FW: Public Statement from People of Color Solidarity Group within Occupy Charlottesville

[Richmond Industrial Workers of the World R-IWW]

Public Statement from People of Color Solidarity Group within Occupy Charlottesville, Virginia

We are people of color within Occupy Charlottesville. We have met together to give a safespace to our voices without feeling ignored or talked-down to by the structures and practices that privilege white skin, establishing a white supremacy. We prepared a statement to be adopted by the General Assembly today, as a first step to break the centuries-long racial barriers that harm our movement and will kill it if left unrecognized. This is also a step in breaking the lack of diversity among occupiers in the park and in the public messaging and the efforts. We repeat, this is a first step.

We recognize first and foremost that the land we stand on is colonized Saponi land. While the wider public, including some involved in the Occupy movement, speak of this land as the land of our "founding fathers", we deny that narrative, instead recognizing that this country was founded on the death of many tribes and their cultures, all in the name of colonial expansion and capitalist consumption.

We recognize that the economy of this region, and the very infrastructure of this city and its university, both lie on the blood and sweat of African slaves who, like the Saponi, were exploited in the name of empire, even while their white masters were drafting documents of "freedom".

We recognize that while the United States government has, in its 240 years of history, celebrated itself as a land of freedom and oppurtunity, every single one of these 240 years has had coercive interventions on lands outside of its declared borders: Appalachia, indigenous lands west of the Mississippi, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, Vietnam, Guam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada... the list goes on. This list doesn't mention all of the economic or indirect interventions done through the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and NATO on lands inhabited by people of color.

We recognize that the broad declaration, "we are the 99%", has many complexities within it that go beyond finance, and we'd like to call those out for Charlottesville specifically:

• We currently stand [in Lee Park] two blocks away from Vinegar Hill, a black neighborhood that was demolished in the name of a cleaner city. Many residents (or their families) ended up in the two main public housing projects: Garret Square (aka. Friendship Court) and Westhaven. This eviction is still felt today and it makes the experience of a poor black family different that that of a white middle-class family.
• Even though the police are relatively calm and lenient in the park, this happens at the same time as Latino immigrant families at the Southwood trailer park south of town get torn by deportations and driver license checkpoints done by the police. This intimidation makes the experience of an undocumented Mexican woman different than a white male citizen when it comes to police cooperation.
• The institution of the police is inevitably tied to the prison system, a system that is overwhelmingly inhabited by black men and is unquestionably violent. Virginia in particular makes it extremely difficult for ex-felons to exercise any basic rights we enjoy (like a home, job, vote, etc.). This makes the experience of a black ex-prisoner different from that of a welathy white male that has to worry less about cops or judges basing their actions and decisions on their skin color.

With these, and many more recognitions that would otherwise remain silent without people of color standing together, we make these proposals for the wider public:

We propose that we work less on a basis of "unity" and more on the basis of solidarity. Many people within the movement have and will insist on "putting differences aside" in the name of a "common goal". We reply that this system has done nothing but ignore our diversity while at the same time creating artificial barriers through the market, the police, and the prisons, all in the name of the common goal that is the growth of the capitalist economy. Instead we call for a politics of solidarity, reaching out to groups of different backgrounds while informing ourselves of the histories of privilege and actively providing spaces to nurture diversity.

We propose that we broaden our understanding of power. Instead of limiting it to Wall Street bankers, recognize that our very own personal relationships enforce hierarchies based on gender, race, class, sexuality, citizenship, ability, etc. Our liberation rests on our ability to reverse these relationships and stand in solidarity to fight capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and institutional violence.

We salute those who have come out of the woodwork to join the occupation at Lee Park, regardless of identity or background. People of color have been fighting for centuries against all of the histories mentioned in this statement, and will continue to fight from Egypt to Puerto Rico, from the Coast Salish territory (Pacific Northwest) to the Pacific Islands, from Peru to Bangladesh, and from Palestine to Nigeria. It heartens us to see the excitement in the Occupy movement, even in the face of repression. But we refuse to let this movement have the same hierarchies as the violent society we claim to change. Keep fighting in solidarity. Don't free us, work on freeing yourself from what you were born into, as the oppressed and as the oppressor. We will keep struggling in the streets and hope you join us whole-heartedly, in defiance of race privilege.



In love and solidarity,

People of Color of Charlottesville on occupied Saponi land

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Richmond Industrial Workers of the World • P.O. Box 7055 • Richmond, Virginia 23221-0055

(e) richm...@gmail.com • (w) www.richmondiww.org • (p) 804-496-1568