Bryan K. Bullock
I’m sure I can’t take credit for the “occupy the hood” idea, however, I immediately saw inherent contradictions and problems with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. I am encouraged and excited to see so many young people take part in an organized struggle, such as the one ostensibly represented by the Occupy Wall Street Movement. I have long said that it is young people who have to step forward and lead protest movements. However, what is also needed, and has been needed for some time, is a Occupy the Ghetto Movement. That is to say, crowds of white students, liberals and “non-leaders”, should have been sitting in on Martin Luther King Boulevard (every black community has one), demanding that jobs be created there. Couldn’t this “occupation” movement have also implicated corporate America in its refusal to invest in America’s poor black communities? So, where is the outrage by liberal whites at the disinvestment in America’s largely black ghettos? Where was the sense of community and solidarity with the black and brown residents of cities and communities where there haven’t been jobs available for years? In my hometown of Gary, Indiana, the poster child for white flight, we have needed a “occupy” movement for the last 40 years. We have no real grocery stores, no real retail establishments and very few good paying jobs. This is not the result of bailouts for Wall Street, but more a result of white flight and purposeful disinvestment.
Activists in Gary, Cleveland, South Central and other such communities are smart enough to know that the bailout of Wall Street and the endless wars are draining needed dollars for American citizens, but they are also smart enough to know that it wasn’t Wall Street that created white flight from the cities. So, even though we know that wealthiest one percent has gotten wealthier, while those on the bottom have gotten poorer, the question is whether protesting Wall Street is of our immediate concern? That is to say, even if Wall Street didn’t get a bailout, would there have been a bailout for the hood? I think the answer is probably not. Where was the bailout for the ghetto before the bailout of Wall Street? Was it on the table? Did the Republicans filibuster that idea? No, the President and the Congress did introduce the bill, and the “occupation” movement hasn’t mentioned it. The foreclosure crisis in Gary and other urban areas was not simply due to bad loans, but also due to high taxes, sub-prime loans which were disproportionately aimed at black lenders even when they qualified for conventional loans and the lack of good employment opportunities – all of which hit us well before it hit the rest of the nation. You can either love or hate Jesse Jackson, but he long ago called for a Marshall Plan for America’s urban cities. It has been brought up by the President or any of the other democratic nominees for the presidency in the 2008 election. But this is not on the “occupation” agenda, but it would not only condemn Wall Street, but more appropriately, condemn the “occupiers” and their parents. As the Kerner Commission noted in 1968, “What white Americans have never fully understood — but what the Negro can never forget — is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” Simply put, by not being enraged by the condition of the “hood”, the “occupiers” and their parents have implicitly condoned the conditions there. Of course, now that the unemployment rate affecting “Main Street” and not just King Drive, there is a certifiable crisis and something must be done about it.
Case in point -I went to a meeting of a local “occupation” group, which was, predictably, attended mainly by liberal whites. I walked in just in time to hear a young white man suggesting that confrontation with the police was the logical next step because drastic measures were needed. He obviously has had a different life experience than I have had in dealing with the police and therefore didn’t know what he was asking for. I spoke and expressed my sentiments to the group, namely that we in poor black communities need grocery stores, economic investment and jobs, and that the “occupy” movement was not addressing these fundamental issues. I told them that unless they were willing to address these issues, I personally, would not want to “occupy” with them. They listened. Most, though not all, agreed with my thoughts. Then they began to say that they were concerned about the “big” issues like Wall Street and wars and that they probably needed to also be concerned about the people who live in places like Gary. I was insulted by their arrogance. Living in a food dessert IS a big issue. Living in an economic wasteland IS a big deal. Having one’s school system privatized IS a big issue. Rampant crime, underground economies and police brutality ARE big issues. Not having jobs that one can walk to or that are located in one’s hometown, IS a big issue. Are these Wall Street issues? I’m not sure. But I know that there has been little to no outrage by liberals in the surrounding communities at the situation in Gary.
We need to introduce a Occupy the Ghetto platform to the Occupy Wall Street Movement to see if liberal whites would show solidarity with the black and brown people left behind in the remnants of the great cities that they themselves abandoned. I heard Jared Ball say, in an offhand manner, that we need a Flotilla to the hood, like the flotilla to Gaza. He was right. We need a Flotilla to Gary, Detroit, South and West side of Chicago, Cleveland and other urban places, by well meaning white liberal big shots (and their black counter-parts such as Alice Walker, Cornell West, come get arrested in the G), to break the siege on the hood’s economy and to highlight the profound shift in economic resources from black cities to the white suburbs.
We have to be clear in our demands for good public schools, jobs, and end to police brutality, environmental justice, investment, quality, healthy foods, freedom from the exploitation of the criminal, military injustice complex and accountability from the political class and the local economic elites.
So, although I do think that African Americans should join the Wall Street Occupation Movement, we should be clear that our immediate, needs, issues and concerns do not necessarily line up perfectly with the other “occupiers”. Because of this we must be sure that the issues that affect us directly are brought to the table along with the “big” issues, and that they are not drowned out by the justifiable anger at Wall Street. Structural elitism has created the chasm between the wealthy and the poor, but structural racism has created the black ghettos. We must ensure that ALL of the American 99% not only have a voice, but have a chance to address the issues from their own analysis and critique and to set their own agenda within the occupation.
Bryan K. Bullock is a lawyer. He was habeas counsel for detainees imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He practices employment discrimination and civil rights law and is a resident of Gary, IN.
Yes. This is a pereenial problem with most (certainly not all) so-called “white liberals.” It seems they only get concerned with inequality and injustice when they are directly affected. Otherwise, they have a real blind spot when it comes to their own racism and almost natural acceptance of “white priviledge.”
You serious?
Get your head out of the sand, wake up and open your eyes. That’s what’s wrong with us, today. Martin Luther King Jr. is rolling over in his grave right now…
It is a sad day in the end of 2011 when us “blacks” are waiting around and expecting “liberal whites” to take a stand against the issues that have been plaguing the ghettos for decades…
Seriously? We as a whole are losing more and more of ourselves the further away from the 1964 Civil Rights movement time takes us.
The 99% is not about race. It is about class. For months now I have witnessed the lack of many of us joining these protests alongside our fellow brothers and sisters (no matter their race). We seem nonexistent there.
So it pains me to read one of us COMPLAIN that “white liberals” are not fighting the fight that WE should’ve been fighting all along…
Why should anyone have to do what WE need to educate ourselves enough to do ourselves?
I wish that the passion in this article were used in a more positive manner. Why once again, do we have to draw a line in the sand and remind the world, “We are black, you are white and you should do for us what we can do for ourselves”?
*sigh*
As long as we (as a whole) continue to be this close-minded about race, about unity and solidarity, we will continue to adversely hold ourselves back from the shackles of modern-day slavery, as well as continue to be victims of racism.
This is the time and opportunity TO TAKE A STAND IN SOLIDARITY with these protestors because this is NOT their fight. This is NOT our fight. This is OUR fight; the HUMAN RACE who does not fall in the 1% financial category class.
TOGETHER WE STAND BECAUSE WE ARE ALL THE 99%, no matter what race we are. 99% transcends color.
Kia, please read Dr. King’s last book Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos Or Community. The book, as Mrs. King says in her foreword, “In this book he piercingly revealed the cause of our national discord, placing it squarely on the ingrained white racism of American society.” Please then read the rest of the book where you will see just how angry King was at white liberals, calling them out specifically, right at the top of the book in fact, for selling out Black people. So to argue that he would be “rolling over in his grave” is simply ignorant of what the man was saying or doing when he was killed. It is also a mistake to argue that we who challenge these contradictions are themselves the cause of the division. And everything is about race, to discount that or to suggest that Black people do so is also terribly flawed and dangerous.
Jared,
Me, ignorant to what King went through BACK THEN in HIS SITUATION? No. Me, IN TOUCH with the Occupy movement because I am actively part of the movement? Yes.
You, comparing apples to oranges when attempting to use Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s
point before he was killed, as an example of what is actually going on now? Yes.
Please, you re-read my post, regarding this movement with an open mind.
You, ‘them’ and I are ALL the same human race; the 99%. WE need to take a stand in solidarity collectively because THIS time, the enemy is an entire pyramid system that controls the banks, that controls our government, that controls the narrowing gap between the elite and middle class until the entire middle class vanishes.
We all need to wake up and realize who the real players are and who the real enemy is. This civil war TRANSCENDS RACE.
Kia, you brought MLK into the situation. You raised his name and now want to distance yourself from your own source. Now, if you read his book and run the numbers you will see that what he said is not only relevant to today but precise in that relevance. Its actually spooky. But since so many throw his name around without having been exposed (apparently) to his actual thought it makes making these points more difficult. And nothing in this country (perhaps anywhere) “transcends race.” Thats tactically dangerous to advocate — another of King’s points. You can hope for it, fight for it, have faith in its eventual arrival, but to move tactically on the notion of post-racial is to deny reality and assure dangerous failures. So I personally have advocated all to be involved in any number of activities but never without a profound understanding of social relationships and power. So go, support them. i support them doing what they are doing too. but i also know that atop that pyramid you talk of are almost exclusively white men who know they are white and male and intend to defend that. i also know these 99%ers were not in the streets to end the poverty Black and Brown people have been in long before this, or the millions locked up for whatever, or the thousands wiped out by cops or any of the political prisoners, even the white ones… they waited for some Arabs to get busy, got inspired without knowing what would happen to those “Arab Springers” and got mad that their pockets got hurt a little relative to the rest of the planet. So good. welcome. but until they get over or transcend their whiteness im not asking anyone else to transcend their recognition of that.
Jared, all of your responses are biased. And if you actually ‘Got It’, then you would realize that MLK was not and is not my only source. He (sadly enough) is YOUR only source. I understand that you believe you know all there is to know about race because of a couple of MLK books you have read. But you are making this all about MLK and MLK was only a particle of my entire point. Just like there are racist whites, it is tough for me to deny that there are racist blacks when biased articles like these are written and biased readers defend it.
AGAIN, It is a sad day in the end of 2011 when us “blacks” are waiting around and expecting “liberal whites” to take a stand against the issues that have been plaguing the ghettos for decades…
Seriously? We as a whole are losing more and more of ourselves the further away from the 1964 Civil Rights movement time takes us.
The 99% is not about race. It is about class. For months now I have witnessed the lack of many of us joining these protests alongside our fellow brothers and sisters (no matter their race). We seem nonexistent there.
So it pains me to read one of us COMPLAIN that “white liberals” are not fighting the fight that WE should’ve been fighting all along…
This thread is dead.
Kia, Again, you raised MLK, I responded on that basis alone. I pointed out your misplaced reference by offering the man’s own book as evidence of your mistake and did so to offer an explanation as to why some still caution against dismissing race as you’ve chosen to. You similarly dismiss my actually having read “a couple of MLK books” while misquoting him, missing the point he was making and that i was trying to echo while also then saying to dismiss him too! LOL!! Why would King not abandon a race-based analysis while adopting a class one too? If heard, I think this question can help your class-based buddies and ultimately help us all. Which, by the way, is why so many like King took the time to criticize the white left (and the Black bourgeoisie). And then, I also cant help but want to ask why you somehow think complaining and being disrespectful here is more valuable than some being critical of white liberals?
Again, Jared, MLK would be rolling over in his grave over the many times we today continue to hold ourselves back. I am all for Occupy the Hood. It is synonymous with Occupy Wallstreet, as well as every other city, because ALL of us 99% are affected, regardless of race. This is a time for UNITY and SOLIDARITY among us all. Not diversion.
You are consistently bringing this ‘us against them’ element into the picture. So be it. You are certainly entitled to your opinion.
Complaining about what whites are doing for you what you can do for yourself is counterproductive, as well. Not once, have I read you include the whites that also marched in solidarity with us and MLK during the Civil Rights movement. But again, your biased views are blinding. So be it.
You have not changed my mind. At the end of the day, you, I, most of us are still (should be) on the same team, regardless of the color of your skin.
Have a blessed one.
Oh Kia, as Dr. Clarke once said, “you confess to what you have not read” every time you post.
1. Contributors to this website, and myself included, were among the first to champion Occupy the Hood and others like Hip-Hop Occupies, Rise to Decolonize. You familiar? You read their platform or why they’ve chosen that particular language?
2. Again, you bring up MLK so ignorantly. The whites you say I never mentioned having marched with him HE SAID abandoned him and his movement once real issues of white supremacy and economic oppression became more his focus. Again, have you read his last book? Where Do We Go From Here? Have you read any of his last speeches to the leadership of SCLC? Have you? You want, again – and so foolishly – to continue to evoke someone whose own thoughts you seem not to know at all and simultaneously dismissing me for actually referencing his own words. Its an amazing feat of anti-thought you are demonstrating here.
So i never said we shouldnt support OWS, and no one on this website has ever advocated not becoming politically active or engaged. So when you say you haven’t seen something written here all you do is further confess to how little you’ve read apparently anywhere.
And wow, if you really think most of us are on the same team regardless of skin color you are truly blind to the world. Ive not divided a damn thing, im responding to division imposed on me/us. Denying them is ridiculous and tactically insane. Even honest and well-meaning whites will tell you that.
I also continue to find humor in your telling me how wasteful it is to complain about whites while all you do is not read and complain about me/voxunion. So waste no more of your silly blessings on me… you can keep those for the other fairytales you dwell in.
Ok, I see that your ego has been hurt… My apologies.
But my point still stands. UNITY, not DIVERSION.
My intentions were not to hurt your feelings. Perhaps I could have been a bit more sensitive when expressing my point.
To each their own, Jared. You keep doing YOU. I will do the same.
Be blessed.
Kia, while i am far from above ego surely your empty silliness certainly is no threat. But i do, again, notice that you reduce your “argument” to personal invective because there is so little substance elsewhere. Do you even dare answer my specific and direct questions? Nah, clearly you cannot. So, to paraphrase Tony Martin, there is more nonsense than words in what you write. So your apologies can go with your blessings and your non-thought…