Part of the work of Safer Spaces has been to make this movement more effective by ensuring that people with a wide range of experiences of privilege and oppression can feel empowered and excited to work with one another.
Based on this work, we think that in order for this movement to be powerful and sustainable we need to prioritize the voices of those people who are most impacted by oppression, marginalization, and state violence. It is these voices that are the experts on the realities of economic inequalities in this country.
Right now these voices among us are speaking up. Of course the term “occupy” feels really exciting to a lot of us because it has become the rallying cry for hope and revolution. However, people of color and indigenous people organized within our movement are saying that the word “Occupy” is serving for many of us as a painful reminder of what occupation really is. It is even making some of us feel that we cannot participate in the movement.
For Safer Spaces,
Occupation is wide-spread police violence and incarceration in communities of color
Occupation is the apartheid wall that deprives Palestinians of resources and freedom
Occupation is the genocide that has resulted in generations of trauma and suffering for indigenous people of this continent.
Occupation is at the root of this terrifying capitalist state.
We don’t want to Occupy. We want to Decolonize.
Moved to Discussion. Let’s use “announcements” for announcements.
Ok, being a psychotherapist I was going to participate in Safer Spaces Oakland. I think I’ll participate in Occupy Berkeley instead. I also knit and their knitting hats and scarves for Occupiers in other parts of the country is much more practical than debating politically correct nonsense.
Sorry, I just can’t take it anymore. OO no longer feels like a place where I feel welcome. It was great working with you.