Ruminations on the Murder of Trayvon Martin

When I heard about the murder of Trayvon Martin I felt numb. Murdering of Blacks especially black youth is such a regular occurrence that I can’t even feel. A dehumanizing society does that.What struck me about the murder of Trayvon was not that Zimmerman was not arrested much like the members of lynch mobs in a not to distant past but rather the lack of analysis. In 2012, Black people find ourselves still fighting to be citizens and treated equal by the law a battle that has not ceased since the first slave ships arrived to eastern American shores. The lack of action taken post  Trayvon’s murder is the tip of the iceberg but this tragic event has helped to bring further attention to the intentions and possibilities created by capital and it’s bearers in the years to come.

Recently Zimmerman was arrested and now faces trial for second degree murder. This came on the  heels of protest and outrage around the country some forty days later. We can assume that this mass response played a hand in the state finally stepping in. The laws and basis’ of the justice system have to be examined in the history they are a product of. The fact that he has been arrested and will be tried does not and will not affect the system of white supremacy that allowed for the killing of people of color on a whim.

May 1st flyering

This is the flyer that some of us in Black Orchid Collective have worked on and been distributing. We have been flyering consistently with friends in the South End. If you are interested in joining us, please email us at blackorchidcollective@gmail.com

Also, check out the beautiful flyers and posters available at May1stSeattle.org 

Poetry and Posters by Youth, in Memory of Trayvon Martin

The other day, a bunch of us went to a “thousand hoodie” rally in downtown Seattle to honor the memory of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old Black teenager murdered by George Zimmerman, part of the neighborhood watch in a gated community in Florida.  May he rest in power.

Several comrades spoke at the rally, including Jomo from Black Orchid.  My former student Carlos Ganz read this moving poem.  He is an outstanding spoken word artist whose poems are about to be published.  You can find more of his work here.  The energy in the crowd escalated at the end of the poem when he called for the kind of actions that folks are hoping will happen on May 1st here in Seattle and around the country.

I wrote this for my people,
The white
The black,
The brown,
The equals.
I wrote this for all
My brothers and sisters
Lost to these concrete streets
And for all my mothers and fathers
Who barried them there.
I wrote this for the guilty,
And the innocent,
For all the Trayvons
And George Zimmermans.
I wrote this for you,
In hope that some day we
As human beings
Will Demand equality,
In hopes that
We will Demand respect,
In hopes that one day
As human beings
We will demand justice
And we will receive it.
In hopes that
We will demand justice
And not just in
Our Court rooms
Or jail cells,
But on these same
Concrete graves
We every day
Lose black hooded
Faces on.
I write begging and pleading
That my black and brown
Siblings
Come together in unison
Demanding that same justice
We haven’t been given.
How many young souls must die,
How many Young hooded heroes
Go on by
Without dignity or closure.
How more lives will we take?
How long until we break?
How many murderers will go free?
How many judges walk away clean?
I dream of world where suspicion
Is just suspicion,
Where protests are civil
And pepper spray
Skittle and iced tea
Tear gas seized Free.
I dream of a world where we
Watch eachothers’ back
Instead watching if he’s black
Or if he’s brown,
Or if he’s white
Or if it’s the flashing lights
Coming around.
The time is now,
We are here
So let’s get loud,
Let’s block the streets
And declare our way
Let’s block the tunnels
And highways,
Your way
My way,
Let’s come together
And do it trayvons way,
Put your hoodies up
And march the other way,
Chant the injustices of the modern day,
2012 Zimmerman,
No one more will get a way,
Let’s link up
Let freedom reign,

I like Carlos’ reference to “2012 Zimmerman”.   The “Kony 2012″ video went viral on youtube, calling for U.S. military intervention in Uganda to stop Kony, leader of the Lords’ Resistance Army, because of his exploitation and murder of children.  Supporters of U.S. imperialism portray Africa as a backwards continent where this kind of violence occurs, neglecting to mention that Black youth are killed because of racism here in America everyday.  So many Americans are calling for Kony’s arrest by the end of 2012, suggesting it’s something “we can all agree on”.  Yet judging from the right-wing backlash against the thousand hoodie marches in honor of Trayvon’s murder, “we” cannot all agree on stopping racist violence against youth here at home.  Considering that there is a New Jim Crow system in place incarcerating an entire generation of working class youth of color, the US is in no position to talk about saving youth abroad.  How can a country baptized in violence and white supremacy claim to bring justice to people of color anywhere in the world?

Here are some posters that high school students here in Seattle made for the rally; some of them also express this point:

How can the US claim to save kids in Africa when Black youth here are killed by racist violence?

*Dramatic Intro* The crisis of the Left: What’s really going in the ISO BOC debate?!?!

Referenced Articles:

1) “The Solidarity We Need” by ISO members Sam Bernstein, Darrin Hoop and Dan Trocolli (1/19/12)

2) “ILWU Leaders Shouldn’t Get a Pass” by ISO member Dana Blanchard (1/23/12)

3) “Longview, Occupy, and Beyond: Rank and File and 89% Unite” by BOC, Advance the Struggle, members of Hella 503 in Portland, as well as friends in various cities (1/30/12)

In the past few months the International Socialist Organization (ISO) has gone out its way to associate Black Orchid Collective with being divisive, ultra leftist, anti-union, and even defenders of CEOs according to one member on the Occupy Purdue Facebook . All of these accusations can be dispelled by reading our pieces on our blog.  Of course if there is confusion or criticism we have an email address and a comment section, unlike the Socialist Worker, the ISO’s publication. I want to respond to some of these accusations. These articles and comments, as a whole, develop a broader picture of the differences between the ISO and BOC i.e., the fact that the ISO believes that all proletariat should be organized into union in order to advance to the next stage struggle. To verify my claims I will be utilizing the same writings used to slander BOC in which the ISO clearly states their position repeatedly.

In an article in the ISO’s Socialist Worker called, “Confronting the Debates in Occupy” , our collective along with Advance the Struggle (AS) , and Bay of Rage are dubbed “ultra-leftist” within the Occupy Movement.

Ultra-leftism is described as, “a political practice that substitutes the desire of a small group of radicals for revolutionary change for the reality of the self-activity of the working class” and “a hardened political theory that rejects strategies aimed at involving the greatest number of workers, students and community members in the fight to win their rights and improve their conditions in favor of the actions taken by a self-selected minority of activists.”  The authors make these accusations in response to articles by all three groups and argue that each is hostile to unions thus divisive to the workers’ struggle.

Some responses to “Privilege Politics is Reformism”

Will’s recent piece, “Privilege Politics is Reformism” has brought about many charged conversations online,  in person and also in the comments section.  Conatz puts it well when they say that the challenges such a piece faces is on the one hand, “the assault of privilege politics warriors circling [their] wagons,” and on the other hand, the ”white class reductionists/’social war’ reductionists missing the point when they say they agree.”

Yet, this piece has also managed to carve out some space and language for those of us who don’t fall into that dichotomy, those of us who see sex, race, gender, disabilities and class struggle as inseparable. It has helped us find one another. Those of us here in BOC aspire to form multiracial and multigender organizations and communities that support the leadership, development and militancy of oppressed people, recognizing our varied expressions and the challenges involved in such projects. We believe in the possibility of transformation through collective struggles for liberations. Hopefully we can grow forward into more conversations around healthy organizational practices that can navigate the tension of both being products of an oppressive capitalist society, and being self determining agents of change shaped by common struggle.

We compile some responses to the piece here by fellow comrades who are active organizers. Black Orchid Collective members do not agree with all the premises and conclusions of the pieces but post them here because these are useful and healthy debates.

Invisible Man has written a response entitled ”Be Careful With Each Other, So We Can Be Dangerous Together.” Like the original piece, Invisible Man draws heavily from the traditions of Malcolm X, Fanon, CLR James and the Black Power movement and come to different conclusions. They pose questions to the original such as, why should we assume that the white militants we organize with, are not white supremacist? Why should we assume that they do not inherit the white supremacist ideology that has placed them above all non-white people? Should non-white militants organize independently so that they can gain sufficient power and strength? Are such organizations an expression of racially oppressed people’s self liberation?  They further discuss the experience of non-white people when they address the racism of white organizers, to question the possibility of multiracial organizations.

Here, Suzy X also engages with this piece and points out the tendency of some organizing circles to glorify arrestable actions over other forms of resistance. What are the consequences of this? Does this reproduce militancy as gendered and ableist? Is it true that non-street actions are necessarily “less arrestable?” and by implication, less militant? Why is there today such a distinct separation between street actions (deemed arrestable) and community programs? What was the tradition of the Free Breakfast program or the Young Lords takeover of  Lincoln Hospital? How have revolutionary community programs differentiated themselves from today’s non profit industrial complex?

Suzy X brings up thoughtful and important questions, ones that can help us clarify ways forward in the Decolonize/Occupy movement. Relatedly, do planned arrests erase the self activity and militancy of those others who had not deemed themselves “arrestables,” but who do also take courageous direct action when push comes to shove? In this ”All Power to the Positive” podcast, our comrade Matt E  also has a fresh perspective to offer regarding this.

Finally! Here are the links!

1) Be Careful with Each Other, So We Can Be Dangerous Together by Invisible Man

2) A response by Suzy X

Looking forward to more conversations!

Guest Post: Privilege Politics is Reformism

3/15/2012: Some responses to this piece here

This piece was written by Will, a close comrade to many members of Black Orchid Collective.

Notes on Privilege Theory
Introduction: White Supremacy Lives on

It is crystal clear that white supremacy exists.  It seeps through every pore in our society. It infects every social relationship.  It obviously affects Occupy Wall Street.

Everyone knows the wealth divide, the incarceration numbers, gentrification, the education gap and more are part of the class and racial oppression of the United States.  All this is obvious.  More politically contentious matters are the social interactions, which are racialized in negative ways in society and specifically in OWS.  It is always painful, because at best we hope movement spaces are places where people can finally engage with one another on universal-human terms.  However, it is not a surprise that even in movement spaces people experience white supremacy.  Our society is saturated with it, so to expect non-racialized human relations in the movement would be utopian.

The combination of structural oppression based on race and class, the history of white supremacy and capitalism, and how that affects people’s interactions with one another, has led to a school of thought called Privilege theory.  Privilege theory recognizes structural and historical oppression, but has an undue focus on individual behavior and thoughts as a major way of addressing white supremacy (and other oppressions, but I will tend to focus on white supremacy and class).  Privilege theory has a set of basic principles: a) Privilege theory argues that movement spaces should be safe for all oppressed groups.  One way to make such a space safe is by negotiating one anothers’ actions in non-oppressive ways.  For example, this means straight white men should talk less or think about the privileges they have when discussing an action or political question.  b) Privilege theory justifies that militancy and political sophistication is the domain of a privileged elite based on class, gender and racial privileges.  c) Privilege theory roots political and strategic mistakes in the personal privileges that people bring into the movement.  d) Privilege theory seeks to deal with these issues primarily through education, teach-ins and conversations.  This piece will point out key failures in all four principles of Privilege theory.  It will tentatively lay out some ways forward, while recognizing more research and, more importantly, more struggle is needed to resolve some of the outstanding problems facing the movement.

Occupy Patriarchy and Class Struggle: Speech at International Womyn’s Day

Some awesome folks from Gender Equality Caucus of Decolonize/Occupy Seattle put together a International Womyn’s Day event yesterday. They invited me to share some thoughts around gender and labor. Here is the speech:

International womyn’s day is about unity. But we can’t have unity unless we address the existing divisions. and we can’t address the divisions except through struggle, because the system we live in, the capitalist system, is based on divisions.

We live in the international division of labor, where we are divided by race, gender, and disabilities. we are divided alongside these categories — we are made to believe that oh, this is woman’s work, oh, this is men’s work; oh, this is peope of color work, this is white people work, or, this is work for people w disabilities — This system we live in teaches us to value, or devalue one another, based on the roles that we think each other  fit under this division of labor. How does it do that? It does it by making it seem that it’s natural for some people to do certain kinds of work. Natural for white men to govern, natural for women of color to be silent, natural for immigrants to work long hours with little pay. When it’s natural for someone to be a servant, to be hardworking, to be overworked, then you don’t have to pay them for the work that they actually do. Then you don’t have to recognize and value the labor.