So we’re going to talk about Ferguson again or a refresher on solidarity

Lean close, Amnesty International has sent a team into the US for the first time as the National Guard has been deployed to protect the police. All the while, repressive regimes around the world are rejoicing.

Things got violent again over the weekend, which honestly is expected given the determination of the police to incite violence. Natasha Culzac wrote for the Independent about Amnesty’s role in Ferguson. Amnesty has said it will be observing police and protester activity while gathering testimonies and training local activists “in methods of non-violent protest.” The executive director of Amnesty International USA, Steven W. Hawkins said the “people of Ferguson have the right to protest peacefully the lack of accountability for Michael Brown’s shooting.” The Amnesty team consists of 13 people including Jasmine Heiss who says the organization has limited access to post-curfew areas, which says something about the lack of transparency and the cover-up in Ferguson.

After declaring a state of emergency, Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon has ordered the deployment of the National Guard to “protect life and property.” But not the lives of black men. I just thought I’d fill in the subtext here. According to Nixon, the military will “maintain peace and order.” See the relationship disintegrated again after the curfew was issued, which by the way is patronizing shit all while perpetuating the myth that black people are violent. Way to go Gov. Nixon in what I’m pretty sure will be your last term in office, someone isn’t getting reelected.

Media outlets are claiming that hours before the curfew, the police opened fire into the crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets, which hit children and members of the media. Seriously, who are these people? Pro-tip, don’t fire on journalists unless your Egypt or Russia. Additionally, black journalists are alleging they have been racially profiled and refused re-entry to the press area while no white press had been.

Of course, there have been protests and vigils all over in support of Michael Brown’s family, but another unarmed black man was shot in LA on August 11, and people were gathering outside of police headquarters to protest there too.

There is only one more thing I want to talk about before I put this down for a bit. Class and race are not the same. And yes, I know we all make white people feel better by talking about this as a class issue or the racists cast Black people as dangerous, but while class plays a factor, Brown was executed because he was black. The National Guard was called because most protesters are Black. Now, do I think a governor would call up the National Guard to suppress the protesting of poor people, abso-fukcing-lutely. Do I think after justice for Michael Brown is achieved we should expand this conversation, maybe find out if police forced in affluent, white neighborhoods have tanks? Yes. We should, but right now I want the police officer who murdered an unarmed Black man to stand trial. That is the priority, and yeah, we might not get to the point where we can have a large conversation about classism and how it is linked to racism. Right now, the conversation needs to stay on the intersectionality of racism, structural racism, and the murder of Black children. We can’t change the narrative to be about class and risk throwing Black concerns overboard. Solidarity bitches, look it up. This is one of those time you have to wait your turn, and I know some of my white men readers have never been told that, but you get used to it.

John Oliver continuing to kick-ass.

Racism and Classism are not the same

Racism and classism are related, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the same. The similarities are striking, but black men are treated with a kind of mass violence and incarceration that no one else is in the US. Now if we’re talking on a global scale, we shouldn’t compare oppression, but instead acknowledge the differences, but Palestinians, ethnic minorities in China, etc. have some parallels. Often, we talk about class instead of race. It is easier in a lot of ways. Race brings up conflicts of conscious and feelings of discomfort that class doesn’t. And of course with the exception of a few (Sterling, Snyder, Koch brothers, Trump, etc.) most people don’t wear their racism so overtly. People of color are disproportionately impoverished. We have economic policy that has been used as weapon against black Americans. All black people aren’t poor, nor are all poor people black, but there are reasons a disproportionate number of black Americans are poor, and to say “Classism is the new racism” dismisses a history of racial, structural, and systemic oppression.

That said, I do think the oppressed are in this together, that would be solidarity. Additionally, when those in power are done with one group, when they have oppressed, repressed, and incarcerated one group to the point where they can’t target this group anymore they will move onto the next. Those in power target the most vulnerable (rooted in systemic structures and institutions), but when they have decimated those they have to move on to the next group. That is out the exploitation of people works (see capitalism for further examples).

I always wonder about how solidarity forms between people. I think those with less privilege have an easier time seeing how oppression can be similar, and those with more privilege, intentionally or not, struggle to keep their privilege and advance. I want to grab everyone and shake them, yelling, THIS IS ONLY A ZERO SUM GAME IF YOU LET THEM (the power holders) DETERMINES THE RULES.

As for The-Dream’s video (below), I’ve been listening to it a lot since it hit the internet. A couple of things to think about when listening to it: “I’m feeling real black right now” is a powerful statement when solidarity building—meaning using a historically oppressed group of little privilege to signify what it feels like to be oppressed is incredible. He is shifting the identification of oppression to a specific and well known imagery. There is something very powerful in saying, “oh yeah, you’re being oppressed, well we have t-shirts so come on over so we can get shit done.” The narrative is being changed by those with traditionally limited power. Now, I don’t know if that was the intention or not, but damn.

Secondly, there is a line that says “Since then ain’t been a lot going on” with an image of President Obama showing mourning for those killed in a shooting. The image is striking, and yes, it could just be the shootings that The-Dream is referencing, but if we’re talking about solidarity in oppression, then an image of President Obama has a lot of meaning while we use drones to kill children and deport more people than ever before. So maybe, a lot has been going on, but nothing good? Or maybe nothing to change structural oppression has been going on? There is a large sentiment that President Obama represented substantive change, but his supporters have had little evidence of that actually happening.

There is another line in the song where The-Dream says in reference to his mother, “Never be impressed with a man with no message,” where images of powerful men are shown. It is just powerful; of course, an image of Donald Sterling is included, which might be a bit much. The man is a racist, but he doesn’t have power over a country. There is also discussion of Chicago as a place of violence and not being specific to the US, which leads into lines about escaping poverty, which is chance and luck. I’m bias here, but there is something that resonates so much with me around how to exit poverty, or rather, how difficult it is to exit poverty.

The video closes with text that makes it clear what The-Dream is trying to, which is similar as ThinkProgress pointed out to something Kanye West said, “Black isn’t just a color. Black isn’t just a race anymore. It’s a feeling and a place from which one feels isolated by the world of the governing elite. Classism is the new racism. That is what black feels like.”