Duncan You've Heard This But I'm Going To Write It Out
I'm going to take a page out of Duncan's book and start trying to write everyday. I have gone too long without any expectation of output and my mind is suffering for it. It might not be entirely coherent at first, but bear with me, I'll try to get better.
First, the immigration rallies.
Two things have been sticking out to me in the days following May Day. The make-up of the Olympia rally and the press coverage of those held nation-wide.
The Olympia Rally was composed of two radically different demographics of people, Anarcho-Punk What What on one side and Hispanic-Latin American Immigrants on the other. All other Empirically Assumed differences in class and privilege aside, the most noticeable was the language barrier.
Chants were begun in Spanish, one being Si, Se Puede! and the other being unintelligible to my ear. These were then tenuously translated into English, offering a chance to support the cause of the other, albeit in the language of the oppressor. This caused the rally to split on these lines, English and Spanish.
No matter which language in which we chanted, something like half of those assembled were left out. Parading quite literally under the guise of solidarity, we came up against a telling schism. If a white progressive population is going to do this, we need to take a few more steps in their direction. What solidarity asks of our party is different from what it asks of others. As white people we have a responsibility to be aware of others in our community and ask them what there wants and needs are and how we can help them achieve their own goals.
Explicit identification is not necessary nor is it possible. One leader of the Olympia Labor Coalition took it upon himself to state when speaking to the crowd, " We are all immigrants!". Yes. Irrelevant. Yes. Our immigrant status as white people is different in a few ways. While the laws on the books might have been racist towards whites many years ago, towards the Irish and Eastern Europeans and others, we have nothing now to hold as the same. This is true especially in light of the racist system of immigration laws we have today, with most, if not all, focus on brown people. Applying this label to us as white people is disingenuous and hurtful to the idea of solidarity.
I got the picture that the demonstration the other day was a first encounter between these two populations. Hopefully it won't be the last or the most representative.
First, the immigration rallies.
Two things have been sticking out to me in the days following May Day. The make-up of the Olympia rally and the press coverage of those held nation-wide.
The Olympia Rally was composed of two radically different demographics of people, Anarcho-Punk What What on one side and Hispanic-Latin American Immigrants on the other. All other Empirically Assumed differences in class and privilege aside, the most noticeable was the language barrier.
Chants were begun in Spanish, one being Si, Se Puede! and the other being unintelligible to my ear. These were then tenuously translated into English, offering a chance to support the cause of the other, albeit in the language of the oppressor. This caused the rally to split on these lines, English and Spanish.
No matter which language in which we chanted, something like half of those assembled were left out. Parading quite literally under the guise of solidarity, we came up against a telling schism. If a white progressive population is going to do this, we need to take a few more steps in their direction. What solidarity asks of our party is different from what it asks of others. As white people we have a responsibility to be aware of others in our community and ask them what there wants and needs are and how we can help them achieve their own goals.
Explicit identification is not necessary nor is it possible. One leader of the Olympia Labor Coalition took it upon himself to state when speaking to the crowd, " We are all immigrants!". Yes. Irrelevant. Yes. Our immigrant status as white people is different in a few ways. While the laws on the books might have been racist towards whites many years ago, towards the Irish and Eastern Europeans and others, we have nothing now to hold as the same. This is true especially in light of the racist system of immigration laws we have today, with most, if not all, focus on brown people. Applying this label to us as white people is disingenuous and hurtful to the idea of solidarity.
I got the picture that the demonstration the other day was a first encounter between these two populations. Hopefully it won't be the last or the most representative.
posted by Assonance Not Apathy at 4:32 PM
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