We've seen many pieces here and elsewhere examining why African-Americans aren't supporting OWS in large numbers. These analyses are important. I've said it a hundred times and won't stop saying it: OWS must be a multiracial movement; otherwise, it will fail.
Yet some have exaggerated blacks' aversion to the movement; in fact, you could plausibly argue that it's surprising that so many blacks are supporting a movement launched by whites -- a movement, no less, that is at least implicitly critical of President Obama.
There's no question that the original core of OWS was almost all white. That was clear when I went down to Zuchotti at the end of September. But each time I returned, the crowd of supporters was more colorful. Here Yotam Marom, widely recognized an influential figure in OWS, discusses that evolution.
"In the beginning...there were a lot of young white people, mainly students, many of them from out of town. Marginalized people in New York City -- particularly oppressed people, people of color -- were totally underrepresented here. It wasn't clear whether that was going to change. But it has. It really really has."
To read the conservative blogosphere, the corporate press, and some liberals, you'd think OWS were as white as a tub of Marshmallow Fluff, but if you peruse the tubes, a decidedly different storyline emerges.
No Blacks Supporting Occupy Wall Street? Rubbish
I recently heard a news correspondent state that blacks aren’t really participating in the OWS movement.
I beg to differ. That is complete rubbish.
I attended a general assembly in downtown NYC recently and I can state assuredly that blacks are most certainly supporting and involved in this movement. At the meeting that I attended, two black women were actually leading the discussion. There were black faces scattered throughout the crowd.
We are very much involved, so please media pundits and correspondents, do not try to yet again reduce the important role that blacks play in this country.
A Fordham survey in mid-October found that ten percent of OWS protestors were black (and ten percent Latino.) Not huge numbers, especially in a multiracial city like New York, but this clearly wasn't a lily-white shindig, either. (In terms of minority participation, it puts Daily Kos to shame.) And those numbers do not include the OWS-supporting unions such as SEIU, which have a large number of black members.
And occupations in other cities had an even greater number of black supporters.
[I]n Philadelphia, a huge percentage of occupiers were African-American, perhaps 50 percent, though it is constantly shifting. Detroit was more complicated because that city’s black community has been so devastated. The composition of occupiers appeared to be about half African-American as well, but far fewer were participating in the General Assembly on the day I visited. It seemed many African-Americans at the occupation were homeless or impoverished and did not have the cultural capital to fully participate in the movement, but of the 10 African-Americans I talked to, all said they supported “the cause” or were part of the Occupy movement there. And Occupy Detroit organizers are fully aware of this divide and trying to address it.
Occupy Pittsburgh was at least 20 percent African-American, all of whom were very active in the work and activities there. Baltimore was heavily African-American when I visited about four weeks ago, and D.C. also had a large African-American contingent. Chicago was much harder to classify, even though I spent four days there, because they did not have a designated space, so it was much more fluid.
Just because some blacks support OWS doesn't mean there are blacks on the inside, helping to define it. Blacks need to have influence within OWS -- and yes, folks, OWS does have leaders -- if it's going to be what it needs to be. (Of course, inclusiveness is a moral imperative as well.) To that end OWS, must also address issues of particular importance to blacks and be mindful as it criticizes President Obama. People at the heart of OWS seem well aware that how it critiques the President will affect its outreach to blacks.
The election year -- when OWS will pointedly not support President Obama and will at times be critical of him -- may strain the relationship between OWS and blacks. In any case, prejudice and more benign cultural divisions will continue to challenge OWS. (Just as they have the labor and feminist movements and the New Left).
But it's important not to overlook or deny the positive signs so far. A significant number of blacks support OWS, and people inside it recognize the importance of genuine diversity.
In examining OWS's relationship with African-Americans, it's also fair to ask: compared to what? There are good reasons why the vast majority of blacks vote Democratic. Yet the fact remains that the Democratic Party embraces racist policies, like the death penalty and the War on Drugs, and neoliberal economic policies, which are particularly disastrous for African-Americans. If OWS has a "race problem," what does the Democratic Party have?