The Northbay Uprising radio show has interviewed many folks connected to the Occupy movements in the Bay Area, played their music, and been on the streets with them.
One observation we have made: The Occupy Movement has a high percentage of Black folks in leadership, and of people of color in general participating in the actions.
However, for some strange reason, the "conservative" media keeps saying the entire Occupy movement is racist:2012-01-30 "Racist Occupy Wall Street: Movement ‘Clearly’ Has Race Problems, Says Occupy Newark Leader" by Lee Stranahan
[http://biggovernment.com/lstranahan/2012/01/30/racist-occupy-wall-street-movement-clearly-has-race-problems-says-occupy-newark-leader/]
People inside the Occupy movement — including one of the leaders of the Occupy Newark encampment — claim that Occupy Wall Street is racist against people of color. These new accusations of racism are based on people’s personal experiences with the increasingly secretive and “fascist” Occupy Wall Street leadership and the actions of OWS participants.
Imagine the amount of press the following story would get if it occurred at a Tea Party event; “If you ever want to see the biggest bunch of a**holes in the world, it’s Occupy Wall Street,” an unidentified man told me. We were in the atrium of 60 Wall Street, a location that Occupy Wall Street uses for meetings especially on evenings such as this past Friday when the weather outside was rainy and cold. The gentleman speaking to me was clearly upset, in his late 30s, neatly dressed and black. He eyed the tables of white Occupiers chowing down nearby. “I brought plates,” he said. “I brought plates free for everyone to eat on and what do they do? They asked me if I’d washed my hands. That’s how they treat us here.”
This man’s complaints about his own personal experience of antiblack racism at Occupy Wall Street were echoed by every black person I spoke to this past week in New York. Some people did not want to go on record, possibly fearing reprisals from people at Occupy Wall Street, but others freely admitted in video interviews that BigGovernment.com and Breitbart.TV will be releasing this week that they think the Occupy Wall Street movement is “clearly” and “absolutely” racist against people of color based on their own personal experience.
Significantly, these complaints of racism are coming not from outside critics but from supporters and members of the Occupy movement. As this interview clip with Occupy Newark leader Eric Richardson shows, he’s an advocate for the supposed ideals of the Occupy movement but says he’s experienced racism from both the leadership and the rank-and-file members of the Occupy movement.
This personal experience of racism at Occupy Wall Street provides a sharp contrast with the Tea Party movement that has been accused of racism — and specifically antiblack racism — constantly over the past several years. I recently did an appearance on the David Webb show on Sirius XM satellite radio and I asked Webb point blank if he’d experienced any racism personally in the Tea Party. His answer was an immediate unhesitating “no”. Webb said the racism he’s experienced due to his association with the Tea Party has consisted being called “Uncle Tom” and worse by liberals.
Later this week, we’ll be airing more clips on racism at Occupy Wall Street and also discussing exactly why this racism is occurring.
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